Pickups and idiots - do they mix?

[Vinny]

I rather like the way they do the pickups in the Modern Player basses, and I've been having thoughts of doing the same sort of thing by basically grinding the lugs off 2 Js and nailing them together. It's this sort of hare-brained scheme that keeps me off the streets where, if I haven't taken all my pills, I might shout at traffic or mistake aircraft for dragons.

I digress.

The thing is, does it make a difference to the sound, (good/bad/any whatsoever) which way the magnets are pointed? i.e. if they're pulling the pickups together or pushing them away? Pulling together would be much easier to work with, obviously.

Would this effect things if they had serial/parallel options as well? (magic magnet waves all flying about in a backways directionly fashion?)

Or am I just over analysing, 'cos it's only a bloody bass?

Yay, pudding!!!!!

[Si600]

You could look at the bridge pickup from an early American Deluxe P-Bass, they are a sort of back to back Jazz pickup. Not the current model, that's a normal Jazz pup

[luckydog]

If the combined PU is going to buck hum, the two PU magnets need opposite sense in the pole pieces below the strings. Not sure if this answers your question, but I think that means the two PUs would need to attract when placed side by side... I think !

LD

PS: There's bound to be interaction between closely spaced magnets which affects PU sound. But that is completely seperate from the effects of coil sense, and par/series. To buck hum the 2 PU coil windings need opposite sense AND THEN to have correct signal output polarity the 2 magnet senses needs to be opposite. Hope this isn't total gibber!

Edited April 15, 2016 by luckydog

[CamdenRob]

In my experience an idiot with pickups is better than an idiot with a microphone...

[Vinny]

[quote name='Si600' timestamp='1460727862' post='3028244']
You could look at the bridge pickup from an early American Deluxe P-Bass, they are a sort of back to back Jazz pickup. Not the current model, that's a normal Jazz pup
[/quote]

Like the Blacktop ones is what I'm thinking, if that's the same thing.

[Si600]

It looks the same, I've no idea if it is the same under the cover.

[6v6]

I think you may need one of the pickups to be reverse wound and reverse magnetic polarity if you want them to act like a humbucker when wired in series:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/pickup-polarity-and-phase-made-simple

[Twincam]

Indeed with the reverse wiring but ain't they actually reversed anyhow on jazz pickups so when you have them both fully on they have a small amount of hum reduction???

[luckydog]

Yes, of the small number I have had the pleasure of, Fender Jazz's pickups are in mirror pairs IME, and do a good job of bucking hum when both vols are set full on, or at close settings

I've no idea how that changed over the decades, and whether all Fender Jazz basses are intended to be that way?

The PUs don't need to be close together to buck hum, but the vol settings do need to match, and so that restricts tonal variations. Full on for both is a common enough setting for J basses. The PUs need to be mirror pairs though.

LD

[JapanAxe]

You may have an issue with the size of the Jazz pickups being different. Some are (were) different to allow for wider string spacing near the bridge, others are the same to save on tooling costs. Someone will be along in a minute with more accurate info on this...

[luckydog]

Thinking about it, presumably split coil P bass PUs are made with 2 mirrored PUs ie reversed coil sense and mag sense?

[TrevorR]

Not a bass but I won this guitar in a charity raffle many moons ago. It was a prototype Gordon Smith that trialled a number of options they were developing. The humbucker is actually just two singles wired side by side (no gluing or filing involved) and wired to work like a humbucker but also with the option to take out one coil for a true single coil sound. Sounds amazing in both modes and the made it a standard option for all their guitars.



Worth a shot for bass...

[Chienmortbb]

Some jazz pickup pairs are RWRP reverse wind reverse pole. They are often the same size, not allowing for the small difference in string spacing between neck and bridge.

Look at
http://ironstone-guitar-pickups.co.uk/product/jazz-bass-guitar-pickups-alnico-v/ for example.

[Ghost_Bass]

I recieved a bass in a trade, it was a MIM Classic 50's P and it had a couple of J pickups mounted on the bridge position exactly the way you're describing. Appart from one being bigger than the other it was a very botched work. I removed them and replaced them with a Am Deluxe Humbucker (redoing the pickup cavity to something that's decent) and rewired the whole thing for a stacked Vol/tone for each pickup. The improvement was more than i can say.
On the plus side i discovered that the J pickups glued together were from a USA Fender Jazz so i bought new covers and sold them to fund the cost of the AM Dlx pickup. Happy ending.

[Vinny]

This started because I have a bolt-on Epi T-Bird here, and didn't like the sound of it at all. Not one bit. Just the most 'bleurgh' sounding thing. (apologies for being so technical) so I did the thing with the 2 j-pickups, a roll of insulating tape and a push-pull volly pot just to see what would happen.

Mercifully explosion-free, the experiment was a resounding adequate. I really liked the sound of this in single-coil, proper old-school, fat and aggressive, just like me.

In humbucker it sounded pretty much like any other 'bucker out there.

This was in the neck position. I thought if I liked it enough, I'll look for ways of acquiring more pickups for the bridge, and of doing it without tape! In the meantime I decided to put the bass back together while I wait for that to happen, but in doing so I seem to have repaired whatever the hell was wrong with it in the first place, sounds good now, so the plot with the pickups goes in the 'hare-brained schemes pending' file.

Never did get round to trying them the opposite way round after all, that being the whole point, like!

Edited April 22, 2016 by Vinny

[the boy]

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1460732287' post='3028306']
In my experience an idiot with pickups is better than an idiot with a microphone...
[/quote]
Microphones and idiots are never far from each other.