Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Simplest Possible Jazz Bass Controls?
- Thread starter DBMcCully
- Start date
Yes pretty sure. I re-soldered a couple of connections and I think that helped a lot. What's weird now is very little hum when turned on, but if I physically touch the pickup itself I get a lot of buzz. Must be my electric personality. Oh well, I will see what it does once I have strings on it.
Truly though, the same can be said for tone. So if the question is “What are the simplest possible controls?” The answer is none. Zero. Wire the pickups directly to the jack.
"No load pots where?"
On the bass in question.
"VVT is what most jazzes are"
That's quite the revelation! Thanks.
No, they don't. I have a few basses with mute switches and the most I ever hear is the actual mechanical click. One that pops is improperly wired.
Yep, on/on--DPDT-- switches are what you want. One side allows current to flow from the pickup to the output jack; the other side sends that current to ground. The red lines show how the switch works:
[From: Guitar Wiring Explored]
To wire it up the pickup hot wire goes to the left center lug; hot to volume leaves from the right center lug. You'll need to add a jumper from one side of the switch (bottom left lug to bottom right lug); that will be 'pickup on.' The other side remains open (as shown), and the top left lug goes to ground. When both switches are on, your pickups will be in parallel.
For the volume control, use a P-bass diagram; you don't want to use the J-bass volume wiring scheme for a single volume control.
[Apologies to: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]]
The red wires are the hot wires coming from the switches; black is ground.
Sure thing! One other thought--rather than a volume control, how about a tone switch? Three switches would look pretty minimalist. And with your two pickup switches, you can mute the bass by switching both pickups to 'off,' so a volume control isn't needed for that purpose. (If you do this, put a jumper on the top--grounded side--of the pickup switches, too, or your amp could hum as if the cable were unplugged from the bass).
Your third switch could switch a capacitor in or out, depending on whether you want a bright or dark(er) sound. With an on/on DPDT switch, run both pickup hot leads (on their way to the output jack tip) to the left middle lug and run a ground wire from the right middle lug to the output jack sleeve. The open side without the cap will be your bright setting (tone control bypass). Jump the top two lugs with a capacitor; that will be your dark setting (tone control engaged).
You can try a couple of different cap values to see what sounds best, like .033 (more mids), .047 (standard), or .068 uF (dark). You could even try a value like .022 uF, or even lower, for a less pronounced treble roll-off. If you don't like the resonant peak a certain value gives, put a small resistor (between 5 and 10K) between one end of the cap and the switch lug; that'll smooth out the tone (it's like turning your tone control to 1 or 2 instead of 0.) By the way, no need to get fancy with caps; inexpensive ceramics are just fine. Just try to get something with decent (say, 10%) tolerance, or it's hard to really know the values.
Red is hot, black is ground, green is jumper, and the orange thing is a capacitor. Note: bottom lugs of tone switch remain open/no jumper.
Your third switch could switch a capacitor in or out, depending on whether you want a bright or dark(er) sound. With an on/on DPDT switch, run both pickup hot leads (on their way to the output jack tip) to the left middle lug and run a ground wire from the right middle lug to the output jack sleeve. The open side without the cap will be your bright setting (tone control bypass). Jump the top two lugs with a capacitor; that will be your dark setting (tone control engaged).
You can try a couple of different cap values to see what sounds best, like .033 (more mids), .047 (standard), or .068 uF (dark). You could even try a value like .022 uF, or even lower, for a less pronounced treble roll-off. If you don't like the resonant peak a certain value gives, put a small resistor (between 5 and 10K) between one end of the cap and the switch lug; that'll smooth out the tone (it's like turning your tone control to 1 or 2 instead of 0.) By the way, no need to get fancy with caps; inexpensive ceramics are just fine. Just try to get something with decent (say, 10%) tolerance, or it's hard to really know the values.
Red is hot, black is ground, green is jumper, and the orange thing is a capacitor. Note: bottom lugs of tone switch remain open/no jumper.
Last edited:
I'm going Switch V T. (for a PJ) I ordered the harness today. Should be here next week.
Solderless wiring harness hath arriven. I notice he used a paper/oil can capacitor. I'll be installing it over the weekend, my PJ is stored at my GFs place. I'll have to bring it to next week's jam.
For those still interested, here’s where I landed: Master Volume, Master Tone (w/ True Bypass), and 3-way Pickup Selector Switch. It might not be the simplest possible, but it’s the simplest design that fills all the holes in the control plate, and as you can see, my cable jack remains comfortably under the body where it belongs. Shoutout to 920D Customs for wiring a control panel to my specifications.
Sorry I didn’t reply earlier, and I’ll confess that I didn’t read all the replies, so it may have been discussed, but another option would be a four-way rotary switch with series, neck, bridge and parallel positions in front of master volume and master tone.
Otto
Otto
I run my Jazz with a rotary switch replacing the tone pot. At the moment it does in/out of phase. When I manage to source a double pole triple position splined switch it will do parallel/series/phase.
