Modifying active P to passive: pickup suggestions please!

[cazclocker]

I'm not convinced I want to do this yet, but I'm considering changing the active electronics in my 1997 Fender Deluxe Precision, to all-passive. One hitch I see to selecting new pickups would be the fact that the J pickup is a double J (JJ?) instead of the usual single J found in most PJ setups.

Has anyone here done that conversion? What pickups should I be looking at? A good friend of mine tried Geezer Butlers in his P-J Precision and ended up changing to Nordstrands. He said his Geezers didn't have enough bottom end.

I suppose I could replace the double J with a standard single J, as long as the placement is sitting in the right spot, and just hide the unused pickup rout with a new pickguard. Is that feasible or ridiculous?

You're probably going to ask me what kind of tone or vibe I'm after...that's a hard question for me to answer. I already have a gorgeous American Standard Precision for my "vintage" tone, so I want something between a vintage muffle and a modern scooped sound. If it helps, I love the way I can add a little J to the P so I can get the P bottom, but add in a little of that chokey J tightness to my overall sound.

I normally play rock, blues & country.

 

[two fingers]

Finding a double J is gonna be tough. However, rumor is that the one already in your bass is very similar, if not identical, to the Bill Lawrence ones that came in the Roscoe Beck signature.

Here is my new Hammersmith. It has a Nordy at the neck. Volume, tone, 3 way for neck/both/bridge and another 3 way for series/single/parallel on the bridge pickup (Seymour Duncan NYC5). All passive. And all awesome.

The Nordstrand does have a thick bottom. It's really hot though. I had to lower it quite a bit.

If I were you, I would try it with the stock double J and a fat P bass pickup. Jist my opinion.

(Plastic is still on the guard in this pic.)

 

[cazclocker]

Finding a double J is gonna be tough. However, rumor is that the one already in your bass is very similar, if not identical, to the Bill Lawrence ones that came in the Roscoe Beck signature.

Here is my new Hammersmith. It has a Nordy at the neck. Volume, tone, 3 way for neck/both/bridge and another 3 way for series/single/parallel on the bridge pickup (Seymour Duncan NYC5). All passive. And all awesome.

The Nordstrand does have a thick bottom. It's really hot though. I had to lower it quite a bit.

If I were you, I would try it with the stock double J and a fat P bass pickup. Jist my opinion.

(Plastic is still on the guard in this pic.)View attachment 1176972

Gorgeous bass, two fingers! Interesting... I had an RB5 at one time, wish I'd never sold it, and IIRC the pups look like the bridge pup in my Deluxe P. I'll have to dredge up my photos to check.

I wonder if I could keep my JJ, and just shop for a nice P? Can a pup from an active bass work properly if you rip the preamp out?

 

[two fingers]

Gorgeous bass, two fingers! Interesting... I had an RB5 at one time, wish I'd never sold it, and IIRC the pups look like the bridge pup in my Deluxe P. I'll have to dredge up my photos to check.

I wonder if I could keep my JJ, and just shop for a nice P? Can a pup from an active bass work properly if you rip the preamp out?

Thanks! The idea for the electronics came from my favorite parts of an RB5 I used to own and a P bass all smashed together. So far, what I have found is that I have a great P tone, and three very useful "PJ" tones by combining P+J single, P+J parallel, and P+J series. The bridge soloed isn't very useful for my purposes but I don't do a ton of extremely bright tones. P with single is the typical scooped PJ tone. P with parallel is very "sweet" and "warm" but drops volume a bit. P with series is just humongous.....both beefy and clear/defined. I'm super happy with how it turned out.

There are two kinds of setups. Active pickups and preamps use batteries to power both the pickups and preamp. But the vast majority of "active basses" are actually passive pickups with active preamps. Most likely, yours is the latter. So you should be able to go passive with no hassles. Heck, it may even be worth a shot to wire the bass up all passive as it sits and see if you like the stock P pickup. Worth a shot anyway. But that Nordstrand is still a P bass sound with extra "girth".

You will have a couple of extra holes in your guard when you go passive so you can experiment with all kinds of switching options and never whip out a drill.

 

[cazclocker]

Thanks! The idea for the electronics came from my favorite parts of an RB5 I used to own and a P bass all smashed together. So far, what I have found is that I have a great P tone, and three very useful "PJ" tones by combining P+J single, P+J parallel, and P+J series. The bridge soloed isn't very useful for my purposes but I don't do a ton of extremely bright tones. P with single is the typical scooped PJ tone. P with parallel is very "sweet" and "warm" but drops volume a bit. P with series is just humongous.....both beefy and clear/defined. I'm super happy with how it turned out.

There are two kinds of setups. Active pickups and preamps use batteries to power both the pickups and preamp. But the vast majority of "active basses" are actually passive pickups with active preamps. Most likely, yours is the latter. So you should be able to go passive with no hassles. Heck, it may even be worth a shot to wire the bass up all passive as it sits and see if you like the stock P pickup. Worth a shot anyway. But that Nordstrand is still a P bass sound with extra "girth".

You will have a couple of extra holes in your guard when you go passive so you can experiment with all kinds of switching options and never whip out a drill.

Thanks so much for the input, two fingers!

 

[two fingers]

Thanks so much for the input, two fingers!

Yeah man. Honestly, my plan A was to find a fiver like you have and do exactly what you're going to do to it. I'm happy with new bass, but still may try it with a Deluxe fiver some day if I find a good deal on one. So I'm curious as to how yours turns out.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Try it straight first, w/o the preamp. If they're passive pickups, they might be just fine w/o the preamp.
Most likely it's passive pickups & the 9v battery is only for the preamp.

