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DiMarzio Model J Installation - HELP!!!

jazz5757

jazz5757

Supporting Member
May 23, 2003
1,044
1,268
68
St. Louis, Missouri
#1
First-time pup install here so go gentle.... :D

Here's what I've got going. Bought a Geddy Lee Jazz recently, then picked up a new wine red jazz body (blsck's too boring for me) and some Dimarzio j's to beef up the sound.
Removing the stock Fenders pups there is only one white and one black wire on the end of each pickup...it looked simple enough. Enter the Dimarzio's: now I've got a white and green wire on one end and a red and black wire on the other end of each pickup. I'll be using the Geddy electronics taken form the bass. I can't find any install instructions - can anyone lend me a hand here?
 
#2
The extra black and white wires per p/u are for a series option. For standard parallel wiring, solder the black wire to white wire for each p/u put some electrical tape on the solder joint and tuck the wires underneath the p/u, then, Red is hot (to 2nd leg of pot). Green is ground (to pot top).

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#3
tim oconnor said:
The extra black and white wires per p/u are for a series option. For standard parallel wiring, solder the black wire to white wire for each p/u put some electrical tape on the solder joint and tuck the wires underneath the p/u, then, Red is hot (to 2nd leg of pot). Green is ground (to pot top).

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Click to expand...

Tim - thanks a million - just what I needed!
 
#5
davidmwilson said:
Tim, that's actually series wiring not parallel. By soldering the black and white together you're putting the coils in series.
Other than that, spot on. And you'll probably want to wire it in series anyway.
Click to expand...

Should I be using the metal grounding plates that were under the GL pups when I put the Dimarzio's in the new body?
 
#7
davidmwilson said:
Tim, that's actually series wiring not parallel. By soldering the black and white together you're putting the coils in series.
Other than that, spot on. And you'll probably want to wire it in series anyway.
Click to expand...


David-
It makes sense to me that for parallel wiring tying the black and white wires on each p/u together to be closing the connection per p/u as opposed to running one p/u to the other. No?

If that's series wiring, how would you wire them for parallel?
 
#8
tim oconnor said:
David-
It makes sense to me that for parallel wiring tying the black and white wires on each p/u together to be closing the connection per p/u as opposed to running one p/u to the other. No?
Click to expand...
No.

It's not closing the connection per pickup, you're joining the ground of coil A to the hot of coil A. This creates a series connection.

If that's series wiring, how would you wire them for parallel?
Click to expand...
In parallel, you would have the hot of both coils going to the same vol pot and both grounds soldered to ground. More commonly, you'd wire to a DPDT switch for series/parallel switching.
 
#13
davidmwilson said:
It depends, what sound are you after? If you want the thick mid sound that people describe about the Model J, you want series
Click to expand...

Actually, I want as much LOW end as I can get. Have i made a bad pickup replacement choice in this regard - that is, would I have been better off to stick with the stock GL pups?
 
#14
jazz5757 said:
Actually, I want as much LOW end as I can get. Have i made a bad pickup replacement choice in this regard - that is, would I have been better off to stick with the stock GL pups?
Click to expand...
We all have different tastes, I don't know what you'll like and even if I did I don't know what your technique/strings/amp are.

The J's are perfectly good pickups, now you've bought them you might as well try them - if you've opened them you almost certainly can't return them, and if you don't like them you can resell for $60-$70.

If you didn't do so before, I'd recommend a search in this forum - probably using the term Geddy since GL is too short to search on. What made you decide to buy the Model Js? Like I said, it might well be the right decision for you, but just wondering how you came to the decision?
 
#15
davidmwilson said:
We all have different tastes, I don't know what you'll like and even if I did I don't know what your technique/strings/amp are.

The J's are perfectly good pickups, now you've bought them you might as well try them - if you've opened them you almost certainly can't return them, and if you don't like them you can resell for $60-$70.

If you didn't do so before, I'd recommend a search in this forum - probably using the term Geddy since GL is too short to search on. What made you decide to buy the Model Js? Like I said, it might well be the right decision for you, but just wondering how you came to the decision?
Click to expand...

Bought the Model j's off Ebay for $65, mainly read about them on TB and the inpression I got was that they definitely fatten up the tone of any j. Playing through a DB 750, Eden 212xlt and Eden 210xlt...FWIW I'd make it sound like a p bass if I could...maybe I just should have attached the geddy neck to a p bass body... :D
 
#16
davidmwilson said:
It depends, what sound are you after? If you want the thick mid sound that people describe about the Model J, you want series
Click to expand...

just checking out the thread(due to interest in the model J's myself), and it seems there's a bit of confusion with the series/parallel wiring options.
each of the j-pickups is humbucking and should individually wired in series, with the two pickups(bridge and neck) wired parallel like a standard jazz. hope that makes sense.
just my .02 :bassist:
 
#17
Yeah, there is some confusion going on here. The difference is some of you are talking about wiring the pickups together, and some are talking about wiring the individual COILS of the pickups. The question he has involves wiring the pickups COILS together. As such, series is the standard wiring for DiMarzio pickups. To achieve this, follow the above instructions for each pickup. Following the "red = hot, green = ground" with each pickup, to the already existing volume pots, wires the pickups together in parallel, which is the standard wiring for Jazz basses. I recommend following these instructions to the T. You may later want to look at a series/parallel mod, which, at the flick of a switch, would allow the pickups to be wired together in series.
 
#18
Just today I installed some Model J's into my Geddy Jazz. It really sounds great, but I wonder if I did it series or parallel. Here's what I did:

-Red wire of each pickup to the #2 post (hot) of each volume pot

-Green wire of each pickup were both soldered to the grounding screw that attaches to the plate at the bottom of the control cavity

-Black and white wires of each pickup were soldered together.

The only variation I did to the instructions that came with the pickups for series (humbucking) wiring is that I wired the green (ground) wires to a central grounding point, instead of to the back of each volume pot like it says in the directions. The reason why I did this is because that's the way the Geddy was originally wired, and all the grounds seemed to connect to this one location.

Can someone let me know where I stand? It sounds really good, tons of punch and a warmly aggressive personality with (thankfully) very little sheen or unnatural brightness.

Anyway, I'd just like to know if I wired everything properly for the tone with the maximum amount of "guts" and output, which I gather is known as "series", yes?

Thanks,
JMJ
 
#19
jmjbassplayer said:
Can someone let me know where I stand? It sounds really good, tons of punch and a warmly aggressive personality with (thankfully) very little sheen or unnatural brightness.

Anyway, I'd just like to know if I wired everything properly for the tone with the maximum amount of "guts" and output, which I gather is known as "series", yes?

Thanks,
JMJ
Click to expand...

You have it wired with the coils in each pickup in series, and the pickups in parallel with eachother. The grounding you have is fine, and possibly even better then the "standard" method, if done well.
 
#20
Thanks, Dan. But is this method not the optimum amount of output or punch? In other words, since I have the pickups in parallel, shouldn't I get them so they are in series?
Best,
JMJ
 

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