Just wired in the series/parallel switch on my Jbass

What a breeze! And makes an amazing difference! It definately gives it much deeper tone or a more hi-hi sound maybe, really can't put it into words. I would highly recommend everyone that owns a MIM Jazz bass do this. I allready had the tools and such but it cost $4.27 for the DPDT micro-switch from radishack. I drilled a hole below and in between the volume knobs and then carved out a little wood under the control plate to make room for the part of the switch that isn't seen. Looks very professionally done, isn't in the way, and is right where I can flip it when I want to without looking at it. I shoulda done this months ago! If I had a camera I'd post some pics, but I don't

 

It was this one catalog #275-626

$3.99

 

oh yeah, I'm up in the vista area off the 78! Nice to know there are locals on the board here.

What I did was pretty easy, the terminals on the switch look like this in a 6 terminal switch:

B A
D C
F E

Its not labeled so when you look at it upside down or right side up it will still work the same way.

First thing I did was solder E anf F together.

Then I unsoldered the black wire from the neck pickup from the neck pot. Its the ground wire so its soldered to the back of the pot instead of to one of the pots terminals. I soldered that wire to terminal C.

Then I soldered a wire from A to the place where I unsoldered the neck pickup ground wire on the neck pot.

Then I unsoldered the Bridge pickup signal wire (white) from the center terminal of the bridge pickup pot and soldered that to terminal D.

The I soldered a wire from the center terminal of the bridge pickup (where I just unsoldered the signal wire for the bridge pup) to terminal B.

When I was looking for a place to put the switch I found that there was a hole in the body under the pickguard that would have been a good place to put the switch but it wasn't deep enough, plus I wanted a more professional look. So what I did was loosen the pot on the neck pup and rotated it so the terminals would open up some room below the neck volume pot to put the switch. It wasn't enough room still so I carved out some of the wood under the control plate just enough to geth the switch to fit, ofcourse I did that after I drilled a 1/4 inch hole just below and in between the vol pots for the neck and bridge pups After the install I tightened all the pots down and installed the knobs so they would all be facing the same direction.

On the switch I positioned it so when I am playing it the switch will go up or down in relation to the way I hold the bass, I may loosen that up and rotate it because there isn't much room to get a finger in between the neck vol knob and the switch if I were in a hurry.

I'm almost willing to say that if I were to do it again I would probably just wire it in series and not install a switch, it sounds much better, but I like to slap and the slap tone is actually better in the parallel position.

Are you doing this to a MIM or a MIA jazz? Cause I'd really like to hear the difference on a MIA.

Jay

 

By the way, when in the series mode the bridge vol pot is disconnected, it'll only work when in the parallel mode. I think my next mod will be to install a new bridge and make it a string body. Then I will probably go for the fender custom shop pickups.

 

Right on, I'm all about DIY! I'm also in the process of building a 210 600 watt emminence loaded cab. We begin cutting wood this weekend. I thought about building a bass but it was just too overwelming of an idea for me!

Got any pics of the bass?

 

Yeah, seen it, thats more about wiring it so you get the 2 volume blend, not what I was looking for when I did the search, thanks anyway....

 

Right on Guy,
Glad I could be of help...

Jay