 

[cazclocker]

Yeah man. Honestly, my plan A was to find a fiver like you have and do exactly what you're going to do to it. I'm happy with new bass, but still may try it with a Deluxe fiver some day if I find a good deal on one. So I'm curious as to how yours turns out.

Wait... one more small question. Your controls now are volume, volume, and two switches. No tone control?

Try it straight first, w/o the preamp. If they're passive pickups, they might be just fine w/o the preamp.
Most like it's passive pickups & the 9v battery is only for the preamp.

Okay, I thought a passive instrument required different pickups than an active one. I'm out of town just now, but when I get home I'm going to see about removing the preamp.

 

[two fingers]

Wait... one more small question. Your controls now are volume, volume, and two switches. No tone control?


Okay, I thought a passive instrument required different pickups than an active one. I'm out of town just now, but when I get home I'm going to see about removing the preamp.

I may have goofed when typing. Sorry. Master volume and master tone are the two knobs.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Most active basses have passive pickups & the qualifying factor of calling them active is that they need a battery for the preamp.

I would suggest putting in Volume/Volume/T/B controls
neck volume / bridge volume / treble cut / bass cut

since I see there are 4 holes in the pickguard

(just to keep it simple)

OTOH, if you like having total isolation of one pickup, then put a 3-way switch in vs. a bass cut knob.

 

[scuzzy]

lemmy is right, the basses have passive pickups. only electronics are active. It's a very straightfoward switch, and very inexpensive to convert to passive. they may very well be just to your liking once you switch. Fender is known for many things....their active preamps isn't one of them.

you may also be able to add a humbucker/single coil switch to the bridge pickup if it has the leads to allow it. that would add quite a bit of tonal variety to the mix. I would certainly look into that.

 

[cazclocker]

I may have goofed when typing. Sorry. Master volume and master tone are the two knobs.

Well, smack me silly. I just re-read your original answer, and you did indeed say the two pots were volume and tone. Oops, sorry.

Most active basses have passive pickups & the qualifying factor of calling them active is that they need a battery for the preamp.

I would suggest putting in Volume/Volume/T/B controls
neck volume / bridge volume / treble cut / bass cut

since I see there are 4 holes in the pickguard

(just to keep it simple)

OTOH, if you like having total isolation of one pickup, then put a 3-way switch in vs. a bass cut knob.

Thanks man. I think this is going to be easier than I thought.

 

[cazclocker]

lemmy is right, the basses have passive pickups. only electronics are active. It's a very straightfoward switch, and very inexpensive to convert to passive. they may very well be just to your liking once you switch. Fender is known for many things....their active preamps isn't one of them.

you may also be able to add a humbucker/single coil switch to the bridge pickup if it has the leads to allow it. that would add quite a bit of tonal variety to the mix. I would certainly look into that.

Yeah, one thing I loved about the Roscoe Beck was the ease of switching the double-J between singlecoil, series or parallel.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I just thought of something, you could accomplish the series/parallel switching with a push/pull pot for one of the knobs.

series gives it more oomph, but attenuates the highs a little

 

[scuzzy]

009-0793-000 Fender Humbucker Dual Jazz Bass Pickup JJ Bridge Position

looks like you can do series/single coil switch. that would be amazing.

if this is the pickup..
Double Jazz Bass Pickups

...you could possibly do a three way toggle switch that would allow for series/parallel/single coil. i am not certain of this, however, so you may need someone more knowledgeable to answer.

If you are able to do a series/single coil, I think you would find that much more useful than series/parallel. just my $0.02. i find a traditional PJ tone to be unique and very usable.

 

[cazclocker]

009-0793-000 Fender Humbucker Dual Jazz Bass Pickup JJ Bridge Position

looks like you can do series/single coil switch. that would be amazing.

if this is the pickup..
Double Jazz Bass Pickups

...you could possibly do a three way toggle switch that would allow for series/parallel/single coil. i am not certain of this, however, so you may need someone more knowledgeable to answer.

If you are able to do a series/single coil, I think you would find that much more useful than series/parallel. just my $0.02. i find a traditional PJ tone to be unique and very usable.

Given the choice, I'd really like to be able to switch between single, series or parallel on the bridge pickup. But single/series would be awesome.

I'm out of town; I'll have to wait until I return to investigate my options. I think the first thing to do will be to pull the pickguard and examine the bridge JJ pickup. Hopefully the existing wire leads will allow single/series/parallel. But only a close examination will tell.

Question: if my JJ pickup can be wired such that a single side of the pickup is activated, which side lines up with a traditional J position, relative to the bridge? On my old RB5, when both double pickups were switched to single-coil configuration, only the rear-most half of both pickups were in play.

 

[scuzzy]

P/J pickup spacing, only Sadowsky measures up.

 

[scuzzy]

This is for a bartolini, but should still get you there, once you determine the fender wiring as it compares to the bartolini.

 

[Herrick]

Sorry to go off topic but what is the difference between a double J and a humbucker? I've never heard of a double J pickup before. Every time I've seen a picture of these Deluxe P Basses, I assumed there was a regular humbucker in the bridge position.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

which side lines up with a traditional J position, relative to the bridge?

According to this, you can't reach the traditional Jazz position on your Deluxe:

I would think anywhere between 5cm - 9cm would be fine & it's also your preference to how bright you want it.

BTW, 5cm & 9cm is the difference between the first & 2nd frets.