I recently installed an Area J in the bridge position of my P/J project bass. It originally had a standard single coil J, and I wanted to get rid of the 60 cycle noise. Everything is wired and working with one problem.
When I put both volumes to the same level, the E and A strings drop out significantly. The D and G strings are considerably louder. I had just set the height of each pickup to be close to volume output, so it has to be something in the wiring. It wasn't like this with the last pickup.
The only other thing I changed was that when I first opened this bass up, the P pickup was wired very strangely. It had the grounding plate underneath, but instead of the hot lead of the first coil going into the next coil, it was connected to the plate. The negative lead on the second half of the P was also connected to the plate. It worked, but I was putting some shielding in anyway, so I just did away with the plate and wired the pickups together.I'm guessing it's a phase issue. Would switching the leads on the E/A coil of the P pickup help?
As a side note, what is the deal with that wiring? It can't be parallel, can it? The lead from the first coil was connected to the pot. The only place that coil was getting voltage was from the other P coil, but it was routed through common ground. I say common ground, but truth be told, the only connection the grounding plate had to ground was that is was resting on the shielding paint, which I can't get to register continuity on my multimeter, and hence my decision to add shielding tape. I suppose it's possible that the plate was only acting as a link without a connection to common ground.
When I put both volumes to the same level, the E and A strings drop out significantly. The D and G strings are considerably louder. I had just set the height of each pickup to be close to volume output, so it has to be something in the wiring. It wasn't like this with the last pickup.
The only other thing I changed was that when I first opened this bass up, the P pickup was wired very strangely. It had the grounding plate underneath, but instead of the hot lead of the first coil going into the next coil, it was connected to the plate. The negative lead on the second half of the P was also connected to the plate. It worked, but I was putting some shielding in anyway, so I just did away with the plate and wired the pickups together.I'm guessing it's a phase issue. Would switching the leads on the E/A coil of the P pickup help?
As a side note, what is the deal with that wiring? It can't be parallel, can it? The lead from the first coil was connected to the pot. The only place that coil was getting voltage was from the other P coil, but it was routed through common ground. I say common ground, but truth be told, the only connection the grounding plate had to ground was that is was resting on the shielding paint, which I can't get to register continuity on my multimeter, and hence my decision to add shielding tape. I suppose it's possible that the plate was only acting as a link without a connection to common ground.
