Permanent series jazz wiring

[LightForce104]

on a normal jazz bass the question is moot, the pot cases are already grounded by virtue of being all bolted to the same metal plate with the output jack.

Oh, I see! Thanks for the clarification!

 

[JEDI BASS]

Glad I found this, even if it's a zombie.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I prefer this thread on Series wiring with independent volume controls:

DiMarzio Model J's...wire in series?

 

[Mod7]

anyway, here it is, gang!

series, master volume and individual tones, with each tone only affecting its own pickup.

(@sunbeast, @honeyiscool, @line6man please check my work )

View attachment 2420149

for old time's sake i even used the same colors and the same stupid microsoft paint program from my first series diagram to do it (wow, what a steaming turd of an art app that is!)

i tested this on a goofy cort steinberger copy with a PJ setup and terrible pickups, so i haven't really heard it at its best with a proper jazz bass but i know the principle works.

i could tell that using .05μF caps definitely changed the sound when i turned one down but it still had kind of a "two pickups" tone; going to .1μF made dumping a tone sound much more like the other pickup by itself, but it still kept the series boost on the very low end.

the trade off of the .1 caps is that if you want to actually roll the tone down on the entire signal by dropping both tone knobs, it gets really dark.

(edit: wait, maybe not! i wasn't looking at it right, but when both tones are turned down, that puts the two caps in series too! that means the capacitance halves, so the two .1 caps become an .05, which is not so bad.)

Hi everyone,

I'm considering wiring my JB's pickups in serie and the 1 volume 2 tones option is what I'm looking for so:
1st- Thank you very much for the diagram and explanation (even the ones I don't understand).
2nd- Do I really need to use 500k pots and .1 caps or can I keep my stocks 250K pots and 47 nF caps (and add another one for the second tone) ?

Thank you for your answers.

EDIT: I'll soon have a Squier PJ (a Jaguar) and I'd like to do the same thing. Any issue if I put the P and the J pickups in serie ? Will it be the same as with 2 J pickups ?

 

[walterw]

2nd- Do I really need to use 500k pots and .1 caps or can I keep my stocks 250K pots and 47 nF caps (and add another one for the second tone) ?

try it with what you have and see, no harm in it.

 

[walterw]

Any issue if I put the P and the J pickups in series ?

ehh, the P is already a series humbucker, so putting another coil in series with it will probably be noisy and muddy.

 

[Toothyfish]

What about eliminating the tone controls? Admittedly, I never use them so I have some wild ideas about what I can do with the extra hole in the control plate.
Was thinking about a stereo output like a Rickenbacker and adding a 3 way selector.
In other words, converting a jazz bass to a Rickenbacker

 

[Mod7]

@walterw : thank you for your answers. I'll try it and solder it that way if it sounds good to me.
Maybe I'll test it with the PJ pickups. Maybe...

@Toothyfish : I like your idea of a 3 way selector, like a Mustang.

 

[samcav]

anyway, here it is, gang!

series, master volume and individual tones, with each tone only affecting its own pickup.

(@sunbeast, @honeyiscool, @line6man please check my work )

View attachment 2420149

for old time's sake i even used the same colors and the same stupid microsoft paint program from my first series diagram to do it (wow, what a steaming turd of an art app that is!)

i tested this on a goofy cort steinberger copy with a PJ setup and terrible pickups, so i haven't really heard it at its best with a proper jazz bass but i know the principle works.

i could tell that using .05μF caps definitely changed the sound when i turned one down but it still had kind of a "two pickups" tone; going to .1μF made dumping a tone sound much more like the other pickup by itself, but it still kept the series boost on the very low end.

the trade off of the .1 caps is that if you want to actually roll the tone down on the entire signal by dropping both tone knobs, it gets really dark.

(edit: wait, maybe not! i wasn't looking at it right, but when both tones are turned down, that puts the two caps in series too! that means the capacitance halves, so the two .1 caps become an .05, which is not so bad.)

Would swapping the pickups give more mid presence to the neck? I see the neck is basically running through an lc tank—just wondering what your observations were.

I believe I’ll love this wiring by the looks of it. I have the SD Apollos (side by side humbuckers in a jazz pickup body)—which may be overkill—but what the hey!

Also was curious about the linear pot choice on the volume.

Thanks
Sam

 

[walterw]

Would swapping the pickups give more mid presence to the neck?

not sure what you mean; swapping them for what?

