budget bassist Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) Hi I'm finally trying to finish off my Musicman SUB project, after a long delay, and I have some questions. So I'm wiring up this bass with a Seymour Duncan Basslines pickup and a Status pickup. I'm trying to find out exactly what wire does what on the Basslines, but the only info Seymour Duncan seem to supply is how to wire up the pickup to existing circuits/preamps (such as retrofitting to a MM Stingray). Can anyone yield a bit more info on this? The other issue I'm having is that I'm wiring it into a bongo pre, I think I've figured it out, there's inputs for each pickup on the PCB under NPU and BPU, obvious enough. But the points labeled on the PCB are just B and W, I'm guessing for black and white, relating to the black and white wires connected to each coil on a standard MM pickup, so how does this relate to what I have on these pickups? I'm not entirely sure how this Basslines one is wired as there are five wires coming from it, one of which I'm assuming is ground. Then there's the status pickup, which is just a core and a ground wire... Do I just attach the core wire to either of the B or W inputs and the ground to ground? I think I have the rest of the circuit sussed though, there's BRBR on one part, I'm guessing for the two 9v batteries, and then TRS, which is obvious enough, and what I'm guessing is a ground wire next to them which appears to be connected to the sleeve, which is ground anyway right? I'm guessing this ground wire needs earthing to the bridge or something?, but I'm not too sure. If anyone could confirm, that would be useful. I realise the guys on the EBMM forum probably know more than you guys, but I'll likely get eaten alive on there! Cheers Edited July 25, 2012 by budget bassist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Ok, I took some photos, sorry about the quality, i just took them on my phone here you can see the bit of PCB with the pickup inputs, on the left is BPU with B and W inputs, and on the right is NPU with B and W inputs [IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/metallica_rock/IMG_0209.jpg[/IMG] And here you cans see the pickup wire for the SD Basslines pickup, 5 wires - red, black, green, white and bare (it needs stripping back a bit, i know that) [IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/metallica_rock/IMG_0210.jpg[/IMG] There's also the Status pickup with a single core and ground, but I didn't take a photo of that. The rest of the pre seems fairly self explanatory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Think I've got this twigged now, after having the pickup apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Heeley Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 You going with standard SD MM; red + black soldered together as the live, and white + green + bare as the earth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted July 26, 2012 Author Share Posted July 26, 2012 That's what I was thinking of doing, is the black wire on a MM pickup generally the ground? This may have been what was confusing me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Heeley Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 You may be right, I tried to find some info on the net re MM pickup wire colour coding but found none, these 2 sites detail lots of other manufacturers: [url="http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiring_resources_guitar_wiring_diagrams.humbucker_wiring_color_codes/"]http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiring_resources_guitar_wiring_diagrams.humbucker_wiring_color_codes/[/url] [url="http://www.skguitar.com/SKGS/sk/Pickup%20color%20codes.htm"]http://www.skguitar.com/SKGS/sk/Pickup%20color%20codes.htm[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted July 26, 2012 Author Share Posted July 26, 2012 (edited) Judging by these photos, that sounds about right to me, looks like the white wire is the ground. EDIT: after some research, white is hot! i'll go solder that up in a bit. Edited July 26, 2012 by budget bassist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) Ok, so after some trial and error, it doesn't work... I've used the SD pickup as al mentioned above, red+black for hot and the rest as cold. I've tried soldering it and the status pickup both ways around on the B and W inputs on the bongo pre, and when plugged into an amp, the preamp seems to work to a degree... there is buzz, and the buzz becomes louder when i touch the strings, which means the preamp is active, and the grounding works, but there is absolutely zero output from the pickups. This seems a little funny to me, as there's nothing wrong with the pickups, and the wiring isn't exactly complicated... it seems to be that there is an issue with the preamp itself? Anyway, I'm thinking of just buying another preamp or going passive. Can anyone recommend a decent pre with a dual pickup input, with a vol, blend and 2-band EQ layout that doesn't cost the earth? Looking at the John East musicman knockoff ones, but they only seem to cater for the single pickup stingray owners... This is really winding me up, as this bass should sound/play great when it works, but I can't get it to work! Edited September 8, 2012 by budget bassist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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