Wiring a set of Nordstrand Big Singles

[largo]

I just got a new set of Big Singles for my bass, which has a J-Retro deluxe.

Now the old pickups (anyone want to buy a set of 19mm Big Singles) has 2 wires, black & white plus an extension to the black wire which is grounded to the pickup cavity using a little grub screw. Fair enough !

The new pickups however has 3 wires, black, white & grey where the grey wire is soldered to some copper tape on the bottom of the pickup, I presume pickup shielding. Can I twist the black & grey together and solder them to the appropriate connections on the J-Retro circuit to ground them. Each pickup has a different connector so not sure if it's common ground ? Or, should I ground the grey wire to the pickup cavity or maybe even do something else to help minimise buzz as much as possible.

All help gratefully appreciated. (Hope you all follow that)

S

P.S. Sorry I also posted this in the John East section as I hoped Mr East would help me out personally but thought the techies probably hover around this forum more.

[The Burpster]

Never heard of big singles, is the other wire a coil tap?

[largo]

I'd doubt it as these are single coil pickups. You should check them out, absolutely amazing for Jazz Bass tone if you like that sort of thing :0)

Got word back from Brian @ Best Bass Gear in the US and this is his reply ....

The additional ground wire is something new and meant for some of the
newer preamps out there. You are correct in your assumption that the
grey wire should be connected to the jack ground. The black wire should
go to the pickup ground on the East preamp.

In case anyone else wonders.

Stephen

[Hamster]

[quote name='largo' post='91284' date='Nov 20 2007, 09:41 AM']I'd doubt it as these are single coil pickups. You should check them out, absolutely amazing for Jazz Bass tone if you like that sort of thing :0)

Got word back from Brian @ Best Bass Gear in the US and this is his reply ....

The additional ground wire is something new and meant for some of the
newer preamps out there. You are correct in your assumption that the
grey wire should be connected to the jack ground. The black wire should
go to the pickup ground on the East preamp.

In case anyone else wonders.

Stephen[/quote]

Interesting. It [i]could[/i] lead to hum/buzz problems. They've obviously tried/tested this and found it to be ok.

Hamster

[The Burpster]

Not a coil tap then...

Hummn extra earth..... Wonder why they have done that....?

[largo]

Not got a clue, but intend to email Nordstrand to find out ...

[BigRedX]

Having read this thread I notice that Nordstrand's pickup web site still doesn't have the promised wiring diagrams after at least 6 months...

[largo]

Well, got an email back from Carey @ Nordstrand ...

First question was, did you not get the wee card that gets sent with all our sets of pickups ? Er, no as it would have saved me 3 days of searching.

So, this new "ground" wire on the pickups is an earth signal for the new preamps that have buffered(!) amp circuits.
Just like the Audere and John East preamps.

So, conclusion is, the grey wire is connected direct to the ground on the jack socket and the black (pickup) ground goes to the connector on the preamp circuit. Don't know why, or even what a buffered preamp is but that's what it's for.

And yes, would have been nice to have the wiring diagram on the Nordstrand website too !

S

[The Burpster]

Hummn buffer pre-amps eh?' thats quite clever....... not entirley convinced its neccasary, but I guess lots of folks said that about pre-amps when they first came out.....

Oh and explaination is here:-


[url="http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/amplifiers/buffer-amplifiers.htm"]http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/ampli...-amplifiers.htm[/url]

Hope its not too techie for you!

[NJW]

Stephen, are you gigging at any time soon? I'd love to come and hear those Big Singles in action!