I have the SD Apollos (side by side humbuckers in a jazz pickup body)—which may be overkill—but what the hey!

might be OK but again, they're already series humbuckers so wiring them in series with each other might be "too much series" and an overwhelming, muddy tone

now if you wired each pickup in parallel with itself then put the pair in series, that might be a good balance

Also was curious about the linear pot choice on the volume.

tons of threads about that, linear volumes on basses give a more even sweep through the whole range instead of the steep jump between "7" and "10" of audio volumes

 

[samcav]

not sure what you mean; swapping them for what?

might be OK but again, they're already series humbuckers so wiring them in series with each other might be "too much series" and an overwhelming, muddy tone

now if you wired each pickup in parallel with itself then put the pair in series, that might be a good balance

tons of threads about that, linear volumes on basses give a more even sweep through the whole range instead of the steep jump between "7" and "10" of audio volumes

I mean to swap them with each other as they are drawn in the schematic. Sorry if wasn’t clear! It just seems that the pickups are not treated equally when the other pickup’s tone (either/or) is turned down—and that therefore swapping the neck for the bridge would have some effect.

My thoughts at first glance: When the bridge tone is down, the neck is kind of running through a series bandstop formed by the bridge pickup and its respective cap —whereas in the corresponding situation— the other tone pot down, leaves the whole “tank” situation grounded beneath the bridge pickup.

BUT (as I write this lol): I am now thinking of the entire section with the pickups and tone pots as a shunted situation. Omitting the physical position of the pickups as a variable, Kirchhoff’s law would have the output the same regardless. In other words ground>l//c>pickup = ground>pickup>l//c.

I am not positive, and I welcome correction!

As for the Apollos, these come with the primary north and south, so no joy there, but wiring the individual coils in parallel makes total sense.

I didn’t realize that about the linear sweep and bass relationship. When the guitar forums talk about it, the reasoning for audio pots is always evidenced by “how the ear perceives sound,” so I thought it would be an umbrella concept. I must read further—thank you!

 

[walterw]

I mean to swap them with each other as they are drawn in the schematic.

i don't think they're electronically behaving any different from each other in the circuit

being series-wired, one has a coil end hitting hot while the other has a coil end hitting ground. reversing that would flip the polarity of the whole thing without changing the sound, same as reversing the phase on any regular humbucker pickup

 

[walterw]

I didn’t realize that about the linear sweep and bass relationship. When the guitar forums talk about it, the reasoning for audio pots is always evidenced by “how the ear perceives sound,”

my usual response to that is “we don’t plug basses into our ear”

with typical guitars running through compressed and distorted amps, you do want audio taper volumes to have an even response going from clean to crunchy on the volume knob

with basses (and clean jazz guitars) and their typical clean signal chains, linear volumes do a better job of smoothly raising and lowering the actual loudness over the full sweep of the knob

(tone pots needs to be audio taper either way or the entire sound change gets squished into the low numbers)

 

[sunbeast]

my usual response to that is “we don’t plug basses into our ear”

with typical guitars running through compressed and distorted amps, you do want audio taper volumes to have an even response going from clean to crunchy on the volume knob

with basses (and clean jazz guitars) and their typical clean signal chains, linear volumes do a better job of smoothly raising and lowering the actual loudness over the full sweep of the knob

(tone pots needs to be audio taper either way or the entire sound change gets squished into the low numbers)

Yeah this is my experience as well, though I rarely use the volume control on a passive bass except for blending purposes (like on a Jazz Bass) I always use linear taper unless I've been too lazy to mod the electronics. Audio taper is useful for doing pinky swells IME on guitar as well, but as you say it depends on the amount of drive/compression/etc in the signal path.

 

[samcav]

my usual response to that is “we don’t plug basses into our ear”

with typical guitars running through compressed and distorted amps, you do want audio taper volumes to have an even response going from clean to crunchy on the volume knob

with basses (and clean jazz guitars) and their typical clean signal chains, linear volumes do a better job of smoothly raising and lowering the actual loudness over the full sweep of the knob

(tone pots needs to be audio taper either way or the entire sound change gets squished into the low numbers)

Ah! Thank you for the explanation. This is actually much clearer than what I was reading. That being said, I play with a moderate amount of compression and my volume backed off (roughly: 75% neck/50%bridge/35%tone). The only time I change my settings is when I roll my tone all the way down for certain songs.

With the linear volume pot, it does sound like I would end up experiencing too much output at the beginning of the rotation.