Mudbucker Pickup

[Wooddragon13]

Hey,

My wife was in a band when she was younger. Now she wants to give her bass to our daughter. It needs some repair work, however, most of it we can do ourselves. It's a copy of a 70's Gibson EB-3. Specifically, it a Japanese Global 495B. Now we wanted to try and restore it to the original condition. The issue is the Mudbucker neck pickup doesn't work. I opened it and saw that the wires were detached. Now I can solder them back, but I would need to know where they need to be soldered. I thought about getting a new one, but I'm having trouble sourcing it. I'm also have problems finding anyone that can tell me if this one can be repaired and if so, how can I do it or if it needs to be sent in. Do you have any suggestions.

Thanks

 

[jmjbassplayer]

Gonna move your post to the correct forum for this, which would be Pickups & Electronics. Good luck with the bass.

 

[ctmullins]

Hey,

My wife was in a band when she was younger. Now she wants to give her bass to our daughter. It needs some repair work, however, most of it we can do ourselves. It's a copy of a 70's Gibson EB-3. Specifically, it a Japanese Global 495B. Now we wanted to try and restore it to the original condition. The issue is the Mudbucker neck pickup doesn't work. I opened it and saw that the wires were detached. Now I can solder them back, but I would need to know where they need to be soldered. I thought about getting a new one, but I'm having trouble sourcing it. I'm also have problems finding anyone that can tell me if this one can be repaired and if so, how can I do it or if it needs to be sent in. Do you have any suggestions.

Thanks

Photos would help. Many of the old Japanese lawsuit basses used pickups that appear similar visually but are very different inside. Also, exact dimensions may not match. So if you were to purchase a generic mudbucker replacement pickup, it may not fit your bass.

You can re-solder the pickup wires, but the coil wires are extremely thin and fine, so you’ll need to be careful and quick, lest you burn through those tiny wires.

 

[Wooddragon13]

Thanks very much. And you're right, I already purchased a mud and it doesn't fit. This plate on the back of the new mud is larger than the cavity on the bass. It's dimensions are as follows:

Bass neck cavity
L 1 1/2 in - 38.1 mm
W 2 1/4 In - 57.15 mm
D 5/8 in - 15.875 mm

I attached some images of the pickup, the bass and the new pickup. If I did solder the old pickup back to the plate in the bass, where would I solder it to.

 

[kyral210]

Hey,

My wife was in a band when she was younger. Now she wants to give her bass to our daughter. It needs some repair work, however, most of it we can do ourselves. It's a copy of a 70's Gibson EB-3. Specifically, it a Japanese Global 495B. Now we wanted to try and restore it to the original condition. The issue is the Mudbucker neck pickup doesn't work. I opened it and saw that the wires were detached. Now I can solder them back, but I would need to know where they need to be soldered. I thought about getting a new one, but I'm having trouble sourcing it. I'm also have problems finding anyone that can tell me if this one can be repaired and if so, how can I do it or if it needs to be sent in. Do you have any suggestions.

Thanks

Find a local/ regional pickup builder and pay them to service the pickup. That is the easiest way.

 

[ThaCoast]

Hey,

My wife was in a band when she was younger. Now she wants to give her bass to our daughter. It needs some repair work, however, most of it we can do ourselves. It's a copy of a 70's Gibson EB-3. Specifically, it a Japanese Global 495B. Now we wanted to try and restore it to the original condition. The issue is the Mudbucker neck pickup doesn't work. I opened it and saw that the wires were detached. Now I can solder them back, but I would need to know where they need to be soldered. I thought about getting a new one, but I'm having trouble sourcing it. I'm also have problems finding anyone that can tell me if this one can be repaired and if so, how can I do it or if it needs to be sent in. Do you have any suggestions.

Thanks

You say it doesn't work, due to it being unwired. However, in your pictures the original pickup seems to have the magnet off the bottom of it. If you have a multimeter, & install the magnet under the pickup itself, do you get a reading in ohms? If so, then your pickup is still functional, you simply need to add length to its wires & wire it back up to its controls. Which, if it's wired as a les paul (VVTT 3 way selector), then the red wire is the hot (usually outer lug of the volume pot), & black is ground (back of the volume pot casing).

If however, when reading the pickup with a multimeter yields nothing (overload or zero), then the pickup would need to be rewound to function.

Hope this helps!

 

[Wooddragon13]

Thanks, that helps a lot. I would need to get a multimeter to test. If you notice the pic, the plate in the cavity of the bass has a green wire soldered to it with a white wire coming out the green. The pickup itself has a black wire and a red wire. Question would be which wire would I solder to the white, the red or the black or both.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Have you got a better picture of how and where the wires attach to the old pickup?

 

[ThaCoast]

Thanks, that helps a lot. I would need to get a multimeter to test. If you notice the pic, the plate in the cavity of the bass has a green wire soldered to it with a white wire coming out the green. The pickup itself has a black wire and a red wire. Question would be which wire would I solder to the white, the red or the black or both.

I'm inclined to say that this would be the wires designations:

- Black = Pickup Ground (back of pot casing)
- Red = hooked with White = positive (hot) connection to volume pot lug.
- Green = pickup shield ground (this one is also hooked to the back of pot casing, & acts, IIRC, as a cavity shield against external hum sources such as TVs, routers, tube lights, etc).

Hope this helps

 

[Wooddragon13]

Thanks AS, I'll give it a shoot.

 

[Troy Thompson]

Hey,

My wife was in a band when she was younger. Now she wants to give her bass to our daughter. It needs some repair work, however, most of it we can do ourselves. It's a copy of a 70's Gibson EB-3. Specifically, it a Japanese Global 495B. Now we wanted to try and restore it to the original condition. The issue is the Mudbucker neck pickup doesn't work. I opened it and saw that the wires were detached. Now I can solder them back, but I would need to know where they need to be soldered. I thought about getting a new one, but I'm having trouble sourcing it. I'm also have problems finding anyone that can tell me if this one can be repaired and if so, how can I do it or if it needs to be sent in. Do you have any suggestions.

Thanks

Artec makes a great version of the Gibson Mudbucker that can be had on Amazon, Reverb, or Ebay.

 

[ThaCoast]

Artec makes a great version of the Gibson Mudbucker that can be had on Amazon, Reverb, or Ebay.

I think thats what he already has, but says doesnt fit the cavity (see earlier post of his explaining).

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I think thats what he already has, but says doesnt fit the cavity (see earlier post of his explaining).

Yes. Many times those early Japanese Gibson copies have a single coil under a metal cover but the route is much smaller than a “standard” mudbucker.

 

[Wooddragon13]

AS.
I want to thank you, as that suggestion about connecting the wires was spot on. I did that and the Mud came to life.
Thanks again

 

[ThaCoast]

Yes. Many times those early Japanese Gibson copies have a single coil under a metal cover but the route is much smaller than a “standard” mudbucker.

& they don't have that traditional mudbucker Deepness to the tone. It's very clear for a pickup thats right against the fretboard.

AS.
I want to thank you, as that suggestion about connecting the wires was spot on. I did that and the Mud came to life.
Thanks again

My pleasure! Years of experience figuring out my own wirings & simply fixing a bunch of instruments. Glad i could be of service