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Making P pickup parallel?

Stilettoprefer

Stilettoprefer

Nov 26, 2010
2,011
163
#1
Is it easy as just clipping the wire that run between them and running each hot signal to the volume pots middle lug and each negative to ground?

In other words, can each half of a P successfully work as its own pickup?

I'm looking to do a PJ configuration that can also do actual jazz tones without putting an actual jazz pup in the neck position. I can do all of the wiring, but I wanna know if it will even work before I go ahead with it. I would be putting a switch in to take the P pup from series to parallel. And the pickup that I have is super cheap and I wouldn't be heartbroken if something happened to it.
 
#3
What Line6man said. You can do it, it will 'work,' but it results in a sort of thin, crappy tone(IMO). And it won't really sound like a J anyway. One of my P basses came with the very switch you are asking about( the S-1 switch), and I removed it as it didn't do anything for me.
 
#5
line6man said:
The general consensus is that most P pickups sound terrible with parallel coils.
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I'm not sure why you keep saying this. What would sound awful about it? It's brighter, which is what some people might want. it sounds different, not awful. Awful is subjective, and "general consensus" means nothing when everyone has different tastes. Unless everyone is suppose to sound exactly the same?

I used to wire series/parallel switches to my P pickups all the time.
 
#9
Jefenator said:
If you do try it, make sure to dial in some more gain at the amp before testing. Parallel gives less output and it's very easy to think the hotter signal is "better" when comparing.

I still fall into this trap in spite of my wariness - especially when A/Bing series/parallel settings.
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I think I may give it a shot. Would you say that the parallel setting would give me a similar sound to a jazz neck pup? I'm using a GFS regular wound P pickup if that makes a difference.

The parts P that I'm doing this to is neck less right now, and the neck that is ordered is on back order, so I have time to mess with the wiring:P
 
#16
I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to share my thoughts on switching from series to parallel with a Dimarzio Model P/J set up in my Peavey Millennium Standard.
After months of owning this bass I've loved the feel, looks, and light weight. But the sound was always a bit muddy for my taste, although I am a Jazz bass sound kind of guy, I just was not getting the tone I needed for my funk cover band. So I switched the Model P from series last week and left the Model J in series. What a huge difference in clarity and balance from string to string and note to note. The bass absolutely sings now but still has the bottom to hold down the foundation in a 3 piece band!
The Model P in parallel still has more output then my stock 1980 MIA Fender P, and still sounds very P like. Just way more usable and better matched now with bridge pup. I may add a push/pull for the Model P, but I don't really think I would ever need the output or boom of series again?
 
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#17
^ +1

I've got an old 80's maton jb4 with Dimarzio P and J. The Dimarzio P sounds worlds better in parallel than in series, especially in this bass with its woody tone. The original switch changed both pickups from series to parallel at the same time and the first mod I did was to hard wire the J in series mode (it sounded pretty terrible in parallel mode I thought) so I could just switch the P. In parallel mode I also found it was also much easier to blend with the J.

Parallel gives less output and it's very easy to think the hotter signal is "better" when comparing.
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Yeah, true. When you switch to something quieter, no matter how good it sounds, there is something in our brain that remains unimpressed. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some published science or psychology research behind this. I've often wired a series parallel switch that counteracts this by attenuating the series sound or boosting the preamp gain in the parallel mode. MM Stingrays with that 3-way toggle, dedicate a switch pole to gain adjustment resistors so each setting has the same loudness. I've even had a few basses with a switch that goes series-parallel and passive-active at the same time. If the pre has 5-6 dB of gain the (active) parallel mode is boosted to the same level as the (passive) series mode. This works very well in a P bass as a slap switch.
 
#18
alleged 80's P-Pup 20210607_133757.jpg
nice thread.. maybe i will try this ser-par in this PJ i am assembling with an on-on-on 3 way pup selector. the p pup-array that came with it was allegedly an 80's Fender, however it measures 24.1 total dcr and about 11.5 per split. way higher than any kind p style pup i have measured. will try to get a pic.
 
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#19
PawleeP said:
View attachment 4294551 nice thread.. maybe i will try this ser-par in this PJ i am assembling with an on-on-on 3 way pup selector. the p pup-array that came with it was allegedly an 80's Fender, however it measures 24.1 total dcr and about 11.5 per split. way higher than any kind p style pup i have measured. will try to get a pic.
Click to expand...
I wonder if you have a Duncan SPB-2, I have one in a P bass and the DCR is around 22k so close to what you have quoted, I run mine with a series/parallel switch
 

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