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Jazz/Stingray pickup


paul_5
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Anyone got any experience of putting a MM style pup in the bridge position of a Jazz bass? 

I’m toying with fitting one to my fretless Jazz but still want the option of it sounding like a Jazz when I need it to. 

Tge only contender so far is the Wilkinson WJM, but am prepared to explore other units. Obviously there’ll be some routing required, as it’s a bigger pickup...

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Guest Marcoelwray

Delano Hybrid has been made for this. Switching between std Jazz sound and punck modern growl sound.

In a fretless case, I would go for a soapbar… But I Don't know what you want to rout….

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On 06/12/2018 at 08:31, paul_5 said:

Anyone got any experience of putting a MM style pup in the bridge position of a Jazz bass? 

I’m toying with fitting one to my fretless Jazz but still want the option of it sounding like a Jazz when I need it to. 

Tge only contender so far is the Wilkinson WJM, but am prepared to explore other units. Obviously there’ll be some routing required, as it’s a bigger pickup...

 

I owned a couple of basses with a MM at the bridge and J neck, where the MM was coil-splittable and at the right place so that with the coil split you ended with the active coil at the Jazz position (Cort and Lakland). It worked well enough. How well, it will depend to some extent to the actual pickup you use, I guess. As you are going to route your bass, you have the chance to fit it at the right position, so it will work well if you add a switch to split the coils.

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What are you wanting to achieve by doing this?

If what you're wanting is hum-cancelling. Jess Loueiro  have a set of jazz pups with "spilt coils designed to keep the clarity and dynamics of a single coil but without the hum associated. Lead wires with 4 connectors that allow to use the coils in parallel or in series to get a thicker sound (P-bass® sound)."

http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=26&controller=product&id_lang=4

If you want a single one for the bridge, drop me a PM. I've got one in front of me now. It's brand new and never been fitted.

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13 minutes ago, paul_5 said:

I’m hoping to achieve a Stingray sound(ish) in addition to the lovely Jazz sound I already have from my fretless. 

 

To get close to the Stingray sound you *need* the pickup at the right spot. Preamp and all that is not really key. Position is. You can't get one of the coils at the exact right spot for the Jazz type of sound, although you can get very close. 

If you put the MM at the correct spot for a Stingray, the polepieces of the bottom  coil are *almost* where the polepieces of a Jazz bridge pickup would be, just slightly off by 5mm or less. The problem in your case is that you already have a rout for the J pickup, with the big ears... so in order to cover that up you'll have to shift the position further and you're not going to get the Stingray vibe (it's surprising what 1-1.5cm  up or down can do). You could use a frame to place the pickup exactly where you want it... Either way, try to get that bottom coil as far from the bridge as possible.

Whatever you do, be aware that it may not sound like your Jazz again, or get the Stingray sound... but if you don't need to nail your existing sound or the 'Ray, it will probably sound pretty good regardless. I always feel the bridge Jazz pickup is very nice, but a bit weak, and a humbucker in its place is nicer. For my taste. Alternatively, I've generally used a J-Retro preamp to bring the fat to the bridge pickup in Jazz basses. But no, you don't get a Stingray sound that way.

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I approached the problem from another direction on my bass build 

 

the problem you’ve got is the MM and J bridge pup need to be in different positions - and they overlap in such a way you can’t have both even with the fancy Delano pickup. 

The other problem is that a jazz - even an active one (normally) has both pups going through a passive volume or passive volumes and blend before the preamp. The stingray has the pickup going straight into the preamp and the volume is adjusting the output of the preamp. 

So you can have a stingray that you can add another pickup too - if you want you can have a single coil mode which sounds kinda like a jazz - that’s what my build was

or you can have a jazz that you can get a fatter more humbucker type bridge sound out of. Lakland and sandberg have good examples of these. but they will never sound like a ray.

My suggestion- have two basses. 

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Guest Marcoelwray
53 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Marco, what's your best price on these?

£125 posted. Always indicative as Delano's quote may vary (some discount vary I don't know why...)

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I built a bass using a Delano hybrid - it also did very well in a blind test at the last SE Bass (that was in the passive J mode).

The Delano Hybrid is great but a few things need to be considered (assuming being used with another J pickup - though could be a P):

1. It should be used with a matched J pickup in the bridge pickup

2. The wiring is designed to work with a preamp with an active/passive switch. In passive mode the standard wiring is configured to use the J part of the hybrid giving a J-J with a passive tone control. In active mode the hybrid is configured as an MM with active treble and bass controls (this can also be blended with the J pickup for more variation)

3. A specific switch and pot (supplied with the pickup are required). The pot is a dual type but has two different track values which are used for the active treble or passive tone. The switch is a 4PDT type...the wiring is a little more complicated than a normal active bass!

I really like the flexibility of the Hybrid pickup in my bass. The Delano pickups seem like nice quality units as you would expect for where they sit pricing wise. I've got another couple of pickups to use on another project next year.

I have also seen that Wilkinson pickup @paul_5 - will be interested to know what you think of it as it is less than half the cost of the Hybrid.

Cheers

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Guest Marcoelwray
18 hours ago, paul_5 said:

Ok, pickup’s arrived. 

Just one more thing... does anyone know where I can source a routing template for a MM pickup? I had one a couple of years ago and lost it when we moved house last year. 😖

personally my Template is Always a square, I make the holes by hand…. Router can't make nice defined edges between the screws plots and the square housing, IMHO.

What did you buy finally?

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1 hour ago, Marcoelwray said:

personally my Template is Always a square, I make the holes by hand…. Router can't make nice defined edges between the screws plots and the square housing, IMHO.

What did you buy finally?

This : drill the holes first then the rectangle 

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