tele bass pick up..

[mortlock]

ive been wanting to put a big chrome humbucker im my fender jazz bass for awhile now. first i was thinking an old gibson pup and i was also looking at the dark star pups..then in a moment of ebay drunkeness i pulled the trigger on this..a vintage 72 fender tele bass pup..im stoked to have it but now how the fuck do i get this installed..obviously im not doing it myself so i guess i need to find someone with a good reputation..the other thing is location..do i put it right by the neck like it would be on the tele or do i put it in the j-pup neck position..im leaning towards that..

[VOLVO)))]

Pictures, please. What sound are you going for? That will determine what position you put it in. I doubt it'll fit right in place of the J-pickups, so you might have to get another pick guard and slot it to fit the telebass pickup. In the neck, it'll give you a scooped out sort-of-bass-heavy signal, with some twang, kind of like the neck pickup in a tele guitar. In the bridge, you'll get somewhat of a thin jangly sound. It won't be hard to swap out yourself. I'm sure it only has two leads, hot and ground. Most likely red/black. When you decide where you want it, trace the lead from the JB pickup to the pot, desolder red, replace with red. Desolder black, replace with black. Test with a metal object for sound, and the pickup is installed. It's no biggie. Post pictures of the controls/control cavity and I'll hi-lite what you need to do. No reason to pay people to do this shit for you, I'm gonna ask Sleestak if he'll gimme mod status in here, so we can sticky a guitar-tech thread/pedal thread/whatever tutorials end up getting done.

[mortlock]

i could solder up the wires and screw it in and shit..how the hell do i cut out the body to fit the humbucker..

here it is..

[VOLVO)))]

DERP, it's a humbucker. Welp, that complicates things if you aren't handy with a router or a dremel tool.



My mistake, I thought it was this pickup. ^^^^

Ok, well, there's a couple of options. The JB routes are fit to the pickups, originally. If you put it in the neck, you can do a sloppy job, and the pickguard will cover your mistakes if you make any. I wouldn't move the placement of it, from the original neck pickup will put the humbucker in pretty thick territory, you might enjoy that. Realistically this can either take four minutes, or several hours. Four minutes, a router. Dremel makes small handheld routers that are pretty harmless. You don't want to hog out too much wood, just enough to fit the pickup. Cut the pickguard to fit it. The reason you shouldn't move the pickup cavity any futher up is because the hole for the pickup lead is already drilled to reach the cavity with the controls. You'd have to drill another one if you move the pickup cavity. How long is the lead on the pickup? You CAN extend it, If it's got a braided ground, you just do a nice solder joint, with a decent gauge black wire, and splice the hot with a red, and give it a nice joint, then electrical tape it all up. Putting it in the bridge requires you to be a little more hand-steady with the router, since there isn't anything to cover your mistakes. What did you pay for the pickup? I wonder if they make stacked humbuckers for bass... I know they make bassbuckers that you could probably find a cover for... hmmm.. options, options...

[mortlock]

im going to put it in place of the neck pup..im going to use the bridge side of the existing cut out as the starting point and work my way to the neck unitl the humbucker fits..i havent had a pick guard on my bass in years..it is what it is..

[VOLVO)))]

im going to put it in place of the neck pup..im going to use the bridge side of the existing cut out as the starting point and work my way to the neck unitl the humbucker fits..i havent had a pick guard on my bass in years..it is what it is..

Should look like this when it's finished. 

That's a good plan of attack, it isn't THAT much bigger. Just be careful, take your time, and have fun. Don't cut any fingers. Take lots of pictures, and post them in this thread when you're done.

[Hemisaurus]

Personal preference: there's nothing beats the sound of a humbucker right at the end of the fingerboard.

If you have the wood skills, that would be where I'd put it. Cutting the pickup hole would be easy, but I don't know how you would get the pickup wire routed. If yiu had a side mounted jack, you would use a long drill bit going in through the jack hole, without it I don't know.

If I was any kind of carpenter, all my basses would have a humbucker at the end of the neck, I love the tone of the 3 basses I have like that, two are just big single coils, but they sound great.

Figured I should add, pickups are often placed at specific nodes on the scale of the instrument. A humbucker at the end of a 21 fret neck is usually at the 24th fret position, ie: 2 octaves up. Other neck pickups, especially on a 24 fret instrument are placed midway between the 24th fret and the bridge, ie 36th fret or 3 octaves up. The types of harmonics and overtones you'll get at the 24th fret position are very different from those you'll get at the 36th fret, being an odd number (3 octaves vs. 2 octaves).

There's no right or wrong position, and putting a humbucker that's normally at the 24th fret position at the 36th fret position instead isn't bad, it won't sound the same as a 24th pos humbucker though.

[mortlock]

just finally got this in the mail..its way heavier and bigger than i thought it would be..i have seen them on a bass but it seems bigger when its not..

next step is actually getting it in there..

[mortlock]

here it is..i couldnt be happier. it sounds amazing..time to rip some heads off..

[VOLVO)))]

Rad!

[mortlock]

i pretty much just created my fender 'signature series' bass..haha.

[zachoff]

Oh, wow!  I was expecting the skinny single-coil looking pickup like on the 51s.  That thing looks sick!  Wonder how one of those would swap out in an EB?  Hmmm.

[Jake]

I bet that sounds pretty boss. Are you gonna customize a pickguard for it?

[mortlock]

I bet that sounds pretty boss. Are you gonna customize a pickguard for it?

nah, i ditched the pick guard long ago..i dont care about the cosmetics. i filled all the screw holes with melted candle wax awhile back..