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Jazz bass wiring question...... Wilde Pickups

BAG

BAG

May 5, 2014
7,502
17,070
New Zealand
#1
Hi All,

I'm looking at getting some J45's for my fretless Jazz bass. The only wiring diagram I can find on the Wilde pickups website is this below. There appears to be no tone pot but there is an on-off switch. Can someone explain this for me please? I definitely want to have some tone control.

Having a blend seems like a good idea as one thing I don't like with the standard V-V-T is adjusting volume on-the-fly without changing the balance of pickup volumes.

What are the pro's and cons of going V-B-T and what would be the best pots, capacitor etc to suit the J-45's?

jb wiring.JPG
 
#2
That's not the standard Jazz Bass wiring. It appears the two pickups are permanently wired in series, with the "blend" pot (it's not really a blend) acting as a "spin-a-split" control that will gradually dial out the "L" pickup from the circuit.

The 'tone switch' switches the midpoint between the two pickups between a straight ground and the tone capacitor, this appears to be similar to G&L's passive 'OMG' mode, should give a volume and bass boost when the switch is moved to the capacitor setting.
 
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#4
Crater said:
it's not really a blend
Click to expand...
Actually, it is. Look at what happens at the extremes. It can do full L, full N, and a mix in between.

At one end, the white and black of the N pickup are shorted leaving full L pickup. At the other end, the white and black of the N pickup are both grounded, leaving full N pickup.

- John
 
Last edited:
#7
PawleeP said:
About what resistance are the j-45 pups?
Click to expand...
I measured at the jack and got 20K, but it's a coaxial dual coil design for hum reduction and uses A2 magnets.
FWIW, the P46 is around 8K.
These figures don't tell the story of these pickups and their output. A vintage P pickup is usually around 11K and a vintage J pickup is usually around 8K. These match up well with vintage output pickups.
 
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#11
PawleeP said:
Bigtone, do you have that unique bill lawrence PJ wiring array? wonder if that works ok with a JJ. fixin to order a few linear 300 or 500 volume pots. appreciate the feedback.
Click to expand...
I saw that one, looks like it blends the J45 in series or parallel with the P46..? I know of a Peavey wiring that does a similar thing on a J type Foundation: Neck pickup is always on, the blend knob brings in the bridge pickup in series. Master volume and master tone are the other two knobs. If I had another bass to rewire, I'd try this.

I opted for a standard blend wiring to balance between the pickups. 500K linear volume, 250K M/N ungrounded blend and 500K audio tone (.047uF) with push/pull to put the P46 in parallel mode.
 
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#12
bigtone23 said:
I measured at the jack and got 20K, but it's a coaxial dual coil design for hum reduction and uses A2 magnets.
FWIW, the P46 is around 8K.
These figures don't tell the story of these pickups and their output. A vintage P pickup is usually around 11K and a vintage J pickup is usually around 8K. These match up well with vintage output pickups.
Click to expand...

PawleeP said:
This wylde j pup i have reads about 22k so i rekon a 500k for that bridge pup would fall closer to the 40x formula.
Click to expand...

You folks sound like you know more about electronics than me (which is almost zero) so does that high reading translate to a quieter pickup?

Also, I know that the higher rated pots will make for brighter tone, will it help with volume?
 

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