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Jazz bass wiring question.

V

vai777

Feb 8, 2012
60
6
#1
I am changing out the body of my Fender American Jazz bass and have a question or two. 1. Where do I connect the ground lug from the fender wiring on the warmoth body? I'm pretty sure they don't spray any "contact paint' so screwing that lug into the body would be useless no? I know the ground wire to the bridge will be fine and both ground wires from the ppickups solder directly to the pot but that one from the volume pot...I have no clue.
Also there was another lug UNDER THE BRIDGE PICKUP cavity...now I've seen a lot of jazz bass bodies and have come across only a few that have this. Why is it there and why is it NOT ON EVERY BASS?

THANKS!!!!
 
#2
Maybe they just spliced it because the wire was too short?

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The black wire from the tvolume pot...can I just clip it? Probably not...if not, where can I ground it to?
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#4
My MIJ Fender Mustang and my son's MIM Strat came from the factory with no shielding whatsoever, not even the quicky one coat of shielding paint you see sometimes.

If you spent the $ to get a nice body from Warmoth, I'd suggest getting a can of shielding paint from StewMac and put 3 coats on it. They also sell copper tape you can use on the back of the pickguard.

Ideally every cavity should be interconnected via ground lugs like the one in your picture.

As long as you connect the black wire from the pickup to a good ground on the control plate (like the back of one of the pots or the ground lug on the jack) it will work, but if you want to limit the noise in single coil mode shielding will help.
 
#5
So...can anyone explain this...I wired up the new warmoth body...connected the ground from the pickups and the bridge wire to the second volume pot. I did not connect either ground lug to anything as there was no place to connect them to. The bass sounds exactly like the other two jazz basses I have...(wired by fender at the factory...all stock). Same noise when you roll of either pickup...less noise when the tone is turned down...ect... there is NO difference....ZERO....no ground hum nothing on any of the basses. How can this be? Why would Fender use extra ground lugs if they don't need them?
 
#6
vai777 said:
So...can anyone explain this...I wired up the new warmoth body...connected the ground from the pickups and the bridge wire to the second volume pot. I did not connect either ground lug to anything as there was no place to connect them to. The bass sounds exactly like the other two jazz basses I have...(wired by fender at the factory...all stock). Same noise when you roll of either pickup...less noise when the tone is turned down...ect... there is NO difference....ZERO....no ground hum nothing on any of the basses. How can this be? Why would Fender use extra ground lugs if they don't need them?
Click to expand...

They did not use any extra parts.
 
#8
All I'm saying is that the warmoth body doesn't have any shielding paint...or any shielding at all...and the lugs are NOT conneted the way there were in the American standard body that I have (which was to the body itself which was coated with conductive paint... I assume). I plug in all three jazz basses 2 AMERICAN Specials and the American Standard with the Warmoth body...all three behave exactly the same. The two specials have the ground lugs attached to the body.
 
#9
vai777 said:
Well 2 ground lugs and 2 wires...if those count...it isn't much money but they are still "parts". Why would they use them if they make no difference?
Click to expand...

You might want to read up on shielding. It is a highly controversial subject, and the general consensus is that it does absolutely nothing.

Plus, the shielding on your Fenders is effectively useless anyway, as it is probably not as good as a DIY shielding job. Mass production shielding jobs generally consist of one or two coats of rather resistive electrically-conductive paint, to appease the customers that feel that a lack of shielding is a sign of a low quality instrument, or sloppy assembly.
 
#10
line6man said:
You might want to read up on shielding. It is a highly controversial subject, and the general consensus is that it does absolutely nothing.

Plus, the shielding on your Fenders is effectively useless anyway, as it is probably not as good as a DIY shielding job. Mass production shielding jobs generally consist of one or two coats of rather resistive electrically-conductive paint, to appease the customers that feel that a lack of shielding is a sign of a low quality instrument, or sloppy assembly.
Click to expand...

right so why do they use the ground lugs?
 

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