squire5 Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 Problem:I swapped the pups on my Squier P5 Special for Seymour SJB5s.The originals were crap 4-pole jobs which were useless for the job.Next I picked up a LEGEND J bass off the Bay for £25,(neck was u/s).Put new neck on, and now find that the pups on the Jazz are at least twice as powerful as the Seymours, in a 1to1 comparison.I would have expected the SDs to be the better of the two,if not just in tone,but in power(ie volume) as well.Maybe I'm wrong,but I welcome any comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Burpster Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 [quote name='squire5' post='192398' date='May 5 2008, 07:19 PM']Problem:I swapped the pups on my Squier P5 Special for Seymour SJB5s.The originals were crap 4-pole jobs which were useless for the job.Next I picked up a LEGEND J bass off the Bay for £25,(neck was u/s).Put new neck on, and now find that the pups on the Jazz are at least twice as powerful as the Seymours, in a 1to1 comparison.I would have expected the SDs to be the better of the two,if not just in tone,but in power(ie volume) as well.Maybe I'm wrong,but I welcome any comments. [/quote] Define powerful...? SDs are in my experience pretty hot pups. Did you rewire the rest of Squier? Change pots or other components? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squire5 Posted May 5, 2008 Author Share Posted May 5, 2008 When I say powerful I guess I mean louder.I have changed pots a couple times,but mainly just because I had to,but to my recollection the SDs never were that great.I replaced the original pups mainly because the G+B strings were weaker than the rest,but after installing the SDs the problem was pretty much the same.I copied a wiring diagram I found on the internet.Is there a meter test I could do to check them I wonder?Also,could you define Hot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOD2 Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 You can measure the DC resistance of a pickup. You need to temporaily disconnect the pickup from the rest of the electrics in the bass then put a DC meter across the hot and ground wire from the pickup. According to the Seymour Duncan website the DC resistance of the SJB-5 should be Neck SJB-5 = 11.37 kOhms Bridge SJB-5 = 20.11 kOhms As a general guide the higher the DC resistance the higher the output, but this is only a very general guide - there's more to a pickup than DC resistance. More info here [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/basslines/cutting-edge-1/sjb5_stack_for/"]Seymour Duncan SJB-5[/url] It's described as a "moderate output" pickup. Also, check the wiring diagram at the above link as the SJB-5 is a four conductor pickup so there is the possibility of wiring it wrongly or of wiring the two pups out of phase with each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squire5 Posted May 6, 2008 Author Share Posted May 6, 2008 Thanx my friend,that link provided a wealth of info.I can see now that although they're quieter,the tone is there,while in the Jazz pups,the volume is there,but the tone is nondescript.They're wired up OK so I guess I'll just have to tweak the volume control a bit.Many thanx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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