Good call - that might prove rather difficult...
I think I'll just keep my P/J stock and enjoy the different tonal flavors offered by it and my Precision.
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Good call - that might prove rather difficult...
I think I'll just keep my P/J stock and enjoy the different tonal flavors offered by it and my Precision.
One option is to go BVT with a center detent MN taper blend pot and then do the WalterW no load blend pot modification on the blend pot. The blend pot will act like an ungrounded blend pot (which many find to be smoother than a grounded blend pot) over most of its range of adjustment but at either end of its rotation it will select the J or P pickup full on with the other one completely cut out of the mix. Essentially it becomes a three way pickup selector switch with blend settings available between the three positions. This is how my Reggie Hamilton is set up now. To my ears it makes no difference to have the isolated extreme positions so it might be sufficient to just use an ungrounded blend pot and skip the resistive track surgery on the pot. But it is reassuring somehow to know that you can electrically isolate the P pickup from the J whether you can hear any difference or not.
Some Precision Purists will also worry about the magnetic effect of the J pickup on the strings. You can put a half or three quarter inch wide piece of flat steel over the J pickup to magnetically isolate it from the strings when you want to solo the P if you worry about that sort of thing.
Some Precision Purists will also worry about the magnetic effect of the J pickup on the strings. You can put a half or three quarter inch wide piece of flat steel over the J pickup to magnetically isolate it from the strings when you want to solo the P if you worry about that sort of thing.
Soloing the P in a PJ might not sound exactly like someone else's Precision, but then again his or her precision might differ just that much from another different Precision.
My #1 PJ is a different story. What I like to say is that your Precision will never sound like my all maple PJ with a reversed P. Then again your Spector or Warwick might!
My #1 PJ is a different story. What I like to say is that your Precision will never sound like my all maple PJ with a reversed P. Then again your Spector or Warwick might!
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,589
- 221,974
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Then what you're looking for is a "Non-Export Edition Aerodyne".
If you're still looking for a body-sans-neck, check out The Stratosphere. He/they usually have one or more in-stock at any given time.
(I always recommend buying directly through their website. They usually have some kind of sale going on for a limited time, PLUS they don't get hit with eBay's higher-than-ever fees.)
They're having a 10% off today code: PRES. Just FYI.
I'm noticing that I actually like a little of the J in the P pickup.A little more definition.
I don't gig that much in the winter but what I'm starting to notice is that when I play along with songs through my headphones at home, the PJ sits a lot better in that mix than my J basses do. Even when I get close to a 50/50 setting between the pickups, which by itself it sounds kind of ugly to me, when blended with the music (latin and R& B mostly) it really sounds great. That nasal quality on the high strings sort of fades away.
I had some reservations about the PJ setup and I was just going to use the P pickup or the J for soloing, but I'm stating to like the in between settings more and more.
I had some reservations about the PJ setup and I was just going to use the P pickup or the J for soloing, but I'm stating to like the in between settings more and more.
So this is interesting... I was changing my pickguard, and it appears that I have a 500 for the P volume pot and a 250 for the jazz volume pot.
So you still only have the equivalent of 167k, assuming standard J wiring. They really both need to be 500k.
This should result in more output from the J? The J-pup is pretty weak solo'd, and there's definitely a decrease in volume with both on full compared to the P solo'd.
The values of the pots mostly affect the treble resonance. Some pickups might sound too sharp with a 500 k pot.
Just today i worked on a PJ conversion. Target is a cheap chinese shortscale P. I added an old SD STK2 in the position of the bridge coil of a Ray and fiddled a bit with the electrics to compensate for the difference in output:
You see:
- a 3 way switch.
- a push-pull pot, 250 k, in parallel with a 220k resistor.
- the small trim pot and the green cap are a normal tone control which is used as a switchable preset.
