Making two sets 62 ri pickups into humbuckers...?

[cstar]

I have an idea that I could use some help with.

So, I know this has KINDA been done before, as on the Tractor bass. There were two j pickups in the bridge position, acting a bit like a humbucker together?

I had this idea of taking two sets of Fender 62 ri/ "Original" pickups and fusing them together. So, I'd take one neck and bridge pickup and alter one side of each pickup cover and epoxy them together, so that pickups would make what looks like a j humbucker. And this way the pups would be rwrp to each other.

Would that work? I understand it's not really a humbucker, but would it still function and would it be any fatter sounding? Is this a good idea, bad idea? Are there any setbacks?

Also, if I did this for both pickups, so I now had a bridge and neck side by side in the neck position, and bridge and neck side by side in the bridge position, what would a wiring diagram look like?

What if I instead matched up to neck pups in the neck position and two bridge pups in the bridge position? How would that work? I understand that in this case each pup wouldn't be rwrp to itself.

Thanks in advance.

 

[LightGroove]

Save time money and stress and buy something like this. If you like to tinker so be it but if you want something functional here ya go

 

[Alexio58]

I'm doing the same thing with wilkinson classic J pickups but I pare bridge to bridge and neck to neck due to STRING SPACING. I will still have 60 cycle hum, but I like that. Also I'm using a 4 pole 3 way roterary switch to select series, paralel, singleciol for both pickups at the same time.

 

[cstar]

Thanks for the reply.

So if you're pairing bridge + bridge and neck + neck, what does that sound like? Does it sound like a humbucker, or more like a fatter single coil?

 

[uOpt]

They will be too fat sounding in series and too thin in parallel. Choices, choices...

 

[Alexio58]

I'm still working on that bass but seymour duncan 2 NYC 5 string soapbar is a double jazz pickup, such a shame it's only for 5-string
here is a link: http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/bass/soapbars/5string/passive_phase_i/
this pretty muck ilustrates the double jazz effect.
By the way, two single coil pickups paralell will sound classic with added hights and lows, A bit modern you could say not thinner...

 

[Alexio58]

reversed polarity and winding only makes it humcanceling. just wire neck-neck or bridge-bridge in series and you will get the humbucker sound. the doubled resistance will create the fat sound and output, not the polarity and winding.

 

[walterw]

just wire neck-neck or bridge-bridge in series and you will get the humbucker sound. the doubled resistance will create the fat sound and output, not the polarity and winding.

trouble is, series-wiring will boost the hum along with the output.

you'd need to wrangle two neck-sized pickups that were RWRP to each other, then two bridge-sized that were RWRP to each other, to create series pairs that fit side by side and didn't make a hideous racket.

i haven't confirmed this, but i think you can take two identical coils, physically flip one over, then reverse its wiring, and get a RP/RP pair. the trick then becomes routing the wires so it fits under the pickup cover.

uOpt's point is a good one, a typical jazz pair in series will be very loud and dark, while in parallel they'd be a pinch weaker than one coil by itself.

this all points to ordering custom sets of coils, underwound to sound good in series, RWRP with each other and spaced to match up; you might as well just buy some nordstrand dual-coil soapbars.

 

[line6man]

You're going to run into pole piece spacing issues, if that's important to you. Also, creating a cover may be a bit of a challenge, unless you don't mind the fact that the neck pickup will be 1/8" narrower on each side.

Perhaps a better idea would be to use two neck or two bridge sized pickups, and get one flipped upside down to allow for RWRP humcancelling capability.

I had a pickup custom made, once, with a half-wound J coil and a fully-wound J coil with a coil tap halfway into the winding, to allow single coil or humbucker wiring, with equal output. I always had the humbucker wiring out of phase, and it gave me a certain tone, but then I tried putting the coils in phase, and there was surprisingly little difference in tone between them. Of course, I was using two coils that added up to more-or-less the same specs as a single coil. With the increased inductance of fully-wound coils, there might be a more pronounced tonal difference.

 

[cstar]

Wow, thanks for all the help guys.

I'm fairly knowledgeable about everything except wiring.

What is the normal wiring of a jazz bass? Series or Parallel? Most Fender stuff is parallel right?

I would most likely pair a neck to a neck and a bridge to a bridge so it didn't look super goofy, but I realize that's not rwrp unless one in each set gets flipped.

If I just paired two necks and two bridges, how would that even be wired? I'm very confused about that. A crude diagram would be very helpful if anyone has one. Thanks!

 

[cstar]

And from what you guys are saying I think to get what I'm going for I'd probably have to just buy a humbucker of some kind.

I just love vintage jazz bass tone and haven't really found a j humbucker that captures that yet

 

[Alexio58]

You can with one DPDT mini switch make it series, single coil switchable, just search for humbucker split wiring on google pictures and you will get tons of results.
Also A jazz bass is standart wirded paralell so with both volumes wide open you'll get a very wide spread paralell humbucker ( If you get what I mean). Only that illustrates that a paralell humbucker does not at all sound thin.