Jazz Bass pups details

[David King]

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).

Mind you that Fender did it this way probably because they knew there was a chance that the start of the coil would short out against the magnets. That wouldn't be a problem if they made that the ground also. If the magnets were hot and the (grounded) string touched the tops of the magnets then the pickup would short out momentarily.

A lot of folks like to wire them up the opposite way so that the ground is connected to the outside of the coil. This supposedly lets the outer wraps behave like a shield. I'm not sure how effective it is. Perhaps others can comment?

[spy]

Hey guys, the pickups sound amazing!
Very warm and vintage sound! Like the bass!

The only problem is that the bridge pickup seems to have a lower gain than the neck.
Don't know why.... any thoughts?
Anything to do with demagnetized poles or sth like this?
It measures ok with a multimeter.... and yes it's high enough as the neck pup ;-)

[Spence]

It's because it's closer to the bridge where there's less string movement.

[David Schwab]

The only problem is that the bridge pickup seems to have a lower gain than the neck.

Like Spence said you get less string motion at the bridge. Most modern pickups have the bridge pickup wound hotter to compensate.

[spy]

hmmm....
we compared it with a modern Jazz bass and we saw that difference.
If I'd like to wind it hotter, how many turns to wind?
Both are at 8500 turns. I wanted vintage specs...

[David Schwab]

hmmm....
we compared it with a modern Jazz bass and we saw that difference.
If I'd like to wind it hotter, how many turns to wind?
Both are at 8500 turns. I wanted vintage specs...

Well a "modern" Jazz bass is just like the original, so the bridge pickup is still weak. The only thing about the bridge pickup is it's slightly wider, so you have a little more wire wound on it, but it's still the same number of turns.

If you want vintage specs then you have to live with the weaker bridge pickup because that's how the vintage Jazz basses are.

I don't make jazz pickups, but I'd do at least 9,000 on the bridge, and probably more. You may need to move to thinner wire at that point. And they probably won't totally hum cancel.

It's an old and limited design and in need of updating IMHO. This is why P/J basses never work well. The bridge Jazz pickup is too thin and weak sounding. I guess Leo's answer to that was the Music Man pickup!

[David King]

Well another option is to use longer or taller magnets in the bridge position.
Or you can just demagnetize the neck PU a bit for starters.

I just mount the bridge pickup closer to the strings since there's less string movement.

[spy]

I was searching in the forum for some other info I'm trying to find and I found this thread I started some months ago.
I forgot to say thanks for your help. The Jazz bass sounds perfect and it's one of the best Jazz basses of my friend. Emm, he has a few....

The pups ended with 9500 turns at the neck pup and 9700 at the bridge....

[David King]

Spy, thanks for starting a great thread. My Js are all in the 9500 turn region too.

[spy]

Thanks for the kind words David!

I was wondering a few days ago what happened if the pups are for a 5-string Jazz bass? Are the turns the same? Or is it better to wind less turns to keep the resistance at the same levels of a 4-string pup?

[David King]

I think number of turns is much more important than the DCR. Turns determines the tone and the output. DCR is just an easy way to measure relatives after the fact but has no real relevance.

[spy]

Hmmm, thanks David. So number of turns are the same for a 5 string Jazz bass pickup.

[David Schwab]

Hmmm, thanks David. So number of turns are the same for a 5 string Jazz bass pickup.

Yes. It will read a higher resistance because each turn is longer.