Wiring help (replace J bass noiseless with Norstrands)

[tonym]

I'm replacing the Noiseless J Pickups in my Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass with Nordstrand NJ4SEs. I'm hoping someone can help me with getting the wiring right!

I'm capable with a soldering iron and, given enough info can mod pedal and repair antique radios, but this is my first time inside an active bass cavity and I'm not totally clear on how to connect these.

I bought the pups off of a fellow TB'er, and the wiring, as I understand it from other posts here on TB, is: W= +, B= -, G (b)= ground. Each pup has black, white and grey wires. So far so good.

I'm having a hard time making out what's going on in the Fender schematic for my bass (attached.) In the bass the neck pup has a black and yellow wire. The bridge pup has black and white wire. I'm trying to make sense of the wires here to figure out what from the Norstrands goes where.

I need assistance understanding which wires in current bass are +, -, ground. And what to do with the 3 wires coming from each Norstrand vs the 2 in the Noiseless J. (Or better yet just tell me where to connect the darn Norstrands!)

Help would be much appreciated. My soldering iron is hot and ready to go!



Total Noob at this stuff, and would appreciate

[RedLeg]

the black wire is ground and the white wire is hot. The gray wire also goes to ground unless a buffered input preamp is used like an Audere, in which case the black wire goes into the preamp common and the gray wire goes to ground.

that was from the nordstrand site BTW

[tonym]

RedLeg, thanks. That helps with one side. The white is hot and I treat both the black and grey as ground. I found some of that info on the Norstrand site, but am more confused about how this equates to the Fender wiring.

Is the black ground and the yellow hot in the Noiseless pups? I'm trying to match the wiring to make sure I connect everything properly.

[SGD Lutherie]

On the neck pickup, black is ground and yellow is hot. On the bridge pickup, white is hot and black is ground.

[tonym]

David, many thanks!

[grooveypie]

I'm so glad I found this thread!
I'm bumping it because I'm also installing nords on my fender j.

[tonym]

You are gong to love them!