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Favorite PJ bass wiring

Favorite / prefered PJ bass wiring

  • neck volume, bridge volume, master tone

    Votes: 212 44.4%

  • master volume, blend, master tone

    Votes: 95 19.9%

  • master volume, master tone, 3way switch (P/J/PJ) - aka Tony Franklin

    Votes: 114 23.8%

  • other (I´ll specify)

    Votes: 57 11.9%
  • Total voters
    478
#81
Uncle J said:
Have a strange bass that has staggered 4 pole pickups in both the neck and bridge positions (similar to a B.C. Rich Eagle). Appears to have separate volume pots for each pair of pickups, and one master tone pot. Also a 3-way switch that looks like it's wired to use each set of pickups separately, or all pickups in the center position. Bass was stored for a long period of time in humid condition, and I'm replacling all the electrical components. Bass seemed to to have been rewired or modified, and I'm not sure of the way it was wired. Need a wiring diagram that could be used with this setup.
All sugestions are appreciated. Uncle J
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean by "4 pole pickups"?
 
#84
Sorry, I wasn't clear describing the pickups. There are only two conductors to each pickup.
As you probably can tell - I'm not a bass player - I restore player pianos. I'm trying to repair this bass for my grandson.
It's probably not worth the effort, but he likes it because it's old and unusual. No brand or serial number.
 
#86
My favorite way to wire a pj bass ... A 4 band Audere preamp.

p-bass5%20002.jpg
 
#87
Uncle J said:
Have a strange bass that has staggered 4 pole pickups in both the neck and bridge positions (similar to a B.C. Rich Eagle). Appears to have separate volume pots for each pair of pickups, and one master tone pot. Also a 3-way switch that looks like it's wired to use each set of pickups separately, or all pickups in the center position. Bass was stored for a long period of time in humid condition, and I'm replacling all the electrical components. Bass seemed to to have been rewired or modified, and I'm not sure of the way it was wired. Need a wiring diagram that could be used with this setup.
All sugestions are appreciated. Uncle J
Click to expand...

Do a les paul of it, 3-way switch, wire the pickups through their own volume pots to it, and the output to the jack. Then you wire the tone pot to the tip terminal on the jack as well.
 
#90
I played around with using the different pots in different places and IMHO I had the best results with the linear on the tone pot. But I may have never put the auido tapper in the tone control slots. I did resolder several times due to my ignorance.

I know I had real bad results when I used 2 500k audio tappers together? You know why? That one kinda stumped me.
 
#91
akmusicfreak said:
I played around with using the different pots in different places and IMHO I had the best results with the linear on the tone pot. But I may have never put the auido tapper in the tone control slots. I did resolder several times due to my ignorance.

I know I had real bad results when I used 2 500k audio tappers together? You know why? That one kinda stumped me.
Click to expand...

Usually linear tapers have little effect until toward the end of the rotation on a tone control. Audio tapers will give you a more usable range.

With volume controls, linear taper pots give you a nice smooth roll down from "10" to "0", while audio tapers give you a big drop from "10" to "8ish".
 
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#96
2 j's by the bridge, 2 p's (one mounted closer to the neck for the really bi bottom), a mini toggle on/off for each pup, a mini 250k pot for each pup, standard 250k and cap master tone, and 1meg master volume thru .001uf safety cap to the jack..........dimarzio standard ps and js...don't stand too close to the mic stand cuz, not with all them magnets there.
 
#100
4andnomore said:
I voted "other". Volume, Tone, and bridge pickup in/out via a push/pull on the tone pot. I have no need for soloing the bridge (Jazz) pickup. Clean, simple and requires no mods to the standard pickguard. And passive of course.
Click to expand...

All my jazz basses are wired either Vol/blend or Vol/rotary switch (neck/series/parallel/bridge) + tone. I really don't like the PIA of vol/vol setups.

HOWEVER, in modding my PJ I found that Vol/vol was really needed. Optimum tone was NOT at both maxed (as a switch would do) and blending was needed. The blend control somehow just didn't work right (not sure why, I may have to look at that again).

So it's Vol/vol just like original. Works great. I added a push/pull on the first vol to switch the P-bass pickups from parallel to series to give a brighter tone if needed. Usually killer tone resides about P pickup 80% and J pickup max. (and P alone ain't too shabby either) [all passive, natch]
 
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