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Turning two J pickups into a humbucker!?

G

gpcl16

Mar 17, 2009
16
0
#1
I just had an idea the other day and was wondering what others thought of it. I like having a coil split on a humbucking bass pickup to get single-coil like tone out of the pickup. The problem is, the coil split sound on a humbucking pickup often leaves something to be desired.

Since a humbucker is essentially two single coils wired in series, is it not possible to just glue two jazz bass pickups together and wire the pickups in series with a coil split? You would then have a unique sounding frankenstein humbucking pickup that could be controlled by a push-pull knob which, in the normal position, gives you the unique sound of two j bass pickups together and, when pulled essentially shuts off one of the pickups leaving you with perfect jazz bass (bridge pickup) tone when you want it.

I have some old stock Fender jazz bass pickups lying around that I never plan on using, so I could use them to test out the theory. (If it actually works, I'll try it with some better pickups). I have a bass with a slot that happens to be virtually the perfect size for two j bass pickups so I wouldn't need to do any routing to test out the theory. Just pop it in, solder a few wires and go. I'm aware that the pickup cases are slightly different sizes so it may look a little odd. All I need to do is cut off the screw holes on one side of each pickup case, and glue them together.

I'd like to get others' opinions on this. And please don't tell me, "Just buy the humbucker, and coil split it. It's easier and better." Because I know that. This is about experimenting and trying to get a unique and better sound.

Does this seem like a viable plan? Am I missing something? Is my bass going to catch fire and by engulfed in flames when I try to play? Any help would be appreciated.
 
#4
well, being a J bass kind of guy, I had the same thought. I have only one MM bass currently and its passive fretless so can't really compare to a Stingray, but I would say its more "P bass with umph." My first active MM bass is on the way so we'll see if it has that character.

Fender briefly made the critter you describe in the big block P bass. If I recall from trying it out at GC it was quite a different animal from a J or a P but not at all Stingray in tone.

As pointed out in a similar thread the MM pups also have those massive poles which conrtibute to the tone.
 
#5
Well, guess it's already been done, and I thought that I was so clever... It seems like every time I come up with a good idea, it's already been done.

I checked out the pickups on: Invalid Link Removed

Does anyone know if these pickups provide the same tone as a regular j bass single coil when split? Another idea popped into my head though. What about making a double split coil j bass pickup? Curtis Novak, Lindy Fralin and others make a single split coil jazz bass pickup that sounds almost exactly like a regular single coil, but hum-canceling. I have the Lindy split coils in a jazz bass and I love the sound. I could make a humbucker out of those so I would have a humbucker that maintains it's hum-canceling properties even when split.
 
#7
No, what I meant was combining two of these split coil jazz bass pickups together to make a humbucker.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Each jazz pickup is individually hum canceling, but sounds like a single coil. This way you can coil split to get single coil tone while still remaining silent.
 
#8
Forget the glue...

On a typical Jazz bass for example, you can use a DPDT push/pull pot, and essentially wire the pickups in series if you wish. The Fender Jaguar bass gives you this option with switches instead. You get a powerful tone, louder/fuller in series mode. (I tend use this position about 10% of the time - mostly song dependent when I need a little something extra.)
 
#9
Aren't the 2 single coils on a Jazz counter-wound, so that when set at the same volume (basically no resistance on either pot, or "10"), they act as a double-coil?

That is what I see with my Jazz (and even more obvious on my 83 Foundation but, sorry if I start anything, it has superior pickups to any after market Jazz pickup).

Sticking the Jazz pups to each other will probably get a better result, but will it be that dramatic?
 
#10
ashtray said:
Forget the glue...

On a typical Jazz bass for example, you can use a DPDT push/pull pot, and essentially wire the pickups in series if you wish. The Fender Jaguar bass gives you this option with switches instead. You get a powerful tone, louder/fuller in series mode. (I tend use this position about 10% of the time - mostly song dependent when I need a little something extra.)
Click to expand...
Well, that's not exactly what I'm looking for. I have a jazz bass with an S1 switch that basically just puts the two jazz pickups into parallel. I also use this position about 10% of the time, just to give it a more p bass like tone without switching basses.

The bass that I would be using this on is a custom bass with a DiMarzio DP127 split coil P Bass pickup in the middle position and a rio grande powerbucker in the bridge position. I'm attempting to make this a true "jack of all trades bass" I currently have it wired with two volumes and one tone knob. All three knobs are push-pull type. The first volume knob controls the Split coil volume and if you pull up, it puts the Split coil and the humbucker in series, essentially creating one giant pickup. The second knob controls the humbucker volume, and if you pull up, it coil splits the humbucker. The third controls tone and pulls up to bypass the tone and activate a black ice overdrive.
 
#11
NickInMesa said:
Aren't the 2 single coils on a Jazz counter-wound, so that when set at the same volume (basically no resistance on either pot, or "10"), they act as a double-coil?
Click to expand...
Sort of. They aren't 'counter wound'- the winding has nothing to do with it. It's the magnets that are reversed. North is up on one pickup, and South is up on the other. In addition, they are wired to the pots out of phase with each other, but the magnets, being opposite each other, 'fix' the signal so it's in phase at the jack. A P bass pickup works the same way- each half has it's magnets reversed compared to the other half. You can see this for yourself if you have a compass.
 
#12
NickInMesa said:
Aren't the 2 single coils on a Jazz counter-wound, so that when set at the same volume (basically no resistance on either pot, or "10"), they act as a double-coil?

That is what I see with my Jazz (and even more obvious on my 83 Foundation but, sorry if I start anything, it has superior pickups to any after market Jazz pickup).

Sticking the Jazz pups to each other will probably get a better result, but will it be that dramatic?
Click to expand...

You're quite right. I'm just going to stick with the powerbucker in this custom bass. It sounds awesome with any combination of the pickups, just not as great with the humbucker coil split as it would on my j bass. This whole thread started because I thought I had an idea for something new, but it turned out that it had already been done, so I guess we can put an end to it.
 
#13
Nordstrand also makes a nice pickup along the lines of what you've thought of, called the Dual Coil. Nothing wrong with trying to come up with new stuff, I've been thinking about making a hybrid P bass/Jazz bass pickup, using a Nord Big Split pup, and one half of a P pickup. Think about that. Might be cool.
 
#17
gpcl16 said:
Well, guess it's already been done, and I thought that I was so clever... It seems like every time I come up with a good idea, it's already been done.
Click to expand...

You can always do it if you want! I have regular dual single coils that are tapped with good shielding and grounding.
As mentioneed Bart make tri and quad coils. The tri coil is for what you are asking...no noise when single coil.

Mating 2 jazz pickups has been don in the past. One is called the Musicman Stingray pickup from 2x 4 pole
Jazz pickups [This invalid link has been removed]

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The next was the EB Sealed Sabre pickup 2 x 8 pole jazz pickups. Schaller use to make a "Double Jazz pickup"

Like the ones in the Deluxe P Bass

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:hiding:
 
#19
gpcl16 said:
Well, guess it's already been done, and I thought that I was so clever... It seems like every time I come up with a good idea, it's already been done.
Click to expand...

Why not design a pickup cover that will encase the two jazz pups together into a humbucker, side by side. I suppose you could grind the screw holder off of each side of a casing and then super glue them together. But if someone would mass produce this it might have a market. Considering all the left over pickups out there after all these upgrades.
 

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