Jazz Bass pups details

[spy]

Hi,
my very first post in Music Electronics!
Hi, to all of you... very informative forum!
Maybe the best for diy-ers.

I'm planning to (re)wind my first pups. I have a pair of Jazz bass pups that need rewinding. They are dated as '66! But someone, oneday, somewhere ruined them by throwing away the original wire and rewound them with thicker one!
I don't know why he did it... the pups measure less than 1K and the wire is definetely not 42AWG. It's much thicker.... and the pups sounded awfull!

I have a small spool of 42AWG from StewMac and I'm ready to rewind them!
But before that I'd like to be sure with my steps. I found a Fender pickup matrix and for a Jazz bass I need 8500 turns for both coils.
But, how do I have to wind them? I mean, clockwise or anticlockwise? Or it doesn't matter?
The pups I have are wound anticlockwise...
With anti(or)clockwise I mean the winding... the wire.
If the bobbin is turning clockwise the winding is anticlockwise.
Sorry for these "newbie" details but I'd like to be sure. I'm learning!
thanks in advance, Spy

[David King]

Spy,
welcome to the forum. I'm not an expert on Fender but IIRC there was no standard wind direction for the J coils. They can both be wound CW or CCW. Just as long as one set of magnets is North up and the other is South up you'll end up with an in-phase, hum-cancelling pair. In 1966 they might have been using PE wire instead of what you got from Stewmac (which is probably spn) so if you were really going for vintage correct then you'd need to get a spool of that from Mojo and then ask a pro here about exact details on the winds from that era.

Search out old discussions, I'm sure it's come up before. Sam Lee Guy had the details about P pickups and may have expounded on the Js too.

[Spence]

One should be clockwise wound and the other counter clockwise. One should have N polarity and the other S as standard from the factory.

[spy]

Two different opinions! Any other expert?

[spy]

I did a search in the forums... seems like Fender did both!

I'll follow Spence's advice. He said it all the time...
thanks

[spy]

One last question, do I have to apply tape on the magnets before the winding? What kind of tape?
Or doing it like strat pu's? I think strat pu's don't have tape...

[David Schwab]

There's no reason not to apply tape. It will prevent shorts to the magnets and wont detract from the sound or anything. Better safe than sorry, especially if you are new to winding.

I use paper tape like they wrap around humbuckers, just wider.

The person who rewound those was making low impedance pickups. If you run them either through a preamp or transformer they will probably sound very good, but not like a stock Jazz bass. They will have more lows and highs. Or, they didn't know any better and bought some magnet wire from radio Shack!

Lastly all the Fender bass pickups I ever had were potted in lacquer. I'm not sure why they just did the bass pickups in lacquer.

[Spence]

Here's the specs I have for the best sounding Jazz bass pickups taken from a mighty collection of them:

Neck Pickup North up CW wound with black 42AWG PE to 7.25 K Ohms

Bridge Pickup South up CCW wound with black 42AWG PE to 7.75 K Ohms

Tape the poles with masking tape and lacquer the whole assembly. Make sure the lacquer is really cured before winding.

Hope this helps.

[spy]

Thanks for your help! You're great!

Nice tip to lacquer the whole assemply. Is this a common method with other pickups?
The sad is that I allready rewound one of them without using any lacquer! The bridge one... with 8500turns. Isn't this a '62 style?
It measures 7.47Ohms. I think it's great! And I taped the poles.
It's a little bit tricky with so thin wire.
I had one break... I was expecting to have more...
Here I have one question. What are you doing with brakes? Just solder it and it's ok? Or are you using any special method so the solder won't contact with the winding?

About potting, I'm planning to use wax. I already have the appropriate beeswax and parrafin. Isn't better with waxpotting? Or keep it for my strat pickups?
With the wire, I bought 3 strat style bobbins from StewMac.... My strat project is waiting for them!

[spy]

And the 2nd one (neck) is ready!
One break, too!
It measures 7.2K, not bad at all> Seems perfect!
The specs I have said 7.3K neck and 7.5K bridge.

I'm prepairing the "melting pot" for the waxpotting....

[Spence]

If you have a break of course you can solder it but as a general good tip I would suggest you coat the soldered joint in nail varnish. The wax potting will help with insulation too as well as stopping the microphonics.

[David King]

Whatever Spence says is generally a whole lot more credible than anything I can come up with. As a matter of fact, I've probably only studied copies of copies of Jazz pickups and never seen a real one in the naked state i.e. no windings.

[spy]

If you have a break of course you can solder it but as a general good tip I would suggest you coat the soldered joint in nail varnish. The wax potting will help with insulation too as well as stopping the microphonics.

Nice tip Spence! Thanks!

Ok I have done the windings! I didn't coat the joints with nail varnish. But, in the future, I can do the whole job again. I'm learning....
Both measure great and waxpotting ended with success!

But now I'm stacked with the wiring! Where should I solder the white wire and where the black one?
I mean at the pickup... Which one is going to the beginning of the winding and which one at the end?
Please, don't laugh!

[GlennW]

Black is the start of the coil (goes to ground), white is the end and goes to the pot (assuming you wound them in different directions).

[spy]

Thanks GlennW!
Yes I wound them in different directions...

When I'll put them on the Jazz Bass I'll inform you about the sound quality...
Hope they sound great!