Jazz bass series wiring without a switch

You certainly don't need the switch. If you want the pickups in series 24/7 then it'll act like one pickup. You'll only need one volume knob and one tone knob.

 

I use a push/pull pot in place of switch but it can be done without the switch, just wire the pickups in series. Just find a P-bass wiring diagram and follow that for series wiring.

 

Solder the + of one pickup to the - of the other. This leaves one free + wire and one free - wire. Now just treat it like one pickup.

 

My only beef with that diagram is that if you take the + and - seriously, it shows the pickups being wired out of phase. (That diagram connects the - of one pickup to the - of the other... leaving two free + leads) That's a no no.

 

courtesy of our own Walter_W

 

unfortunately I can't find a bigger copy of the drawing at the moment, but yes it's V/V/T

the middle pot shunts the pickups output to ground when it's on zero
and the left pot shunts the pickups leads together at zero

This diagram works to have independent volume control of each pickup.

 

That's bad wiring! Don't use that.

Use a standard P bass diagram, and follow every detail precisely.

 

There are four problems with that diagram.

1. Out of phase pickups.
2. The tone control is wired to cut volume as it cuts treble. When rolled fully off, the output will mute.
3. The tone control is placed after the volume pot, where the impedance is supposed to approach zero, as the volume pot is rolled down. This compromises its behavior.
4. The volume pot is wired backwards, with the wiper terminal varying input impedance on the pickups. You only do this when you have multiple volume pots in a circuit. The wiper terminal should always be the output in a scheme with one volume pot.

 

ok, ok, I get it now, you were referring to Diabolus, who I have on ignore.
I thought you were saying the WalterW drawing was no good & I was shocked, since I've used it twice & it worked great both times.

I can see that problem with the treble cut acting as a volume on DM's drawing.
strange to feed volume into the treble cut pot in series like that instead of in parallel

 

Walter's diagram is indeed a useful one. It's popular, too.

There is another diagram that he made, for one volume and two tones. As I recall, he suggests that one over VVT, these days.

 

I had a feeling you thought line6man was referring to your diagram. When I want electronics info on this forum, line6man and WalterW are two people who've earned a ton of trust from me.

 

Here's his other diagram, for the benefit of the OP:


I prefer the V/V/T

 

Here is the post where the author describes it:

Permanent series jazz wiring

 

One volume and two tones, versus two volumes and one tone.