Area J wiring question--bridge pickup ground

[nightchef]

Hi all,

I just bought a set of Area J pickups for my new MIM Jazz, and I was in the process of installing them when I ran into a quandary. The Dimarzio installation instructions say to connect the green and gray wires of each pickup to the back of its volume pot. No problem there with the neck pickup; the green/gray pair just replaces the black wire from the original pup. But when I pulled out the bridge pickup I found that its black wire is connected to its volume pot not directly, but by way of a screw at the bottom of the pickup cavity.

Seems like this leaves me with three options:

1) Connect the green/gray pair directly to the volume pot as per instructions, so that the pickup and the screw are connected to the volume pot separately.
2) Connect the green/gray pair to the screw, as the black wire was in the factory pickup install, so the pickup is connected to the volume pot via the screw.
3) Take this install to a professional since the mere fact that I have to ask this question indicates that I'm in over my head here.

Thanks for any help!

 

[James Collins]

These are the ground wires it reads like you are describing. They can be grounded anywhere that is grounded. They don't have to be to the same back of the pot. All of the grounds should be connected.

 

[nightchef]

These are the ground wires it reads like you are describing. They can be grounded anywhere that is grounded. They don't have to be to the same back of the pot. All of the grounds should be connected.

Right....so as long as the screw and the ground wires from the pickup are both ultimately connected to the ground lug on the output jack, it doesn't matter whether they're connected through each other or not. Got it. Light dawns on Marblehead, as they say.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Right. As long as the shield the screw terminal is connected to is grounded (and if the bridge pickup was working before it is) it all works out pretty much the same.

 

[nightchef]

Thanks for helping me clear up the brainfart, guys. The Area J's are installed and they sound fabulous.

 

[kazukiyokoyama]

Hello all!

Here goes a similar question.

Just bought a MIM Jazz Bass 2007 witch unfortunately came with pickup output issues: both bridge and neck resulting 5 OHM resistance values on multimeter, low output volume and sometimes the sound just faded out while playing...

I've extracted both pickups and realized that their coils were loosened (wires loosened). It's a 2007 model and it's previous owner changed all the electronic several times for testing different set of pickups...

I realized that there are 2 points of grounding close to the pickups and held by screws. One just below the bridge pickup (witch was missing on this base. We just can see the screw hole) and another clpse to the neck pickup (black wire with black screw).

I'll buy a pair of standard jazz bass fender pickups and I wonder if I could eliminate these grounding points.

Notice that there is no black wire connecting the pots...

Could I install the black wires on the pots, keep the native under bridge grounding wire and eliminate the other ones?

Pics below.



Thanks in advance!