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J-P/J(+H) config - possible?

ObeyDaRiffness

ObeyDaRiffness

Sep 25, 2016
143
108
#1
upload_2017-10-18_22-24-57.png

Since I'm buying a PJ for christmas and I'm never happy with something until I mod the crap out of it, today I though about this - the ultimate tone monster - and I was wondering if it even possible at all. Would the string magnetic pull be too much? Especially considering the massive humbucker at the neck (doesn't strictly have to be a mudbucker). And also, is this the smartest way to wire it?

P.S.: Not in pic, but a single coil/series/parallel swithc for the neck humbucker would be cool too, right?
 
#3
There isn't any laws you would be violating here. Your biggest issue might be with balancing the impedances between pickups. Those Gibson 'mudbucker' humbuckers have a massive impedance, so wouldn't necessarily blend well with other pickups. Hypothetically it would be great to combine the solid 'woof' of that pickup with the Fender pickups, but it might not necessarily work out that way.
 
#4
Axstar said:
There isn't any laws you would be violating here. Your biggest issue might be with balancing the impedances between pickups. Those Gibson 'mudbucker' humbuckers have a massive impedance, so wouldn't necessarily blend well with other pickups. Hypothetically it would be great to combine the solid 'woof' of that pickup with the Fender pickups, but it might not necessarily work out that way.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't really think it'll be a mubucker since I know about the impedance problem... however I know of little capacitors that reduce output signal (and don't even alter the tone!), do you think they could help?
 
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#5
ObeyDaRiffness said:
Yeah, I don't really think it'll be a mubucker since I know about the impedance problem... however I know of little capacitors that reduce output signal (and don't even alter the tone!), do you think they could help?
Click to expand...

Did you read that on that webpage where a guy puts a mudbucker in a Jazz bass? I've stalked that website a fair bit. It might work, but really the capacitor he uses is just removing the low end of the signal from the other pickup in that bass, so the two signals don't overlap and interfere. I've experimented with this sort of thing a bit, but not too much.

A Dimarzio Will Power neck pickup might be a better option. It is a tamer mudbucker-style pickup with lots of low end, but a better impedance match with conventional Fender pickups. Plus it is built to match the string spacing of Fender-family instruments. The Gibson mudbuckers, and at least the Epiphone versions, will be too narrowly pole-spaced to work with the string spacing of a Fender bass.

The other option is to stick a guitar humbucker up there. Find something with two rails (Dimarzio X2N style) where the rails are long enough to sit under the strings. A humbucker is a humbucker; anything wound hot is less than ideal for a bass if you want to capture the fullest tone of your bass, but simply for low end it doesn't matter. Plus, a luthier or tech will be able to route out your bass for an X2N-style humbucker easily and *may* remove less wood into the bargain. I've used hotrails in a couple of basses and they sound perfectly good and have a nice even response from string-to-string.
 
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#6
Axstar said:
There isn't any laws you would be violating here. Your biggest issue might be with balancing the impedances between pickups. Those Gibson 'mudbucker' humbuckers have a massive impedance, so wouldn't necessarily blend well with other pickups. Hypothetically it would be great to combine the solid 'woof' of that pickup with the Fender pickups, but it might not necessarily work out that way.
Click to expand...

That's one of the reasons why I suggest a simple switching scheme, as opposed to volume pots, blends, series/parallel, phase, etc. The "all or nothing" approach to mixing pickups eliminates most of the issues with varying impedances. You just have to make sure that you choose the most practical combinations for your scheme. Arguably, you can get a lot further with a handful of well-chosen pickup combinations than with fifty options that mostly sound bad.

One choice would be an on/off switch for each pickup. That would give you the most variety with the least headache. Or you could do a 5 way switch with your favorite 5 pickup combinations. For example, Mudbucker/P/P+J/J+J/J.
 
#7
line6man said:
That's one of the reasons why I suggest a simple switching scheme, as opposed to volume pots, blends, series/parallel, phase, etc. The "all or nothing" approach to mixing pickups eliminates most of the issues with varying impedances. You just have to make sure that you choose the most practical combinations for your scheme. Arguably, you can get a lot further with a handful of well-chosen pickup combinations than with fifty options that mostly sound bad.
Click to expand...

This is where I've ended up. I used to wire up basses with all sorts of series/parallel/split/bass cut stuff, with a varitone switch thrown in for good reason. I always wound up using 2 or 3 of these settings at most. Plus, in a gig environment my brain goes to mush so I need something that is basically 'plug and play'.
 
#8
The only certitude I have in life is that every possible bass electronic and pickup config you can imagine has been tried over the past 60 years. It did not stick and got widely adopted by other players for a reason. Usually because people realize it was a lot of work, a lot of money spent for very little results.

