School me on series wiring for jazz bass

when both pickups are on full you get more output & more lows
if you want the highs back you just dial back one of the pickups

Folks will tell you can't have independent volume controls in series, but they're just misinformed.

 

I wired a recent build with 2 jazz pickups, three way selector, single volume/tone with a push/pull on the tone for series mode.

this was a great mod I'm glad I did. The straight dual pickup in parallel is great, but the series mode gives a lot of low mid girth that parallel naturally lacks. i don't mind the mild cut in treble either. It's just another great tool. Certainly makes a jazz more versatile. I would recommend a push/pull pot, so you can have the best of both worlds. series when needed.

 

Series mode on a 2-pickup bass is like a natural, passive boost. I've done this on a variety of basses and Js benefit from it a lot. If you're just not loud enough in the mix and need to break through, having that series mode on deck is a great thing. And it's a dirt-cheap mod to do. Very simple to do, too, when it comes to the grand scheme of things.

I'd recommend doing it and if you don't love it, it's easily reversed or ignored (assuming you do a push/pull pot), depending on your preference.

 

I like to have a push/pull pot (with series mode as the pull up) on my 2 single coil basses. I don't use it much, but it's there when needed. It's a nice, thicker sounding addition. It only costs as much as a decent push/pull pot, a real no brainer.
On a related story, I do the same with any split coil or humbucker, I add a push/pull to access parallel mode. Also not used much, but great when needed.

 

RE: switching

You can't have your cake & eat it to, in regards to blending.
You can blend if it's wired permanently in series, but once you put in the push/pull switch then you lose the ability to blend when switched to series.

 

interesting, sounds like a good reason to not go series on a jazz, unless you have a dedicated/spare j type bass for that particular tone or song.

 

This cool, tapped/series wiring came up on this site a while ago. It shows the stock Peavey Foundation wiring and the series wiring with a 'tap' pot. Keep in mind that the Super Ferrite pickups have opposite colors on the pickup's leads to play in phase with hum cancelling, so if you do this wiring with other pickups, adjust accordingly. The bridge pickup in the diagram has a black wire for hot and red for ground. The neck pickup is red hot, black ground.