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Replacing pickups in my essex...

VincentGrim

VincentGrim

Aug 17, 2008
1,009
470
#1
As the title says, I'm tossing different pickups in my SX jazz. 2008 MiM Fender pickups. Now, I'm almost certain that I'll like the SX pickups better, but the pole pieces stick out wayyy too far on the one I got. At their lowest settings, with medium gauge strings and moderate to high action, the neck pickup will cause the thing to pop and fart out with anything more aggressive than light finger playing.

Already tried all of the tricks people talk about on here to deal with those things, but no good. So I'm swapping them out...My question to you fine gents (and ladies), issss...

What the heck is that thing between the wires and the first pot in this picture?? I've not seen such a thing before on other jazz pickups nor did my SX have it, yet there it is soldered on to the black wire of the MiM bridge pickup...Can this be removed and foregone? Or am I gonna have to drill for this, and if so, where? :confused:




Help is extreeemely appreciated. :crying:
 
#3
M0ses said:
I think that is meant to be a common ground point. You would solder your ground to it and then screw it through the shielding into the body. Easier than soldering the wires directly to the shielding.
Click to expand...

This.

Also, I don't know what solutions you attempted (I'm guessing you lowered them all the way and still have the problem), but you could throw a 1/8" shim under your neck to raise it up, then raising the action on your bridge, and that would help. Alternatively (and preferably), you could route the pickup cavities deeper so that the pickups sit lower.
 
#4
Hmm, I see. Now, I've already got my control plate wired up like [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] and all that is really left to be done is soldering the pickups to their first positions. That grounding point is not included in that schematic, so do you guys think it would conflict with it at all? Or am I all good to drill it in there?

As far the shim/routing solution: I'm not to eager to go those routes because the bass ((in terms of body/neck/all routing measurements)) is actually really well made. It does not particularly need a shim to achieve a variety of great actions. Perhaps if I liked the SX pups to the point where I never wanted to replace them with anything else, I'd go that route. As things are though, it seems a shame to shim a neck or deepen routes that are already spot on optimal when the problems are pickups that aren't here to stay anyways. :hmm:

Either way, I thank you guys for the replies/tips. :hyper:
 
#6
Well, there is gonna be a kinda double whammy of less hotness. I'm pretty sure the MiM pickups are not as hot in general and the stock 500k sx pots are being replaced with 250k cts pots. Plus, the pickup height of the SX pickups would be fine if it weren't for the drastically extended pole pieces. Which are much less present on the MiM fenders.
 
#7
VincentGrim said:
As the title says, I'm tossing different pickups in my SX jazz. 2008 MiM Fender pickups. Now, I'm almost certain that I'll like the SX pickups better, but the pole pieces stick out wayyy too far on the one I got. At their lowest settings, with medium gauge strings and moderate to high action, the neck pickup will cause the thing to pop and fart out with anything more aggressive than light finger playing.
Click to expand...

This is the "SX effect" and is well documented here on TB. If you like the aggressive mid-forward tone of the SX pickups, Chunger has come up with a good Nordstrand recipe in his "basses for newbies (SX batch build thread)" in Hardware, Setup & Repair...there's sound samples you can hear in that thread.
 
#8
VincentGrim said:
Hmm, I see. Now, I've already got my control plate wired up like [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] and all that is really left to be done is soldering the pickups to their first positions. That grounding point is not included in that schematic, so do you guys think it would conflict with it at all? Or am I all good to drill it in there?
Click to expand...

You're fine to drill it in and solder a ground wire from it to the back of a pot (or any other ground spot, really)

VincentGrim said:
As far the shim/routing solution: I'm not to eager to go those routes because the bass ((in terms of body/neck/all routing measurements)) is actually really well made. It does not particularly need a shim to achieve a variety of great actions. Perhaps if I liked the SX pups to the point where I never wanted to replace them with anything else, I'd go that route. As things are though, it seems a shame to shim a neck or deepen routes that are already spot on optimal when the problems are pickups that aren't here to stay anyways. :hmm:
Click to expand...

To make sure you're clear, "shim" in this sense is a flat piece of wood spanning the entire neck pocket so as to raise the neck straight up without adding any angle at all. The idea is just to raise the overall height and gain pickup clearance.

The problem is that most jazz pickups have, more or less, the same dimensions. There's a good chance that your bass will still suffer from the issue even with new pickups.

VincentGrim said:
Well, there is gonna be a kinda double whammy of less hotness. I'm pretty sure the MiM pickups are not as hot in general and the stock 500k sx pots are being replaced with 250k cts pots. Plus, the pickup height of the SX pickups would be fine if it weren't for the drastically extended pole pieces. Which are much less present on the MiM fenders.
Click to expand...

Changing pots wont fix the problem with your pickups, unless the problem is that you're overloading the input stage on your amp and the amp is popping.

Have you also considered grinding down the pickup poles?
 
#9
Thank you sir! I'll have to check that out! As for the project at hand, the MiM jazz pickups along with the 250k cts pots sound very good. Very smooth. As I want this to be my mellower, smoother toned bass, I am a very happy camper. The aggressive SX pickup tone is definitely something I'd like to have on hand though. So yeah, I'll have to look into that when I snag my next SX. :)

Thanks to all who chimed in!
 

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