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Wiring a Telecaster like a Jazz Bass


TravvyBear

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Quote Originally Posted by RadioSilence

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I always wanted to wire my jazz bass so it has a master volume, a knob to pan between the pickups (with a notch in the centre of the sweep) and a regular tone. Never got round to it though wink.gif

 

I've seen that schematic floating round the net
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Quote Originally Posted by Phil O'Keefe View Post
There's no reason why you can't wire a Tele like a J-Bass. Just use Tele pups, and follow a modern passive J-Bass wiring diagram. Ditch the Tele switch, add a second 250k volume pot, with each pickup routed to a separate volume. Add a master tone, and you're all set.
Sounds exactly like what I want.


Now go listen to those mixes wink.gif
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Well keep in mind you will actually be cutting the value of whatever pot you have in there for volume in half effectively if you add a second one in parallel. You might want to move to 300k or 500k

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Quote Originally Posted by V

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Well keep in mind you will actually be cutting the value of whatever pot you have in there for volume in half effectively if you add a second one in parallel. You might want to move to 300k or 500k

 

Oh, thats interesting. I was gonna do 500k on the humbucker and 250k on the bridge pup, maybe I should bump up those values? I didn't realize I would be cutting them in half.
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Yeah think of it this way. One path with resistance of 500k to ground. 2 paths with the same resistance to ground. The resistance is cut in half because there are now two paths. Same as if you had two pipes of the same diameter vs 1 and water was flowing through them.

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I don't like jazz bass wiring much even for a jazz bass. Remember that they will buzz and hiss a bit with the volume all the way down, kind of like as if you pulled the plug since it's only got the hot leads of the pots across the cable instead of a short, which could be noticable with gain. Also the single tone control is wired across the mix output rather than directly to the pickups or switch before the volume so it acts different too. Low volume settings also load down the high end of the pickup(s). Big compromise for simplicity.

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Quote Originally Posted by Roy Brooks View Post
190318_1839485396246_4668001_n.jpg
Nice Gretsch Roy!
You still got that master vol on there tho.
The one on my 5120 I have trouble getting along with.
Prob just needs to be upgraded or I understand there's some kind of treble bleed mod you can do.
But still it seems like overkill to me.
I'd just be more comfortable with one less knob.
Maybe I've just spent too many yrs playing Gibson style layouts.
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It's the same wiring as a Godin Radiator. Seems funky right up until you need a quick tone change mid-song or use a different tone each song, at which point it becomes irritating. Works OK for bass players because most just pick one tone and stick with it for an entire set. When I started playing bass I asked the question on a bass forum about putting a switch in for pickup selection and got asked "why would anyone do that?".

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It's the same wiring as a Godin Radiator. Seems funky right up until you need a quick tone change mid-song or use a different tone each song, at which point it becomes irritating. Works OK for bass players because most just pick one tone and stick with it for an entire set. When I started playing bass I asked the question on a bass forum about putting a switch in for pickup selection and got asked "why would anyone do that?".

 

 

Another VERY good point. I wouldn't want to run without a pickup switch - at least not on the guitar. On bass, it's less of an issue for exactly the reason you mentioned. While I tend to switch tones a bit more often than "once per set", it's easy enough to dial up what I need from song to song. Mid-song changes are less common, but my main bass has active electronics and a bit more flexible controls than what a J or P bass has, so even if I want to change something as I'm playing, it isn't hard to do. Still, a switch would make it easier to go from one sound to another quickly, and I'm surprised more basses don't feature them. OTOH, many have pickup blend knobs, which can serve a similar purpose, but with added mix flexibility.

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