What about this crazy scheme???

[DanGouge]

I had thought about the Fender fretless jazz I am currently mutating.... what if I were to put a Musicman PU in the bridge and an old Fender Telecaster bass humbucker right up by the neck... They're both high-output PU's and I can think of scenarios where both could be useful. So is this genius or insane?

[George Looney]

Hmmm, that would depend on the result.
The difference between genius and insanity, is succes ...

[Eric Cameron]

Originally posted by George Looney
Hmmm, that would depend on the result.
The difference between genius and insanity, is succes ...

..and medication.

Sounds like a cool combo. Playing around with pups is always fun. You never quite know what you might get.

Rock on
Eric

[rojo412]

It sounds like fun! But I am a wiring fiend, so everything sounds like fun.

If I were doing that, I'd probably have the MM pu wired with a 3 way switch (like a sterling). Then I'd connect the 2 pickups using a 6way rotary switch (gives you series/parallel in phase, series/Par out of phase and each individually, 6 total, did it to a jazz with 2 single coils).

This gives you 6 settings. The MM with a 3 way is used on 5 of those times 3 options each. So you'd have 16 different tones (if my math is correct).

Oh, and it would be the kind of thing only geniuses posess and the insane lament... or whatever Dr. Evil said.

[Bass Mule]

"There's a fine line between clever and stupid"

-David St. Hubbins

[rojo412]

"Variety is the spice of life"
"One good turn deserves another"

Or how about this:
"I like knobs and switches" - Bernie Rico (BC Rich)

[DanGouge]

Originally posted by rojo412
It sounds like fun! But I am a wiring fiend, so everything sounds like fun.

If I were doing that, I'd probably have the MM pu wired with a 3 way switch (like a sterling). Then I'd connect the 2 pickups using a 6way rotary switch (gives you series/parallel in phase, series/Par out of phase and each individually, 6 total, did it to a jazz with 2 single coils).

This gives you 6 settings. The MM with a 3 way is used on 5 of those times 3 options each. So you'd have 16 different tones (if my math is correct).

Oh, and it would be the kind of thing only geniuses posess and the insane lament... or whatever Dr. Evil said.

A detailed plan, this is even better... Since, to be honest I haven't yet fully considered how I was going to wire this whole setup together, these are the sorts of ideas I need. rojo, can you post something of a schematic diagram so I have a better idea of where everthing will go?

[rojo412]

Well, here's the thing. I'm not quite sure of how the schematic would look or even how the bass could handle it, but here's the idea: you'll have a Master volume, 6way rotary (available at allparts), mini 3 way, and a tone (if you want to use the standard 3 control j plate. It would be easiest to use all 4 holes and put an output on the bottom of the bass, but that's your call). You may also want to rout the control cavity out a bit more for extra wiring/knob/switch room.

1) After putting these pickups in (which is the hard part), what I'd do is wire the MM pickup to a 3 way on on on switch using either the Seymour duncan guidelines, www.projectguitar.com reference, or stewmac.com in free info. It's not too tough to do. When wired to this switch, it has a pos and neg output that on other diagrams will be easy enough to think of as "Pickup 1" or "Bridge" or whatever.

2) http://mywebpages.comcast.net/skgs/s...way_rotary.htm has a picture diagram that I followed easier than a wiring diagram, but you can find it there too. I wired the switch with all necessary connections before putting the pickups onto it. That way, I was able to do intricate wiring before it was mounted. I put the switch in the middle position on my friend's bass because it would've needed routing otherwise. For all super-close wiring, I used a piece of bare wire (it was a lead from an LED actually) and chained it along. It takes a while to do this.

3) After the switch is wired, it has standard pos and neg outputs. These go to the volume/tone circuit (easy find on the net). You would have to drill a small hole in the control cover for the mini toggle, but you could also put that anywhere you see fit. Shielding the cavity will also help.

4) if done correctly, you should have a setup like "vol, 3way, 6way rotary, tone, output" but you can vary it any way you see fit.

16 different tones in about 2 hours, depending on how handy you are. Any questions?

[Jazz Ad]

My grasp about passive electronics is that you should try everything, and then only keep what really works.
From the 6 typical wirings between 2 coils, only 2 or 3 of them will typically be usable without nearly duplicated sounds or dramatic loss of output on phase change.
Nothing is more aggravating than looking 10 minutes for the right sound in a specific situation.

[rojo412]

This is true, and if you are like me, you'd probably change it for fun later. But how tough is it to learn what settings you dig out of a 6 way? I don't want to sound mean, I just think that this is easier to do than to try adding more switches in various configurations over time?

The theory I like behind it is that you have 16 chances to get it right. Most people tend to use a single sound most of the time, but this way you can try out 15 things besides it (though a few may be the same). On fretless, I'd imagine that the various settings would have a different impact than on fretted because of the things you can do with your hands and attack to change the tone no matter what it's set at.

[goran]

I was thinking about doing the same thing (MM/J combination), but with my Deluxe Jazz bass (has active electronics). I wonder if I can have both 3-position toogle switch for MM P/up and a blend for pickups. How much rewiring will it take?

[geshel]

Originally posted by goran
I was thinking about doing the same thing (MM/J combination), but with my Deluxe Jazz bass (has active electronics). I wonder if I can have both 3-position toogle switch for MM P/up and a blend for pickups. How much rewiring will it take?

You can do that fine. The bulk of the wiring will be between the MM and the 3-way. There'll be one hot wire (plus ground) from the 3-way to the blend, just like from the old single-coil pickup.

[goran]

Thanks for the answer.
But I guess that MM pickup will be a lot hotter. Currently installed piclups (Fender's stacked humbuckers) have a very low output. Neck single coil combined with bridge humbucker will result with big difference in output. Maybe an active single coil would help?