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Squier Contemporary Active Jazz 5 preamp swap?

NicJimBass

NicJimBass

Flossin'? I thought your name was Munson!
Nov 22, 2004
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Lancaster, OH
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#1
Looking for advice from the wiring gurus here.

I have the bass mentioned in the title, and have a Bart NTMB lying around that I'd like to throw into the bass. Simple enough.

The pickups have the normal hot and ground, but also a red wire that goes to the OEM preamp board, which is labeled 4.5v. I've tried wiring the pickups to a 9v battery, but that doesn't seem to work. It's there any way up wire them up to receive 4.5v each? I've attached the wiring diagram I got from Fender. Thanks!!

Screenshot_20210930-103337.png
 
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#6
#9
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread. Posting in case OP is still dealing with this.
On mine, I have found that I get a decent signal, 90% as loud as my passive single coil jazz bass, when connecting just the red and white wires passively. White + black gave me nothing. The black wire for one of my pups had actually broken from the preamp while I was moving stuff around and it made zero difference to the output. The signal, preamp and all were unaffected with just the red and white wires connected.
I haven't been able to find any usable info on how these SQR pups are wired but they seem to work fine when wired white(-), red(+) and black disconnected with both my Darkglass Tone Capsule and running passive. I've ordered 500k pots to see if it makes a difference when running these without the 4.5V in my Darkglass + passive project.
 
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#10
enormungus said:
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread. Posting in case OP is still dealing with this.
On mine, I have found that I get a decent signal, 90% as loud as my passive single coil jazz bass, when connecting just the red and white wires passively. White + black gave me nothing. The black wire for one of my pups had actually broken from the preamp while I was moving stuff around and it made zero difference to the output. The signal, preamp and all were unaffected with just the red and white wires connected.
I haven't been able to find any usable info on how these SQR pups are wired but they seem to work fine when wired white(-), red(+) and black disconnected with both my Darkglass Tone Capsule and running passive. I've ordered 500k pots to see if it makes a difference when running these without the 4.5V in my Darkglass + passive project.
Click to expand...
I have connected the red and white directly to the jack and it worked fine.
 
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#11
I just got a set of Nordstrand Big Splits to go in my Squier Contemporary Active Jazz bass and.... throw in the Nordstrand pickup's gray wire, just for fun. I have no idea what to connect to what, so will just get a good preamp. But for now I wish I knew what to connect to what. Anyone here got a clue what that 4.5v connection is on the preamp board?
 
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#12
tom-g has it right as far as the wires on the original pickups . The middle lug is where the positive goes and the negative goes to the lug labeled sig on the preamp board . So with the big splits the white or positive goes where the red wire was and the black ties together with the gray and connects to the lug labeled sig . The gray wire on the Nordys grounds the pickup poles . An Audere is buffered so the gray wires are hooked to another place but for this preamp it ties to the black ground wire .
 
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#13
I thought I should ask this here, since it's related to the OP?

I'm putting a Sadowsky pre-amp in my contemporary jazz (as soon as I ream the pot-shaft holes a bit), and I just want to be clear on the wiring......

From what I've been able to research, including this thread, the red wire (connected to the lug labeled "+4.5V" in the stock set up) from each pickup should connect to a corresponding lug on the Sadowsky blend-pot (the wire labeled "hot output" on the diagram).
The white wire, originally connected to "SIG", should go to ground......and the black wire from "GND" should be left disconnected? Or should it be connected with the white wire?


Or am I mistaken?


20230209_133648.jpg



20230209_133858.jpg







:unsure:
 
#14
SLO Surfer said:
I just got a set of Nordstrand Big Splits to go in my Squier Contemporary Active Jazz bass and.... throw in the Nordstrand pickup's gray wire, just for fun. I have no idea what to connect to what, so will just get a good preamp. But for now I wish I knew what to connect to what. Anyone here got a clue what that 4.5v connection is on the preamp board?
Click to expand...

Do Nordstrands fit without additional routing? I've heard they are the same size as Bartolini BC but having a hard time confirming.
 
#15
Siiverado44 said:
Do Nordstrands fit without additional routing? I've heard they are the same size as Bartolini BC but having a hard time confirming.
Click to expand...
Nordstrand offers their pickups in different size options. So you can get the Big Splits I got (for instance) in a few different sizes, like BC Bartolini and other soap bar sizes. I think it’s the BC size I got for my Squier Contemporary Active Jazz, and they just plopped in and fit perfectly. Have you checked out the Nordstrand or Bass Gear dot Com websites to see what size options they have for different pickups?
 
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