HELP: Jazz Bass 2 Volume, 2 Tone, Series/Parallel Switch

[krismiller1982]

Swapping my Elite Jazz Bass V N4 pups/preamp out with some Aguilar AG 5J-60 pups. There are 5 total holes to fill. I understand the wiring I am trying to achieve will probably result in a slight loss of output & extra resistors will be needed for independent tone controls. I am willing to make these sacrifices. Here's what I would like specifically:

2 Independent volume knobs,
2 Independent tone knobs,
1 Series/Parallel switch

Hopefully somebody with the knowledge can help me out with a wiring diagram or simple instructions. Thank you!!!

 

[Antisyzygy]

Swapping my Elite Jazz Bass V N4 pups/preamp out with some Aguilar AG 5J-60 pups. There are 5 total holes to fill. I understand the wiring I am trying to achieve will probably result in a slight loss of output & extra resistors will be needed for independent tone controls. I am willing to make these sacrifices. Here's what I would like specifically:

2 Independent volume knobs,
2 Independent tone knobs,
1 Series/Parallel switch

Hopefully somebody with the knowledge can help me out with a wiring diagram or simple instructions. Thank you!!!

Volumes will be independent.

There is a thread here on isolating tone knobs : 1960s Jazz Bass - Isolated Dual Stacked Vol/Tones - How does it affect tone?

What I found is that using the wiring from Robbie K there, you can get rid of the isolation resistors all together and still have isolation when you roll the volume knob down a little bit. The volume control, when turned down, puts resistance right where the isolation resistor would be if you use that schematic.

Otherwise if you want "always on" isolation, I'd suggest using Robbie Ks schematic with the 15k resistors because it will minimize volume and treble loss.

For series / parallel there are multiple ways to do it I think, and the only way I can think to do it easily would be to add a standard series/parallel switch to the output of one of the volume controls. It will route the output of one volume through the other coil. I'm unsure what will happen with your tones though. They may no longer work correctly.

 

[Antisyzygy]

Thinking about this a little, the series parallel switch the way I described it might make one tone an isolated one, then the other a master tone.

You'd also have one isolated volume, and one master.

So at that rate, pickup order matters. Which pickup do you want isolated controls for when in series?

I hope someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Rusty on this a bit.

 

[krismiller1982]

Thinking about this a little, the series parallel switch the way I described it might make one tone an isolated one, then the other a master tone.

You'd also have one isolated volume, and one master.

So at that rate, pickup order matters. Which pickup do you want isolated controls for when in series?

I hope someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Rusty on this a bit.

Hmmm... Preferably I really wanted both independent of one another. I appreciate your input though. Hopefully someone else will chime in to confirm your thoughts or possibly with a work around.

 

[Antisyzygy]

Hmmm... Preferably I really wanted both independent of one another. I appreciate your input though. Hopefully someone else will chime in to confirm your thoughts or possibly with a work around.

With series mode I doubt you can have them independent without a really intense wiring scheme. It would have to simultaneously change the way the volume knobs are wired as well as where one coil output is going.

Series puts the output of one pickup through the input of another, summing the signal. So a volume knob wired to the output pickup (Second pickup in the chain) the conventional way where it would work in parallel mode is always going to be a master volume.

So I think at minimum you'd need to have a 3 pole switch, or even 4 pole, to get what you want. The vast majority of switches available out there from guitar parts suppliers are 1 or 2 pole. You might have to shop around for the 3 or 4 pole versions.

I believe the switch would have to change the volume knob from being a short to ground (when rolled down) in parallel mode to a short across each pickup coil itself in series mode, when rolled down again that is.

I'd suggest contacting Kellingsound on Ebay. He can make most any harness that's possible for not much money (like 30 to 70 dollars). However he might have trouble keeping those volumes isolated in series mode at minimum.