But you should try and let us know how it works.
 
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#11
Axstar said:
Mel swapped out the neck pickup in his Jazz bass with a Gibson mudbucker.

View attachment 2787341

OP's bass is proposal is closer to Berry Oakley's 'Tractor' bass or Billy Sheehan's original 'Wife' bass, but more complex than either.
Click to expand...
Similar yet different, I knew a big mudbucker was involved somewhere.
Mel is one of my Bad#$@ Bass Heroes!
 
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#12
If I did a messed up pickup configuration It would be P bass and MM humbucker in the bridge. Wire it so the MM bucker splits and you've sort of got a jazz sound. I'm sold on soapbars though, does everything I want.
Anyway Id ditch the second jazz pickup and use the P with the bridge for jazz sound. It'll look better and It's probably closer to a jazz sound.
 
#14
Axstar said:
A Dimarzio Will Power neck pickup might be a better option. It is a tamer mudbucker-style pickup with lots of low end, but a better impedance match with conventional Fender pickups. Plus it is built to match the string spacing of Fender-family instruments. The Gibson mudbuckers, and at least the Epiphone versions, will be too narrowly pole-spaced to work with the string spacing of a Fender bass.

The other option is to stick a guitar humbucker up there. Find something with two rails (Dimarzio X2N style) where the rails are long enough to sit under the strings. A humbucker is a humbucker; anything wound hot is less than ideal for a bass if you want to capture the fullest tone of your bass, but simply for low end it doesn't matter. Plus, a luthier or tech will be able to route out your bass for an X2N-style humbucker easily and *may* remove less wood into the bargain. I've used hotrails in a couple of basses and they sound perfectly good and have a nice even response from string-to-string.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the DiMarzio will power is where I was mainly headed. The guitar humbucker though is actually a pretty cool idea, it's a very punk/metal thing lol, like "i don't give a flick about specs and tone lol i just play loud doubling the guitars".
Axstar said:
This is where I've ended up. I used to wire up basses with all sorts of series/parallel/split/bass cut stuff, with a varitone switch thrown in for good reason. I always wound up using 2 or 3 of these settings at most. Plus, in a gig environment my brain goes to mush so I need something that is basically 'plug and play'.
Click to expand...
Not really though, I want to be able to play bridge J-HB
line6man said:
One choice would be an on/off switch for each pickup. That would give you the most variety with the least headache. Or you could do a 5 way switch with your favorite 5 pickup combinations. For example, Mudbucker/P/P+J/J+J/J
Click to expand...
If you could do that with a 8-way and add JJ in series and PJ in series plus bridge J+HB i'd do that.
 
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#16
What about drawing some inspiration from Berry Oakley's 'Tractor' bass? It certainly sounds/ed great.

Axstar said:
This is where I've ended up. I used to wire up basses with all sorts of series/parallel/split/bass cut stuff, with a varitone switch thrown in for good reason. I always wound up using 2 or 3 of these settings at most. Plus, in a gig environment my brain goes to mush so I need something that is basically 'plug and play'.
Click to expand...

Frenchy-Lefty said:
The only certitude I have in life is that every possible bass electronic and pickup config you can imagine has been tried over the past 60 years. It did not stick and got widely adopted by other players for a reason. Usually because people realize it was a lot of work, a lot of money spent for very little results.

But you should try and let us know how it works.
Click to expand...
I agree with these guys. It's very tempting (I know) to go crazy with passive tone options, but in the end, there's a reason so many passive basses just use a volume/tone set-up. More isn't necessarily better. However, sometimes there's one little extra thing that's a big improvement (allow me to suggest a .01 uF bass cut capacitor in series with a bridge pickup to improve blending). The trick is not to have a dozen other, less useful, options alongside the good one. Keep it simple(ish)!
 
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#17
That's quite complicated. I would try just a Will Power in the neck, a P in the middle (with a series/parallel switch to get that cleaner tone vs having another J pickup in there) and a J in the bridge. OR, substitute a single coil P pickup for that neck-side J pickup. That's pretty much the standard SCPB position anyway, and it would add another unique tone to the mix. The trick would be getting pickups that balance nicely.
 
#18
bigtone23 said:
That's quite complicated. I would try just a Will Power in the neck, a P in the middle (with a series/parallel switch to get that cleaner tone vs having another J pickup in there) and a J in the bridge. OR, substitute a single coil P pickup for that neck-side J pickup. That's pretty much the standard SCPB position anyway, and it would add another unique tone to the mix. The trick would be getting pickups that balance nicely.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's probably the way I'm gonna go. Either JPH or JP/J
 

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