Mattbass97 Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Hope this is the right place! Never use my bridge pick up on my squier jazz it's a Bartolini pickup and they've served me well I mostly solo my neck pickup even for funky stuff. I was wondering if swapping out the bridge pickup getting it routed out for a humbucker and getting it wired back up would be a practical thing to do? Would I be able to get the same sort of thick in your face sound as most basses with a humbucker have like a stingray etc.. Would it be able to be controlled using the regular tone and bridge volume standard on all jazz basses? Will it be as simple as taking one pickup out and resoldering another one in? What are the complications? Is it worth it? Would I get a badass sound off it? please leave comments help solutions etc Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Alsatian Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Yes - if you wanted, you could just remove the bridge single-coil, get it routed and pop whatever replacement you like in there and still have your controls as Volume (Neck), Volume (Bridge) and Master Tone. I've done this in the past, replacing a single coil with a cheap MM-style humbucker. The first time I did it, I simply desoldered the single coil and soldered in the replacement. Watch out for wiring them out of phase accidentally - this will result in a horrible thin sound with both pickups on. If this happens, simply switch around the two wires you soldered in on the bridge pickup. The only thing of note is that you may find the bridge pickup overpowers the neck, but this can be controlled with the bridge volume. I've also done it with a Seymour Duncan passive soapbar in the bridge position on a P/J bass. If you're feeling adventurous, you could add split/series/parallel switching to the bridge pickup. I added a Seymour Duncan MM pickup to a home-made P-bass in the bridge position. I added a switch to allow me to operate it as a regular humbucker, in series or just as one coil. Here's a poorly-recorded demo of mine. This was wired Volume, Volume, Tone. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ic5Aq0qXc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ic5Aq0qXc[/url] Note that putting an MM pickup in the bridge position won't get you a Stingray sound - the pickup needs to be nearer the neck in the 'sweet spot' to approximate that sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 ahh... it sounds like you have that problem it happens to us all at one time or another.... jazz- but no rear - maybe try something else there... maybe... the answer dear Mattbass97 is a precision! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattbass97 Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 Thanks guys and tried a p bass and the only thing I liked about it was the tone with a pick and I'm a 90% fingers guy picks only used whenever I want a particular sound or I'm covering a song. Id just like a thick beefy thud from my bass and was thinking a humbucker would cut it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattbass97 Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 Well tbh finger style was pretty good but I just prefer jazz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattbass97 Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 [quote name='Green Alsatian' timestamp='1344552056' post='1766471'] Yes - if you wanted, you could just remove the bridge single-coil, get it routed and pop whatever replacement you like in there and still have your controls as Volume (Neck), Volume (Bridge) and Master Tone. I've done this in the past, replacing a single coil with a cheap MM-style humbucker. The first time I did it, I simply desoldered the single coil and soldered in the replacement. Watch out for wiring them out of phase accidentally - this will result in a horrible thin sound with both pickups on. If this happens, simply switch around the two wires you soldered in on the bridge pickup. The only thing of note is that you may find the bridge pickup overpowers the neck, but this can be controlled with the bridge volume. I've also done it with a Seymour Duncan passive soapbar in the bridge position on a P/J bass. If you're feeling adventurous, you could add split/series/parallel switching to the bridge pickup. I added a Seymour Duncan MM pickup to a home-made P-bass in the bridge position. I added a switch to allow me to operate it as a regular humbucker, in series or just as one coil. Here's a poorly-recorded demo of mine. This was wired Volume, Volume, Tone. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ic5Aq0qXc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ic5Aq0qXc[/url] Note that putting an MM pickup in the bridge position won't get you a Stingray sound - the pickup needs to be nearer the neck in the 'sweet spot' to approximate that sound. [/quote] That's one hell of an awesome looking bass I gotta say Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapbassSteve Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Sandberg and Warwick do some nice basses with that J/MM config. Agree with LukeFRC on you trying a Precision though, might just be the one you tried before didn't have great pickups, the stock ones in my MiM Fender sounded awful. Failing that there are some decent MM copies out there, would be much more practical to just get one of those, it's not easy to route without a decent set of tools, and [i]however[/i] much you spend upgrading a bass you will generally [i]never [/i]add to the value, so it's something to consider if you'd ever want to replace it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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