Series wiring with single-conductor picups

[kumimajava]

I've got a bass that has two bartolini soapbars that are wired with as single (shielded) conductor. According to the bartolini website, the pickup "-" is wired to the shield wire, and i presume this is also soldered to the pickup casing shield.

I've added a series/parallel switch to the bass, simply treating the "shield" as the "pickup-negative" pole in all the wiring diagrams, and it works as it should - but I'm wondering whether there is some downside to doing this? I could, in principle, re-solder the pickup using a shielded 2-conductor wire (pos/neg/shield), but unless there is a particularly good reason for doing this - it's probably not worth the hassle.

Any advice/input most appreciated!

 

[Will_White]

I've got a bass that has two bartolini soapbars that are wired with as single (shielded) conductor. According to the bartolini website, the pickup "-" is wired to the shield wire, and i presume this is also soldered to the pickup casing shield.

I've added a series/parallel switch to the bass, simply treating the "shield" as the "pickup-negative" pole in all the wiring diagrams, and it works as it should - but I'm wondering whether there is some downside to doing this? I could, in principle, re-solder the pickup using a shielded 2-conductor wire (pos/neg/shield), but unless there is a particularly good reason for doing this - it's probably not worth the hassle.

Any advice/input most appreciated!

Only down side is putting the hot through the sheild could introduce more noise.

 

[Axstar]

I've seen some Bartolinis with points on the back of them to allow more exotic wiring options. Maybe pull them and check them out?

 

[kumimajava]

I've seen some Bartolinis with points on the back of them to allow more exotic wiring options. Maybe pull them and check them out?

I have - there are two leads coming from inside, and one of them is soldered to the shielding wire, which is also soldered to the bottom/shield of the pick up. So it would be 2 wires + shield at the most.

As pointed out by @Will_White above, there is the concern that there may be more noise in the series wiring, but so far I've not heard anything. As long as I'm not shorting anything...

 

[Axstar]

I have - there are two leads coming from inside, and one of them is soldered to the shielding wire, which is also soldered to the bottom/shield of the pick up. So it would be 2 wires + shield at the most...

You could break out the shield into two wires; one for grounding the base of the pickup and an additional wire for the end of the pickup coil. I've done this on a Telecaster so that I could flip the phase of the neck pickup without making the pickup cover 'hot'.

That isn't an additional tap on the pickup coil at the top right of the pickup, above the foam pad? It looks like a bare metal spot sticking out the base of the pickup.

 

[kumimajava]

You could break out the shield into two wires; one for grounding the base of the pickup and an additional wire for the end of the pickup coil. I've done this on a Telecaster so that I could flip the phase of the neck pickup without making the pickup cover 'hot'.

That isn't an additional tap on the pickup coil at the top right of the pickup, above the foam pad? It looks like a bare metal spot sticking out the base of the pickup.

indeed, you're right i could split the current "shield" into two wires - will do that if there is a noise issue

Re:splitting/tapping - from what i understand, these pickups are each split-coils (reverse-P shape) inside the soapbar cover, so not a whole lot that I think i can productively do with coil-tapping