Reggaebass Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 I’ve got 7 jazz basses 3 of them are MiM , they all sound different because of the woods, pickups, strings etc, but none of them sound drastically different volumes, I’m guessing it may just be a wiring problem , good luck , hopefully it’s something minor . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 It may well be that Fender source their pickups from a number of manufacturers and that you have sets from two different sources, who do different numbers of winds. Or maybe even from the same place but one is top tolerance and the other is bottom. Or possibly one set has the wrong number or winds, I'd be surprised if whoever makes these pickups does 100% test for every batch they supply. I'd say there is probably nothing inherently wrong here, but you like the sound one of the basses better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 If you're no wiring expert it might be worth posting some pics of under the control plate see if anyone spots the obvious ? Dave 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggaebass Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 Good idea Dave, I don’t mind opening one of mine up and posting a pic , if it helps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quatschmacher Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 On 22/01/2020 at 12:18, Ricky 4000 said: I've had the same thing with two basses that should have the same output but don't. It's a PITA. Cheapest way is to probably use a drive pedal or something as a pre-amp. 👍 Or a boss LS-2 with one bass on each of the two inputs and use the pedal’s two channel volume knobs to set the levels. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 If it’s loud on the neck pickup but quiet with both, then try swapping the wires around on one of the pickups so that they’re in phase. Or physically rotating one of the pickups 180 degrees might have the desired effect also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 8 minutes ago, dannybuoy said: If it’s loud on the neck pickup but quiet with both, then try swapping the wires around on one of the pickups so that they’re in phase. Or physically rotating one of the pickups 180 degrees might have the desired effect also. Serious question. Does it make a difference how the pick up sits in the hole. ? I've no idea. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 13 hours ago, dmccombe7 said: Serious question. Does it make a difference how the pick up sits in the hole. ? I've no idea. Dave The two pickups have magnets and a coil. The magents can have north on top or south on top. Rotating obviously doesn't affect this. They could be wound clockwise or anti-clockwise, again rotation doesn't affect this. Humbucking 101 in case anyone isn't up to speed: The 'hum cancelling' effect of a humbucker is normally achieved by either reversing the magnets of one pickup and connecting its coil the other way around. This means the two (magnetically induced) signals from the strings will be in-phase and add up, while any electromagnetic fields causing hum in the coils will be out of phase cancel out. As well as often having subtly different windings or pole piece spacings paired pickups (like on a Jazz bass) are normally set up like this to give a humbucking effect. If the pups are mis-wired you won't get any humbucking effect (stand near an amp with a transformer in it and don't play, just wind the pups in and out and see if the hum reduces or increases with both pups on full ) and the sound will be weak. Where it can go pear shaped is when people decide to mod an instrument without realising this and use two identical PUPS (e.g. two bridge pickups). Wired one way these will 'humbuck' but will sound weak, wired the other they will sound stronger together but hum will get worse with both of them dialled. Thinking about it, if the bass has had its pups changed, is it possible this is what has been done? 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfretrock Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 10 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said: Where it can go pear shaped is when people decide to mod an instrument without realising this and use two identical PUPS (e.g. two bridge pickups). Wired one way these will 'humbuck' but will sound weak, wired the other they will sound stronger together but hum will get worse with both of them dialled. Thinking about it, if the bass has had its pups changed, is it possible this is what has been done? J neck is about quarter inch shorter than J bridge so would be noticed? Possibly there is a wiring change by a previous owner? One pup should have north poles and one south poles, so when connected out of phase in humbuck mode the string vibrations are in phase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borntohang Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 13 hours ago, pfretrock said: J neck is about quarter inch shorter than J bridge so would be noticed? Possibly there is a wiring change by a previous owner? One pup should have north poles and one south poles, so when connected out of phase in humbuck mode the string vibrations are in phase. MIM Jazzes used identically-sized sets of pickups for a long time, but that was phased out in 2001 so shouldn't be the case here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 (edited) On 23/01/2020 at 16:57, bridge said: Maybe some light? Just saw this from guy I bought it off pickups are from an American 60's reissue The bass has had its pickups swapped... we don't know teh origin for sure so a mismatch is possible. Edited January 25, 2020 by Stub Mandrel apostrophe catastrophe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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