FItting MM pickup in Jazz

[Waddycall]

Having recently fitted the Delano hybrid pickups to my Ray I’ve found myself with a spare Nordstrand MM4.2 . I have a bitsa fretless Jazz I’ve been putting together and can’t get the idea of fitting the MM pickup to the jazz out of my head. It seems like a no brainer. The only concern I’ve got is the fact that the rout for the MM pickup won’t fully cover the old rout for the jazz pickup so there will be gaps. 

Im thinking I would need to fill in the old rout, cut the new rout, and touch up the black paint.

the only thing that concerns me is the paint. How hard is it to patch up the paint on a black squier jazz body???

[Dan Dare]

Not easy to touch up a sprayed finish without it showing, even with a solid colour (metallics are a nightmare). Ask any car body repair place. You can get there or thereabouts, but it will show close up and in certain light. Depends how fussy you are. If you want an invisible repair, a re-spray - of the top at any rate - is probably the only answer.

[paul_5]

Can I suggest ‘plan B’? The ‘sweet spot’ for a MM is between the 2 pups on a Jazz. I put a MM humbucker in my Jazzes and there’s just enough room for all 3 at once.

 

It’ll require some work on the scratch plate too, and either a selector switch or an extra volume pot, but it’s well worth doing.

[Waddycall]

10 hours ago, paul_5 said:

Can I suggest ‘plan B’? The ‘sweet spot’ for a MM is between the 2 pups on a Jazz. I put a MM humbucker in my Jazzes and there’s just enough room for all 3 at once.

 

It’ll require some work on the scratch plate too, and either a selector switch or an extra volume pot, but it’s well worth doing.

That’s actually quite tempting. Not least because it only requires hacking out a hole. I could do that without ordering anything. Hmmmmm

[ikay]

The Stingray pup position actually overlaps a 60s J bridge pup to quite a degree. It might just about squeeze in with a 70s position J-style bridge pup without mounting lugs. Here's a comparison pic.

Edited April 26, 2020 by ikay

[Waddycall]

Update!

i decided to try the between the pickups position. The body is a VM 70s. Ive no idea how that affects pickup position but the ocd made me put it slap bang in the middle. I’m going to keep it like this for a while until I decide whether or not to shift the pickup. Definitely has a bit more punch. Could be good!

Edited May 1, 2020 by Waddycall

[paul_5]

Nice, clean bit of routing that, good work!

[Waddycall]

9 hours ago, paul_5 said:

Nice, clean bit of routing that, good work!

Thanks Paul. Took two attempts to make the MDF template. I got impatient and didn’t test it before using it on the body which was a bit silly but glad it came out ok!

[Waddycall]

Well I’ve had a while to play around with this and I’ve decided it’s spot on! The tone from the MM pickup is exactly the tone I have in my head when I think fretless. I also think it’s good to retain the jazz options too so thanks to paul_5 for the idea. I’ve cut and fitted the pick guard to suit and put the bridge pickup back in. Just need to order a switch to select bridge or MM for the second volume pot. Also need to sort out the shielding properly.

thanks for the help 👍

[Waddycall]

Interestingly the tone pot doesnt work on the MM pickup unless the volumes reduced a little bit. No doubt due to the values being matched to the jazz pickups. Shouldn’t be a problem.

Edit: actually it does, its just very subtle

Edited May 2, 2020 by Waddycall

[songofthewind]

Great work! I'm looking forward to sound samples.

What switch are you using to go between the Jazz and MM pickups?

[Waddycall]

2 hours ago, songofthewind said:

Great work! I'm looking forward to sound samples.

What switch are you using to go between the Jazz and MM pickups?

Cheers! There's no switch at all yet. The jazz bridge pickup is disconnected and the MM pickup connected instead. I believe all I need is a double throw toggle switch to select either the jazz bridge or MM pickup (please correct me if I'm wrong!).

I've done a quick recording with some midi drums to give you an idea. The bass is going direct to my Zoom R24 acting as an interface and into Cubase. No processing at all. Hopefully this link should work....

https://soundcloud.com/user-693218768/vm70s-jazz-fretless-neck-and-mm

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by Waddycall

[Waddycall]

How do you make soundcloud appear in the thread???

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by Waddycall

[songofthewind]

I think you can only click on your link, and it takes you to a new tab.

[Waddycall]

I’ve been mulling over options for connecting this up permanently and have been considering a change to V/B/T with a push pull for MM/Jazz bridge pickup. I’ve also considered V/B/T with two mini toggle switches to select jazz or MM bridge and to select series or parallel for the MM. I’ve also been pondering the fact that I have a redundant John East MMSR4 preamp in the drawer. 3 band with variable mid. Could I add a blend pot and pickup selector switch to this???

thoughts appreciated.