I hate my Jazz bass... :: Update::

[Alexis Duntov]

So I most love my P-bass and reverse P basses - I have had a jazz bass sitting around not getting any love at all and then I decided to try series wiring. I like to experiment with electronics so I wire it up using the stock 250K pots so that it is still VVT but the pickups are series with full blending capability.

It is just a completely transformed beast now. I like just about every tone option it has. If you solo the bridge you have traditional, burpy jazz sound - but you roll a tiny bit of neck in and the sound fattens up (completely opposite of standard wiring where the mids start to scoop and the sound gets hollow). If you solo the neck pickup it is exactly the sound of a Jazz neck pickup but roll a tiny bit of bridge in and it comes to life.

Really simple mod and easy to undo and put it back to stock if you don't like it.

Did you install a push/pull tone knob to toggle between series/parallel?

 

[AndyPanda]

Did you install a push/pull tone knob to toggle between series/parallel?

No .... It is always series. The way I did it the VVT works well for blending

 

[Hopkins]

No .... It is always series. The way I did it the VVT works well for blending

That doesn't sound quite right. When two pickups are wired in series they act as one continuous coil. You can't blend between the two coils when they are wired in series.

 

[AndyPanda]

That doesn't sound quite right. When two pickups are wired in series they act as one continuous coil. You can't blend between the two coils when they are wired in series.

The way I wire series that allows blending is to use only two legs of of the vol pot (no ground) to shunt across the coil (shorting it out). When you partially short across one pickup (volume pot=variable resistor) it gradually blends it out without affecting the other pickup volume and when you have completely shunted across the one pickup you are hearing the other pickup full on, all by itself.

I've posted the circuit in other threads - if you want I can post it again here.

 

[AndyPanda]

Here are a few ways I've done it:

 

[faceless_master]

Well, you guys sold me on the DiMarzio Model J. I came lurking in here because I wanted something with a bit more meat and mid punch in my Squier CV Jazz, and based on what I've read here, I think they'll be the ones I go with.

 

[pigpen1]

Before OP spends any money, try wiring the bass in series.
Volume boost, and gives the bass more grunt. Takes it a bit more in a P direction, but still has some signature J bite.


OP beat me to it.

Treat both black wires as ground. Simple as that.
Make sure to ground the pickup casings with the bridge, and wherever the other two black wires end up is fine, as long as they're grounded.

I know its an old post, but in researching something else I came across this. Why do the pickup casings have to be grounded with the bridge if everything is going to the same ground? Not sure where I'm not following.

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

I know its an old post, but in researching something else I came across this. Why do the pickup casings have to be grounded with the bridge if everything is going to the same ground? Not sure where I'm not following.

Redundancy, if i’m honest.
Better safe than sorry.

 

[CryingBass]

Redundancy, if i’m honest.
Better safe than sorry.

Repetition is the best Redundancy

 

[pigpen1]

Redundancy, if i’m honest.
Better safe than sorry.

So what you really mean is "make sure you ground them (in general)" rather than not? I mean you can just combine all the grounds in the same spot they all ground to the same path ultimately.

Now I know the series thing you wire it like a pbass by wiring the two pickup grounds together but I was just saying that a ground is a ground in this case, as there is only one way out. No preamp that alters impedance in this case either where the pickup grounds can't be combined with the other grounds (think Audere proz or whatever its called)