Disconnecting J pickup as easy as...

[PMAC]

Hi,

I've got a PJ squire bass. I'd like to disconnect the Jazz pickup... not remove it or the pot, but just make it so the Jazz volume pot doesn't do anything. 

I don't know much about wiring, but I can follow a wiring diagram. Is it as easy as cutting the wires coming from the j pickup, or will that break the whole circuit causing nothing to work? I don't have any soldering knowledge and can't take it to a tech given the pandemic. 

Thanks,

Paul

[BassBunny]

I wouldn't cut both, just one will do. If you trace the wire from the pickup that is soldered to one of the 3 terminals on the pot and cut that one.

I think it's normally a white or red wire with the other wire, normally black, being soldered to the body of the pot.

I'd leave the other wire in case you want to reconnect it one day.

[PMAC]

Perfect, thanks BassBunny. I was worried that doing so would somehow affect that P pickup. 

[ikay]

If you want it to sound like a regular single pickup P then it would be best to take the J vol pot completely out of circuit. To do this you need to break the wiring as shown by the green markers in the diagram below. If you leave the J pot connected then the P pickup is still seeing the load of both vol pots which results in a little loss of high end and a slight drop in output compared with a regular P. It's equivalent to running a regular P with the vol backed off about 20%. Not dramatic but enough to be noticeable. Depends what you're trying to achieve by disconnecting the J pup.

[PMAC]

That's amazing, that's for that diagram! I'll give it a try. I'm trying to just remove the j pickup to leave the P as a typical P bass. 

[paul_5]

Long term I’d use a push/pull pot to take it out of the circuit when pulled up and in the circuit when pushed down - you get the same results but still have the choice without taking it apart again.