Pick up Help

[Bayha]

I submitted a schematic a few days ago, wishing to have a little more brightness. After saying that I was using Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders, I was told that I will have trouble getting a brighter sound with those pups because they are so hot. Does anybody have any suggestions for me? I'd like to stay with Duncans I think, I like their overall tone (I wouldn't close my eyes to another brand however). Are there ones with a bit more balance?

 

[pecosjoe]

I say go with S.D.'s vintage models. They have skinnier mag-post. I put the '65 Pbass -they are great and have plenty of highs.

 

[GlennW]

I went through a bunch of JB pickups and am 100% happy with SD ANT IIs. They're very nice sounding pickups, but with a tad more bottom than most JB pickups.

Did you ever try the QP's straight to the jack? Wondering how it sounded.

Edit: Whichever pickups you use I'd suggest you spend some time with different caps, and maybe consider a push/pull pot to switch between two different values after you found a couple that you favor.

 

[Bayha]

I never did try straight to the jack, never got around to it. That is a good Idea about the push/pull pots though, I never thought about that.

 

[membluz]

Yes you can get them to sound brighter and still keep a thunderous low end for $50.00 by using two 500K concentric pots as per the Fender 1962 Jazz Bass wiring plan.

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Your Jazz Bass control plate will have 1 unused hole that you can install an unwired pot and knob onto to give it a finished look.

Good luck.

Tony

 

[line6man]

Yes you can get them to sound brighter and still keep a thunderous low end for $50.00 by using two 500K concentric pots as per the Fender 1962 Jazz Bass wiring plan.

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Your Jazz Bass control plate will have 1 unused hole that you can install an unwired pot and knob onto to give it a finished look.

Good luck.

Tony

???
using the concentric pot setup you mentioned gives a dark tone...

anyways, with this setup, you usually use 3 hole plates so that you dont have an extra hole.

 

[membluz]

???
using the concentric pot setup you mentioned gives a dark tone...

anyways, with this setup, you usually use 3 hole plates so that you dont have an extra hole.

Why would you say this will result in a dark tone?

This wiring scheme is designed to get the best tone from each pickup independently of each other.

The 'typical' Fender Jazz Bass wiring sends the signal from both pickups to a single tone pot with a 0.05uF capacitor.

The concentric design uses a 0.05uFcap on the neck pickup tone pot and a 0.03 uF cap on the bridge pickup tone pot that will result in a brighter tone from the bridge pickup.

Blending these two pickups using their respective volume and tone controls will facilitate countless tone possibilities.

I suggested the unwired pot and knob to save the expense of having to buy another control plate.

 

[line6man]

Why would you say this will result in a dark tone?

This wiring scheme is designed to get the best tone from each pickup independently of each other.

The 'typical' Fender Jazz Bass wiring sends the signal from both pickups to a single tone pot with a 0.05uF capacitor.

The concentric design uses a 0.05uFcap on the neck pickup tone pot and a 0.03 uF cap on the bridge pickup tone pot that will result in a brighter tone from the bridge pickup.

Blending these two pickups using their respective volume and tone controls will facilitate countless tone possibilities.

I suggested the unwired pot and knob to save the expense of having to buy another control plate.

4 500K pots (125K) is brighter than 3 250K pots (83.33K)
however, if your after a bright tone, 3 500K pots (166.67K) is brighter...

So thus, the concentric pot setup is brighter than a stock jazz bass setup, but you can make the regular setup brighter with 500K pots than you could with the concentric pots.