Recent content by DDawg

My preference for wiring a jazz bass with a standard 4 hole control plate is to use 3 push-pull pots with an output jack. Pot closest to the neck is neck volume with pickups series-parallel switch. Middle pot is bridge volume with bridge pickup inline capacitor switch (like a Ric). Pot closest...

We called this bass a "California Custom" when I worked in a repair shop in the early 80s, and I thought it came from Schecter, but I don't know for sure. It was originally a P-bass with a 5-piece maple/bubinga neck-thru core. It's had a lot of work over the years, including the paint job...

Definitely adds a lot more hair to the typical jazz bass tone. Two of my favorite settings are with the 2 bridge coils in series, and then in parallel with the pickup closest to the neck, or just with the 2 pickups closest to the bridge and neck in parallel. The 2 mini-switches also have a...

That's definitely the case. I have a few favorite combos for each bass, that I tend to stick with. Usually one with what I consider the "normal bass tone", another mid-scooped, and a third more aggressive and mid-focused. And then maybe one or two more that's really unique to that particular...

The bass on the left has 4 push-pull pots, from bridge to neck: Tone control with series-parallel for combining the neck pickup with the middle and bridge pickups, bridge volume with series-parallel for combining the bridge and middle pickups, middle volume with middle coils series-parallel, and...

Here's some homemade 4 stringers. All have various switching options for combining coils and pickups.

The wiring scheme for the coil switches shown above works like a charm. I'm quite surprised at how different the individual coils sound on the bridge and neck pickups. Combining them in series or parallel, and adding in the middle pickup to taste really adds a lot of great tones here to explore.

I added a reverse-P closer to the bridge and a standard P closer to the neck., with individual volumes on all 3 pickups. The D-G coils are switchable between the middle and neck pickups, so it can run as a double reverse-P. I think it sounds best with more space between the 2 pickups than...

Looks like it'll take 4 push-pull pots and 4 mini switches. Fortunately, the existing control cavity is big enough to accommodate. I'm going to sketch it out first, which is half the battle. I've wired a few other 3-4 pickup basses in a similar fashion, so I have my old wiring diagrams to...

I've never seen this circuit wired quite like this before. I'm going to try it out right away for my tele bass, which I just routed for new pickups. The bridge pickup will be a dual coil double jazz along with a dual coil Nordstrand BigRig in the neck position. I'll try this wiring scheme for...

I've modified many P-pickups for series-parallel coil switching. Combining the parallel P-pickup with a bridge J-pickup won't get you a 100% jazz bass tone, but it's a lot closer than a series P-pickup. The parallel P-pickup will be quieter with more highs and a thinner, clearer tone. Having...

I really like the BB605 preamp, especially for the semi-parametric mid control, which gives it a lot of versatility. The pickups aren't bad, maybe a little thin, but they are pretty noisy, so I would consider swapping them for some split or double coils. I've kept the original pickups in mine...

The Big Rig in series sounds a lot different than a split coil P. It has comparable low end, but the mids are more dominant and focused higher. I find it a little too honky in the neck position so I usually run it in parallel, which is more like a SCPB but not as punchy. Series in the bridge...

Series-parallel switching with dual independent volume controls in both modes is possible. And this could easily be adapted to a blend control if you wire the blend the same as the 2 volumes, since it's basically the same thing anyways. The trick is to wire the volume controls slightly different...

I've wired more than a dozen basses using the shunt method. Only downside is the series shunt volume controls aren't as wide-range as parallel mode, so the pot goes from min to max volume within the first quarter turn or so. For me, having the flexibility of separate volume controls in series...