- the large trim pot is used to tailor the output of the split coil. Its value depends a lot on the PU used; it should be between 82 kOhm (the load of the 3 pots in a Jazzbass) and 125 kOhm (the load of the pickup in a P bass). Trial and error is required.
What's lacking: the bridge PU needs to see a larger load - with just the volume pot it will sound too sharp. I need to further reduce the value of the parallel resistor to achieve a total of 82 kOhms.
The split coil is the usual cheap PU found in many entry level basses. It has a strong treble resonance while at the same time its bass response is (too) massive. So its load impedance must be on the smaller side in order to tame the treble response (i.e. reduced further as soon as the J pickup is right). It also needs a bass cut. This is done by the white capacitor - 10 nF in series. Its value depends on the load resistance the pickup sees. It must be increased when i reduce the resistive load the pickup sees.
But that's fine tuning; the circuitry is already usable in its present state - i hope You get the picture of my approach.
And there will always be as long as You do not reduce the output of the split coil.
Just today i worked on a PJ conversion. Target is a cheap chinese shortscale P. I added an old SD STK2 in the position of the bridge coil of a Ray and fiddled a bit with the electrics to compensate for the difference in output:
You see:
- a 3 way switch.
- a push-pull pot, 250 k, in parallel with a 220k resistor.
- the small trim pot and the green cap are a normal tone control which is used as a switchable preset.
- the large trim pot is used to tailor the output of the split coil. Its value depends a lot on the PU used; it should be between 82 kOhm (the load of the 3 pots in a Jazzbass) and 125 kOhm (the load of the pickup in a P bass). Trial and error is required.
What's lacking: the bridge PU needs to see a larger load - with just the volume pot it will sound too sharp. I need to further reduce the value of the parallel resistor to achieve a total of 82 kOhms.
The split coil is the usual cheap PU found in many entry level basses. It has a strong treble resonance while at the same time its bass response is (too) massive. So its load impedance must be on the smaller side in order to tame the treble response (i.e. reduced further as soon as the J pickup is right). It also needs a bass cut. This is done by the white capacitor - 10 nF in series. Its value depends on the load resistance the pickup sees. It must be increased when i reduce the resistive load the pickup sees.
But that's fine tuning; the circuitry is already usable in its present state - i hope You get the picture of my approach.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,589
- 221,974
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
The values of the pots mostly affect the treble resonance. Some pickups might sound too sharp with a 500 k pot.
And there will always be as long as You do not reduce the output of the split coil.
Just today i worked on a PJ conversion. Target is a cheap chinese shortscale P. I added an old SD STK2 in the position of the bridge coil of a Ray and fiddled a bit with the electrics to compensate for the difference in output:
You see:
- a 3 way switch.
- a push-pull pot, 250 k, in parallel with a 220k resistor.
- the small trim pot and the green cap are a normal tone control which is used as a switchable preset.
- the large trim pot is used to tailor the output of the split coil. Its value depends a lot on the PU used; it should be between 82 kOhm (the load of the 3 pots in a Jazzbass) and 125 kOhm (the load of the pickup in a P bass). Trial and error is required.
What's lacking: the bridge PU needs to see a larger load - with just the volume pot it will sound too sharp. I need to further reduce the value of the parallel resistor to achieve a total of 82 kOhms.
The split coil is the usual cheap PU found in many entry level basses. It has a strong treble resonance while at the same time its bass response is (too) massive. So its load impedance must be on the smaller side in order to tame the treble response (i.e. reduced further as soon as the J pickup is right). It also needs a bass cut. This is done by the white capacitor - 10 nF in series. Its value depends on the load resistance the pickup sees. It must be increased when i reduce the resistive load the pickup sees.
But that's fine tuning; the circuitry is already usable in its present state - i hope You get the picture of my approach.
Very interesting - could you post a detailed drawing of exactly where things are connected and what they are. The pic helps but is hard to follow. thanks!
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,589
- 221,974
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one on TB to own such a lovely piece of musical instrumentation! drool
