Rewiring a Fender Player Mustang bass?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

My trigger finger has bypassed the rational part of my brain again, and I have a Sienna Sunburst player mustang bass incoming. This comes with PJ pickups with a master volume and master tone on the control plate, and a three way switch on the pickguard by the lower horn. In addition to fitting a Fender hi-mass bridge I am planning to improve the wiring. Initially the idea was to simply swap the switch for a blend pot, but it has struck me that I could just wire it as a Jazz bass with a volume for each pickup on the control plate, and a master tone on the pickguard. Has anyone already done this? Any other ideas?

[itu]

As you already answered yourself: this has been done quite many times on any J.

 

If you want to have blend, use Bourns MN 250k (or 500k) pot.

 

Add a switch pot to the system, and you can put the pickups in series without drilling any extra holes.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I liked the simplicity of the one volume, one tone, one switch, but didn't like the components — particularly the switch which would often take a few goes to get it to pass a signal when switching either way.

 

Also I learned that these have 'fifties wiring' which is blumming annoying as unless the volume is at 100%, rolling down the tone also reduces the volume dramatically — which is stupid.

 

To fix this I built a new loom with a switchcraft switch, pure tone socket, orange drop capacitor and CTS pots and I shielded the bass with copper antislug tape. This is covered in this thread ->

I will update this thread with the components and wiring diagram I used — in case it might be useful to anyone who comes across it from googling in the future. (Hello future peeps, I hope Kamala won!)

[rwillett]

This sounds exactly like my Fender Mustang. Crap switch, I have the same switchcraft replacement waiting to be installed. I'll have a look at your thread and may well do just the same. In 50 years time, if you;re reading this, I'm sorry I through the original switch away as these are now unbelievably valuable, even more than a 52 Telecaster and if you only had the original switch, you could have brought France with the proceeds of selling the bass.

 

Also is Trump still in prison and being kept alive for the entertainment of the masses?

 

Thanks

Rob

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Here are the components I used to rewire my Sienna Sunburst Fender Mustang Player PJ Bass

 

 

Here is a wiring diagram to illustrate how I wired it up.

 

 

 

Edited October 22 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[ped]

I wired mine balance and tone, as I never use a volume control on a bass. 

[rwillett]

33 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Here are the components I used to rewire my Sienna Sunburst Fender Player PJ Bass

 

 

Here is a wiring diagram to illustrate how I wired it up.

 

 

 

Got all of that apart from the capacitor. In some respects Its easier to replace the lot than just the switch

 

Thanks

 

Rob

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I figured that as the components needed to be connected together in a different configuration, I would need to take it all apart and rebuild it from scratch on a card template, and if I was doing that I might as well upgrade the components. The original Korean pots and the output socket might be perfectly fine, but I feel more confident the new ones will last.

 

Here is how it looked after shielding the cavities with copper anti-slug tape before working on the loom. I shielded the P-pickup route, but didn't touch the route for the J pickup. It seems okay, but if I do notice it picking up noise when the J is switched in, that'll be an easy job for another day.

 

Edited October 21 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[MoonBassAlpha]

I made a thread about the wiring on these ages ago. Not sure about 50s wiring but it was plain wrong and useless imo. A couple of wires changed over and works properly. I  agree the switch is iffy, but I haven't even checked it out, most unlike  me!

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

When fitting the switchcraft switch after applying the copper tape, there was a possibility that one of the teminals of the switch could short out on the copper. To prevent this, I used a section cut from a plastic water bottle placed against the area as an insulator.