Pickup Wiring Options

telemoder

New member
Hello, I am wondering about the differences between wiring two volume pots together. One option is the Jazz Bass wiring scheme where the hot lead is connected to the center lug of the pot. The other option is to wire the hot lead to the out lug (standard LP wiring). I realize with the JB wiring you can turn down either pot and you still get output where as the LP wiring you loose the entire signal. My question is ... is there a great tonal difference between the two? I've read in this forum that there is but there wasn't any explanation as to why. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
 
Re: Pickup Wiring Options

With standard wiring there is a constant load resistance on the pickup which keeps the resonant peak of the circuit in the same place as the volume is turned down. With the JB wiring the load on the pickup is changing which affects the resonant peak. This change is why you'll often see recommendations for changing between 250K, 500K and 1M pots to brighten or darken the tone. The amount of tonal difference will depend on how far you turn down the volume. Hard to quantify the amount - if you've got a soldering iron handy you should just try it and see.
 
Re: Pickup Wiring Options

Actually by JB he meant jazz bass, but...

And alligator clips are great for testing wiring options.

Bit speaking of the JB, I once wired a King V for two volumes and one knob rolled off the overall vol evenly while the other cut the.bass as it turned down. I believe one was wired to the outside and that one's center went to the next one's middle.
 
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