I would like to get some real basic info on bass humbuckers.

[Kindly Killer]

I have owned many sets of contemporary soapbar style bass humbuckers and I can make a traditional Jazz and P type for myself already. Right now I want to make my first set of humbuckers, using a regular jazz pickup as one side, and on the other side is the style of bobbin I got from Mojo that has a ceramic mag in the middle of the bobbin.

My fantasy is that the jazz pickup would sound like itself - easy enough to manage - but the humbucker would be closer to a Peavey VFL pickups (the kind in a Cirrus) or EMG 45CS (similar but drier sounding).

I guess what I want is any kind of parameters for the ceramic-in-the-middle coil to shoot for as a starting point. Or if there are glaring problems with my idea for construction please tell me.

BTW this is a 5 string and my Jazz recipe is 8k to 8500 turns of AWG42 single - 150 TPL for neck and 100TPL for bridge.

[David Schwab]

It should be clear to see that if you wind both coils with 8,000 of wire, it will probably sound like mud with them in series. You can can wire them up in parallel when using it as a humbucker.

[Kindly Killer]

How about this for a recipe: 4500 turns of AWG43 on each coil (Got that from this video LOL: EMG Inc. Factory Tour Pt. 2 - YouTube )

then on the Jazz type bobbin I wind up to 8000 with AWG42 Heavy (to compensate for small wire on the inside)

so with a switch - 4 pole i guess - it will ground the series link and switch from the inner tap to the outer tap

?

I guess my overall problem is that with every other kind of pickup I've done, I had some starting reference point - e.g. P Bass gets 10k turns per coil according to Lollar's book - And I have no idea where to start with a contemporary bass humbucker

[David Schwab]

That sounds like a good starting point.

[Kindly Killer]

K thanks that's what I needed. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'll probably give it a try Sunday AM, which is the next moment I have free LOL.

[Kindly Killer]

Said I would report results. Well, I solved all my problems - I got rid of the bass LOL.

[Kindly Killer]

FWIW I came up with a solution to my problem. The bass never sold on eBay so I figured it was free now - I could go crazy on it. I installed a Hipshot A type I had lying around and it sounded more Marcus Miller-y acoustically, so I thought, hmm... I did a lot of experimentation and ended up jamming my favorite jazz pickups diagonally into soapbar covers (at an angle like Warwicks). BTW I have to use soapboars on this bass because I use a ramp. Instead of doing like most luthiers and making it all about the preamp, with a half-assed passive implementation, I made it a great sounding Jazz where you can also kick in a simple, Sadowsky-style preamp.

I used a four-way rotary switch to get bridge, mid, neck, both in series. BTW two Jazz in series with the tone down is a reasonable impression of a Precision - you don't notice that it's not a P unless you shine the spotlight on it in a mix. There is a master volume after a tone knob, both 250k. The tone knob uses a Fender S-1 switch, which I first used for this project, and I strongly recommend this for all interface switching. It has FOUR POLES and the interface is much easier/more pleasant to use than push/pull. Push/pull seems really ghetto now - there is no going back for me. The catch with the S-1 hardware is there are only 3 knob styles and limited colors: chrome barrel, jazz bass, and stratocaster - that's it.

When you click the button, the preamp is cut in between the tone knob and volume, so the volume is still on the output, but the tone is still before the preamp. BTW the S-1 switches are normal CTS construction, so it's easy to get it open and work on the wafer. I thought I would want to make it no-load when I drew up the schemo, but the pickups get plenty bright without that mod, so I've kinda forgotten about that.

Anyway, I took this bass that was effectively dead - I was ready to give to the first offer on eBay, but nobody wanted it - and now I like it better than my schmancy Cirrus. To me this was the logical, obvious way to wire it, but it is not how it is traditionally done. I wanted to share what I did because it's hard to imagine anyone not preferring this over the way most modern basses are wired. I have a schemo if anyone is interested, but it's messy - it's an original with a revision on a second page...

Block diagram is basically Pickups > selector switch > passive tone control > BYPASS Preamp BYPASS > Volume

It has a typical 5-knob layout and I used different color knobs for the preamp so it looks/feels separate. The project I'm working on now uses a Beatle bass for every track, but the next thing in my inbox will use this bass and I can't wait. I really love this setup. Try it!