Coil Split on a Music Man HH - can it be done?

[Nick Thorpe]

Hey there,

I've noticed a certain trend in basses lately having a single coil in the neck and a MM style humbucker in the bridge. This can be seen on models from Maruszczyk, Sandberg, Cort, and others. I played a Maruszczyk with the HS configuration from a friend of mine and it sounded incredible! However, I also played an HH Music Man the other day and really liked that tone as well. I am also a 6 string player primarily, so a lot of these HS jazz bass types would not have the range I'm looking for. So my question is this: Is it feasible to get a Music Man Bongo 6 with the HH pickup configuration, and wire a coil split for the neck pickup so I can effectively have the range of a 6, with the option to flip between HH and HS pickup configurations? If so, how much work is that going to be?

Thanks all!

 

[Frenchy-Lefty]

Technically yes, it does not mean it will sound good. But for reference, there is a 3 way selector on the Musicman SR5 single pickup. What it does is to allow the selectimg the following pickup config: Series, Parallel or Single.
What might have been a successful receipe of blending the right Humbucker with th he right single coil on the bass you tried may not necessarily work here.

 

[line6man]

ANY passive humbucker with four conductor output can be wired for series, parallel, or single coil wiring. (Except for split coils, which have no single coil option.) The question to consider is whether or not your pickup has four conductor wiring. You will have to check the control cavity to see.

 

[Aidil]

ANY passive humbucker with four conductor output can be wired for series, parallel, or single coil wiring. (Except for split coils, which have no single coil option.) The question to consider is whether or not your pickup has four conductor wiring. You will have to check the control cavity to see.

isn't it better to check the conductor under the pickup directly instead what goes into the control cavity?

I have pickups which originally had 4 conductors that were soldered into series right under the pickup, thus only 2 conductors got into the control cavity.

 

[line6man]

isn't it better to check the conductor under the pickup directly instead what goes into the control cavity?

I have pickups which originally had 4 conductors that were soldered into series right under the pickup, thus only 2 conductors got into the control cavity.

Whatever way you check is fine.