Pickup Wiring Questions

[TYLER RYE]

Hello all,
I'm currently in the planning phase of building my own bass. As far as the body is concerned, I have a pretty solid plan laid out. I'll be scavenging the neck, bridge, and machine heads from a DIY jazz bass kit, and I'll be buying a slab of poplar to construct my own custom body for the bass. I'm an accomplished woodworker, so that side of the equation isn't something I'm too worried about, but I'm completely out of my depth when it comes to wiring and electronics. I know I want to use Seymour Duncan Dano-style lipstick pups for the neck and bridge, and I also want to add a Seymour Duncan hot jazz stack in the middle. I also know that I'd like to add an onboard active preamp (with passive/active bypass switch), and I want to add a pickup selector switch so I can have all three pickups going, only the lipsticks, or only the jazz stack. My questions are:
1) How many control knobs will realistically be necessary for this build?
2) How would I need to wire this all up to get everything working the way I'd like it to?

I'd also love to get some recommendations on different active preamps that you guys think might be good for this build. I've heard good things about Sadowsky, Seymour Duncan, and Tone Monster, but I'd love to hear of any others you guys might suggest.

Thanks!

 

[Zoobiedood]

Keep in mind that the lipsticks will be much lower in volume than the Hot Jazz Stack. They have about 70% of the volume of an average Strat pickup. They are also very clean and clear sounding.

 

[TYLER RYE]

Keep in mind that the lipsticks will be much lower in volume than the Hot Jazz Stack. They have about 70% of the volume of an average Strat pickup. They are also very clean and clear sounding.

 

[TYLER RYE]

Well the reason I wanted to add the hot jazz stack was so I could beef up the volume from the bass since the lipsticks will be a lower volume pick up. My thinking was that I could keep the volume turned down enough on the jazz stack that it wouldn't overpower the lipsticks. My theory was also that adding a jazz stack might boost the volume of the lipstick pickups too, but I'm not sure if that would really work. Like I said in my post, guitar electronics are something I have very limited knowledge on.
With an active preamp, do you think 2 or 3 lipstick pickups on their own would have enough volume to punch through a mix?

 

[sikamikanico]

I may be misinterpreting your posts, but I’m confused - what exactly are you trying to achieve?

That aside, I think you should be fine with lipstick pickups and the right preamp. I’m not much help when it comes to preamps, but the right one should help you get the volume you need (and EQ/shape the sound). It seems like you don’t have a strong reason for the jazz stack, and it would IMO look off to have one with two lipsticks. Get two or three lipsticks if that’s the look you want...

If you absolutely want the stack jazz in the middle, I’m sure there’s a preamp out there that could help you dial in the volumes of each pickup via trimpots so that they would sound balanced... not sure what preamp that would be, but I remember reading about stuff like that.

Then again, I’m still not sure what you’re trying to do. Your answer might be just two lipsticks, passive controls, and done. If you’re worried about volume, I quite liked the Kent Armstrong lipsticks in Lakland Scheff (passive), and they are for sale at WD Music (at least they did last time I checked; those may not be the same version of pickups tho).

 

[Zoobiedood]

Most people who like lipsticks (outside of slide players) dig the vintage looks rather than the actual tone. You could always get them wound the way you want (for a better balance) from the Custom Shop.