9,5 K on a J Bass bridge PU Question

[Telemachos]

I accidentally wound this early 70ies Jazz Bass PU up to 9,5 K w. AWG 42 HFV. It's for a buddy of mine who would love to have some extra power but at the same time would hate to loose trebles. I was initially shooting for 7,8-8 K DC resistance because my buddy would rather like to keep the stock specs. that compromising too much on the treble. I wonder what it would sound like at 9,5 K, which is what I have now. I'm not a bass player, neither do I have the bass guitar at my home, so I remain curious what you bass guys thinx.

[David King]

The Heavy Formvar should help retain some of the treble. I'm surprised you were able to fit that much wire on but I'm willing to bet it sounds fine with new string and perhaps a little dark with old strings and the volume not all the way up. I think the biggest problem with it will be insufficient noise cancellation when combined with the existing pickup.

[Telemachos]

The Heavy Formvar should help retain some of the treble. I'm surprised you were able to fit that much wire on but I'm willing to bet it sounds fine with new string and perhaps a little dark with old strings and the volume not all the way up. I think the biggest problem with it will be insufficient noise cancellation when combined with the existing pickup.

Hmmmm, thanx for your input. I didn't think about the humbucking effect with the blend. Actually I was aked to rewind both PUs, but I figured that the neck PU reads 7,2 K which I believe is a stock DC resistance. I just hate to rewind an original vintage PU that still works. I'm out to a local Jam where my buddy hangs around. I'll discuss it with him and see what's up. We might give the 9,5 K bridge PU a whirl for a day or two and let him decide what to shoot for.
If he wants the stock config., then I might go ahead rewinding the bridge PU at 7,6 or so. May I ask to how many turns this translates. As I said I lost control on the wind. Maybe I should just unwind to fit.

As for turns or DC, what do you guys consider a nice vintage sounding J PU w. just a tad of modern bang?

[Telemachos]

The Heavy Formvar should help retain some of the treble.

I assume that you're saying that PE at the same number of turns sounds darkier or w. less trebles. Right?

I'm surprised you were able to fit that much wire on

Yeah, makes me think. It's like the car you watch being driven away by a customer and which makes you think about the brake caliper that you might have installed the r9ight way or maybe not. Things that you always use to do it right, but for some odd reason springs in mind. I might have confused the 42 spool w. the 43 spool. Spooky thing, maybe I should start it all over again. THX for your thoughts

[David Schwab]

Wow, I don't know how you got to 9.5k with heavy formvar. I find it hard to get to 9k with regular build wire. Are you sure you didn't stretch the wire?

They didn't use HF on Jazz pickups though, but it doesn't sound bad. I've tried it. That's wound more like an early 60s Jazz. The 70s pickups didn't have that much wire, and are much brighter.

[Telemachos]

Dunno, maybe I confused the spools. Those hay fever pills make me dozy

I'm also puzzled about what year the PU are made and about the wire on the neck PU which appears to be intact and original. I can read the stamp on one PU which is 8331. So obviously HFW is used on the working PU. It might have been rewound at some time but the solder points look orig. w. all the patina. On this one the color of the HFV wire and the way the layers stretch reminds me at my 63 strat PUs. Unlike the bridge PU that wasn't potted at all this one has been potted.
What do you think? Did you say JB PU might have been wound w. HFV in the early sixties only or did you relate on the number of turns?

Here's both of them. Ypou can easily tell one apart from the other by the darker color wire on the neck PU which I suspect to be original. But if they never used HFV, then it must have been rewound some time long ago.

The bent bobbin was already there before I got this work done. It is stiff like a rock and not reverseable. I decided to wind it as is. The neck PU does not have a bent bobbin.

[Telemachos]

O.K., I'm done w. the JB PU. With the right HFV 42 size it turned up to 7,4 K. With the neck PU at 7,2 I think that should be it. I wonder how people could get 8 or 8,5 K w. awg 42 wire. At 7,4 the bobbin was completely packed.

[David King]

Looks good, I hope it sounds good too, I bet the 43 would have sounded fine as well.

[soundmasterg]

So were the 60's Jazz bass pickups wound with PE or HFV? I always thought it was PE myself....

Greg

[Telemachos]

From what I've seen on pics and from the hear say I sure would have gone w. PE. But I don't have PE in 42 size and since the neck PU is wound w. HF, winding w. the same type of wire it didn't cause me no further headache.

[Telemachos]

Looks good, I hope it sounds good too, I bet the 43 would have sounded fine as well.

Yes it would have been interesting to hear if there was more mid range torque w. 43 wire, but then it would be hard to match it w. the neck PU as far as hum cancelling goes.

[David Schwab]

So were the 60's Jazz bass pickups wound with PE or HFV? I always thought it was PE myself....

Greg

They never used heavy formvar on bass pickups.

Here's a '76 Jazz pickup with PE:



However, they seemed to have used regular build formvar in the 60s

Here's a '65 set:

[big_teee]

They never used heavy formvar on bass pickups.

Here's a '76 Jazz pickup with PE:

That looks just like the 74 model I rewound a few years back.
It had goo all over the back.
Because the foam rubber pads had deteriorated, and was a mess.
I got it everywhere before I got it all off.

[David Schwab]

That looks just like the 74 model I rewound a few years back.
It had goo all over the back.
Because the foam rubber pads had deteriorated, and was a mess.
I got it everywhere before I got it all off.

Yeah, I have seen that happen too. I have a flight case for a keyboard, and all the foam has deteriorated. It's a real mess. I need to scrape it all out and replace it.

[Stratz]

David, is the '65 single build formvar set wax or lacquer potted?