wiring geddy in series

[stanger503]

I want to wire my geddy in series. Unfortunately I'm not very pickup wiring savvy so I'm going to need some help here. I can solder fairly well...however I'm just not 100% certain what to solder where. I've already searched but to me each schematic is confusing because none of them specify orientation( if you're looking at the top of the pots or at the bottom). I want to keep both volumes and I don't want a switch in it. Basically I attempted it earlier and I'm quite certain I did it wrong, so help me out here. There is ground wires running everywhere on this thing and it's kind of aggravating being that I look at the pictures but what I'm seeing in my control cavity is just not making sense to me. I apologize if this sounds completely retarded

[walterw]

ooh, here's my chance to show off the one diagram i've made!



ignore the 500k pot spec for now, i think that's not actually ideal here.

[Stealth]

Also, don't forget to connect the pot casings and that black wire drawn on the bridge pot to the "-" (sleeve contact) of the output jack.

[stanger503]

Actually that diagram is what confused me because it's different from the other two or three floating around. I'm trying to do this with the wire that's available in the bass as I don't have any more available to me. Everyone makes this sound so simple bit for whatever reason I can't grasp this. A picture would probably help me out big time

[bumperbass]

It's as simple as this:
You have black and white wires for both pickups, right? Unsolder the black wire from the neck pickup and unsolder the white wire from the bridge pickup. Hook these two wires together.
I don't know how you'll get two volume controls on this. Only your neck pickup will be working, controlling both pickups. In effect, you'll only have ONE pickup now, but it's a 'two-piece' pickup.

[Stealth]

That's the beauty of walterw's one and only wiring. It works, and it gives the series mode independent volumes. It works by putting the volumes in parallel, as bypasses for each of the pickups. I used a crossbreed of that wiring with a series/parallel switch, and the thing really works well in both modes.

The reasoning is, if you set resistance across the two pot's lugs where the wires are connected to 0, none of the signal will go through that pickup and it'll be dead silent. On the other hand, set the resistance there to maximum and the signal will go through the path of the lesser resistance, in this case the pickup. Same for the second pickup and its volume.

stanger503, if you don't have spare wire, just go to a computer shop and get a meter-long (3-foot) Ethernet (computer network) cable (preferably raw without connectors), carefully open it up with a knife and use the wires inside. They're perfect gauge for bass electronics soldering.

[tjh]

Originally Posted by Stealth

Also, don't forget to connect the pot casings and that black wire drawn on the bridge pot to the "-" (sleeve contact) of the output jack.

... wont the metal control plate take care of that??

[Stealth]

I prefer running ground wires regardless of the control plate, but in theory you can just use that as a ground plane.

[Mykk]

I think I'll try Walters approach on my jazz project. Looks interesting.

[stanger503]

Ok, I have a few Ethernet cables available so I guess I'm good in that dept. I would still greatly appreciate an actual picture but I'm determined to do this tonight. I think I had it close last night. The bass was super punchy whatever I did. Here's what the outcome was though. The bridge pickup was quite a bit quieter, both pickups full on the sound was a little less, roll the bridge off and gained a bit of loudness.

[Stealth]

If "both on" sounded like it lacked bottom end, the pickups were out of phase. You'd need to switch the hot and ground on either of the pickups.

[walterw]

+1

The whole point of series wiring is that when both pickups are full on it gets way louder, not quieter.

[Silver Blues]

I like your wiring scheme, walterw. Been searching for something like that. Very nice.

--Silvie

[Mykk]

Originally Posted by walterw

I just started soldering my J-bass project this way, (I'm still awaiting parts to arrive before I can hear the outcome)

But from what I gather looking at this diagram. The neck volume pot would roll the neck pup out of the circuit and the bridge volume would instead act as a master volume by grounding both pups?

[Stealth]

This should explain it.



Of course, every position inbetween works, too.

[arginator]

Originally Posted by stanger503

I want to wire my geddy in series. Unfortunately I'm not very pickup wiring savvy so I'm going to need some help here. I can solder fairly well...however I'm just not 100% certain what to solder where. I've already searched but to me each schematic is confusing because none of them specify orientation( if you're looking at the top of the pots or at the bottom). I want to keep both volumes and I don't want a switch in it. Basically I attempted it earlier and I'm quite certain I did it wrong, so help me out here. There is ground wires running everywhere on this thing and it's kind of aggravating being that I look at the pictures but what I'm seeing in my control cavity is just not making sense to me. I apologize if this sounds completely retarded

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that those schematics are drawn assuming that you are looking at the bottom of the pots. Hope that helps. Good luck!

[iunno]

I don't understand how independent volume would work on this. The signal path still goes from the neck to the bridge, so how could you have the neck on with the volume off?

[Mykk]

I get it now!

[stanger503]

Yea the picture actually helped a bit. Didn't get around to it tonight, ended up jamming and having a few beers...successful night in another sense

[Mykk]

Originally Posted by iunno

I don't understand how independent volume would work on this. The signal path still goes from the neck to the bridge, so how could you have the neck on with the volume off?

Because in this circuit the volume pots act in reverse of traditional parallel V/V/T. With the increased pot resistance it keeps that pickup in the loop and each pup gets a volume because one controls + while the other controls -

It's brilliant really, and you would only need 25k -50k pots depending on pup resistance