Balancing P + J Pickups

[SwitchyMitch]

Hello All,

I have a bass with a P + J configuration and I am looking to utilise a rotary switch to get the jazz bass, both pickups in parallel sound out of it. The P pickup is two-conductor and at this stage I am unwilling to add additional conductor wire to the P pickup, meaning that a series/parallel modification is out of the question. So I am looking for alternatives to accomplish this.

What would you all suggest? Currently I am utilising a 27nF capacitor in series with the P pickup however it is a bit too thin. Is there a resistor/capacitor combination that any of you have used that does the trick?

Thanks

Switchy

 

[Jazz Ad]

Your best bet is a hi pass filter set at about 100-150 Hz, ie a cap in series with the p. It takes away the boominess of the as well as some of its power.

 

[SwitchyMitch]

Your best bet is a hi pass filter set at about 100-150 Hz, ie a cap in series with the p. It takes away the boominess of the as well as some of its power.

Thanks! In laymans terms what size capacitor is this?

 

[bigtone23]

I understand you say it's out of the question, but running a P pickup in parallel gets you really close to J tones on a P/J. I did this to my P/J and it's pretty uncanny how J-ish it sounds when run that way.
After doing all the experiments with loading and hi pass caps to find a circuit that works, you could have opened up the bass once, added the wires to the P pickup and the switch to get parallel P tones for J bass emulation.

 

[SwitchyMitch]

An update for future reference - I've put a 47nF capacitor in series with the neck pickup, which has given me quite a good jazz sound when in parallel with the bridge.

I understand you say it's out of the question, but running a P pickup in parallel gets you really close to J tones on a P/J. I did this to my P/J and it's pretty uncanny how J-ish it sounds when run that way.
After doing all the experiments with loading and hi pass caps to find a circuit that works, you could have opened up the bass once, added the wires to the P pickup and the switch to get parallel P tones for J bass emulation.

At this point I'm hesitant to touch the P pickup, maybe at a future point but as I had it shipped in (boutique pickup) I would rather leave it as is for now.

 

[Jazz Ad]

I understand you say it's out of the question, but running a P pickup in parallel gets you really close to J tones on a P/J.

It wasn't my expericence. parallel/series switching on a P only led to a change in volume and barely any change in tone. It showed with Fender S1 series. The J was a success but on a P it didn't work well. Even back then I thought they should have tried a hi pass cap in the switch because it's what worked the best for me in this scenario.

An update for future reference - I've put a 47nF capacitor in series with the neck pickup, which has given me quite a good jazz sound when in parallel with the bridge.

At this point I'm hesitant to touch the P pickup

A switch to bridge the cap and bring it in or out of the circuit should be useful.

 

[SwitchyMitch]

It wasn't my expericence. parallel/series switching on a P only led to a change in volume and barely any change in tone. It showed with Fender S1 series. The J was a success but on a P it didn't work well. Even back then I thought they should have tried a hi pass cap in the switch because it's what worked the best for me in this scenario.
A switch to bridge the cap and bring it in or out of the circuit should be useful.

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a 4-way rotary switch so I wired it as below;

So I actually get 4 positions, neck, neck + bridge, capped neck + bridge and bridge. I have a squier J- bass with upgraded pickups but I never solo the neck pickup, so I've sacrificed that option here. (Also using a Yamaha with no pickguard, didn't want to drill additional holes or use push/pull pots)

 

[SwitchyMitch]

Ive explored it more - If you were implementing this solution on a modified PBass ( ie two pots) you could do it with two push pull pots.