How Would You Wire This?

[One Bad Monkey]

So, hypothetically speaking of course, you got a nice deal on a one piece, old growth dark walnut P Bass body and had them route it much like Berry Oakley's Tractor Bass. You're planning on putting in a SPB-4 (Steve Harris sig) and a pair of Weather Report bridge pickups in it, slapping a jazz bass neck on it and calling it good.



How would you wire it?

 

[One Bad Monkey]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

Fretted. Already have a 4 string PJ fretless (with a Quarter Pound P and Hot Jazz Stack).

A lever might work. Ideally, the simpler it looks (and it is to use) is fine with me. Even just Vol-Vol w/ push/pull for the bridge would be ideal as that would get me a ton of tones already, and I can do the rest either by EQ or where my right hand falls.

 

[BlueTalon]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

Nice looking body!

I would wire it the same way I wired my three-pickup Warmoth Jazz. One stacked V/T control for each pickup, a Turnstyle rotary switch that has one position for full manual control and five tone presets, and a master stacked V/T control.

(I have never had any clicking sound from the rotary switch in my amplified signal. The only time I can ever hear the switch click is when the bass is unplugged.)

 

[jeremy]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

i like stacked knobs, i used them on guitars and basses where i want more controls but dont want to rout.

beautiful body by the way

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

My proposal... 4 knobs, side jack. Group the Jazzes, wire like a Jazz Bass with extras. (P + (J+J))

1: P Volume
2: "J group" Volume
3: Master Tone
3 Push/Pull: series/parallel for Jazzes
4: J Blend

When the Jazzes are in parallel you can use the blend between the two of them, when in Series, bypass the blend control.

Beautiful body!

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

Three stacked pots. Volume on top tone on the bottom.

 

[One Bad Monkey]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

I would wire it the same way I wired my three-pickup Warmoth Jazz. One stacked V/T control for each pickup, a Turnstyle rotary switch that has one position for full manual control and five tone presets, and a master stacked V/T control.

While tempting, I think that's a little much for this build. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, since I really don't fiddle with the knobs on my basses that much; I dial in a good sound and that's it. Any tonal changes are usually done with hand placement and technique, with exception of those changes that require an EQ (like going to slap and back).

i like stacked knobs, i used them on guitars and basses where i want more controls but dont want to rout.

Yeah, routing is not something I want to do. Mainly because I'm lazy but also because many of my other instruments have full active electronics, having something more pared down in this format seems ideal.

I ended up pulling the trigger on a pre-wired stacked V/T jazz bass setup, complete with knobs. I'll probably run the J pickups - at this point - in parallel. If I want more options, I can always wire in a simple series/parallel switch, which would still fit in the body cavity with a minimum of hassle.

 

[One Bad Monkey]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

Quick update. The jazz pups are still being made, and are a little ways off, but I have nearly everything set. Just have to open her up and wire everything and I can at least use her as a P Bass until the others arrive.

 

[Demanic]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

6 position Freeway switch with 1 volume and 2 tones. One tone for the P-pickup and one for the two singles.

 

[BlueTalon]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

VERY nice! The pickguard really complements the color and grain of the body wood. That looks like a nice shielding job as well.

Update?

 

[One Bad Monkey]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

VERY nice! The pickguard really complements the color and grain of the body wood. That looks like a nice shielding job as well.

Update?

Oh, she's done and she's one big lady!

Got the jazz pickups; she's sporting two Weather Report pickups, currently wired in series. At this point, I threw on some GHS Brite Flats (was talking with a buddy of mine who loves these, and since they're the one set that I'm still not very familiar with at work, it was a good choice). With just the neck (which is the SPB-4), she sounds just like a P Bass, although I think there's a little more focus in the lower frequencies. With just the bridge, you'd swear you were hearing a J bass with both pups on full, although due to the wood and spacing, there is a little inherent Warwick Thumb character in there. Combined, it's just great. I'll get some video clips up soon on it.

Currently, she's at a repair shop. I couldn't get the action where I like it, even with a shim, so I sent it to a pro. Basically, when I drilled the neck holes, they weren't exactly straight, so the neck couldn't sit in the pocket correctly. He's got a couple other small things he wants to do, but said once it's done, she'll play like butta'.

 

[One Bad Monkey]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

Well, the SPB-4 pickups are probably coming out very soon. Waiting at the doorstep as I came home was a small box with SD on the side. I had forgotten that I asked about the possibility of this pickup way back in August, and was told it could get done. But now, it's here. And it's real.

It's an SPB-1 pickup, except it has all the upgrades to make it a Zephyr Silver Pickup (silver wire, glass bobbins, nickel and steel pole pieces, cryo-treated). I'm beyond excited to wire this thing into the bass and hear it. I've got a pretty solid idea of what this bass sounds like, so it'll be interesting to hear what the Zephyr brings to the instrument.

 

[daan]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

That walnut body is gorgeous. Where is it from, and do they have more?
And I'd have just wired all the pickups in series to the output jack, all-on-all-the-time, so I probably shouldn't have said anything in the first place...
Where is the gold pearl guard from? I have an all-black PJ I want a different color guard for, and that looks really nice.

 

[One Bad Monkey]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

That walnut body is gorgeous. Where is it from, and do they have more?

Got it on eBay, from Matt's Woodworking. He was very cool to deal with, and open to making the jazz routes.

Where is the gold pearl guard from? I have an all-black PJ I want a different color guard for, and that looks really nice.

It's another eBay find, although I can't find the seller to look it up. In the original pictures, it looked more orange; in real life it's more of a tan. Which for this bass, works PERFECTLY. That's been the biggest compliment people have given on the instrument itself.

 

[One Bad Monkey]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

Took the bass to NAMM for a couple of my solo demos. I also had a bunch of bass friends play it at the booth. Everyone was greatly impressed with the entire build, which was nice.

However, the biggest thrill came from stopping over at the Seymour Duncan booth on Friday, and running into MJ (since all of the pickups were wound by her). She got a bit excited when I mentioned the Silver Zephyr P pickup, as that was just recently finished a couple weeks prior. So, what's better than having pickups wound by MJ in your bass? Getting her seal of approval on the bass.

 

[0v3nm4n]

Re: How Would You Wire This?

If I were you I'd get the Gibson TogPot. Any time there is a three pickup configuration the TogPot creates the best variation. Here's what you do: Wire the p-pickup and the bridge j-pickup to your regular [master] volume pot, and the middle j-pickup to the tog pot. The 3 way switch will act as a bridge, neck and both selector, while the switch tip will allow you to roll in the middle pickup when you want (neck/middle, bridge/middle, and all three). Want to only use the middle pickup? easy, just roll in the bridge pickup and roll down the master volume.
There's other things you can do with this like keeping the middle pickup out of the tone circuit so when you roll the tone off and turn the middle pickup on you get this 'far away' sound. If you seek parallel/series wiring, I'd look into an S-1 switch as your master volume.