Jazz Pups Rewired in Series Bring the Boom!

Swampish

Swampish

Dec 31, 2015
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Quebec, Canada
#1
I'm a Precision guy, but a few years back I became entranced with an American Performer Jazz in Seafoam Green for its looks and playability with its narrower neck. I figured, well, time to diversity my tonal options. So I picked it up and even got an Alperious pickguard, because the aesthetic was too nice for the bland stock pickguard. Anyway, I have been using it primarily for recording as it just seems to sit better in the mix when I record at home and send tracks to the band for mixing. However, I haven't been super-happy with the tone for live playing, which is unfortunate as it's such a nice looking bass, I want to play it live. After contemplating going to split coil Jazz pups, Quarter Pounders and DiMarzio Model J's, I instead decided to install a push/pull pot and rewire to get the parallel/series option. What a great decision that turned out to be! I still have the traditional parallel Jazz sound for when I record, but playing live and switching to series, the tone gets very P-bassy, but still different. Very dark, boomy tone that I love. Now we just need to book a gig so I can show this bad boy off! Anyone had similar experiences (good or bad) with re-wiring they bass (Jazz or otherwise)?
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#6
lowfreqgeek said:
Series on the J is a nice option to have, though I go parallel 95% of the time live. I've used series in the studio as much or more than I do live, percentage-wise. Go figure!
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So weird that we approach live and studio opposite to one another with regard to the series/parallel preference! Regardless, it's a blast to have the variety of tone wherever you use it.
 
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#9
Yes for sure. Series live for me. I have a Kelling harness that has the push pull for series/parallel as well as being wired VBT for parallel mode. I have mine wired series now, but I’d like to switch back and forth when I don’t need to blast through tonally
 
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#10
Wiring pickup in series gets you more output and a "bigger" tone. What you give up is that your bass's sound will vary more with the load (changing your cable or what you plug the other end of the cable into), and when you use your volume control on something besides 10, the sound will change more - once again because the load on the pickup has changed.

You can get the same sound with a loading capacitor - it won't have the volume jump (many including me consider that a good thing, as you now have different sounds with the same output levels), and your bass will be less sensitive to loading changes.
 
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#20
micguy said:
Wiring pickup in series gets you more output and a "bigger" tone. What you give up is that your bass's sound will vary more with the load (changing your cable or what you plug the other end of the cable into), and when you use your volume control on something besides 10, the sound will change more - once again because the load on the pickup has changed.

You can get the same sound with a loading capacitor - it won't have the volume jump (many including me consider that a good thing, as you now have different sounds with the same output levels), and your bass will be less sensitive to loading changes.
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You mean a capacitor to ground? Like, a 2n or so?
 
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