Bass humbuckers

[cementwave]

Next semester I am taking woods and I am planning on making a bass body. Its going to be more or less a p bass made of walnut with a strip of (hopefully figured) maple down the middle. I've decided I want to route it for humbuckers and thought of maybe using the kind on the american deluxe p bass. But they dont just sell those seprately so I came here.

My next thought is to get to SD music man pup. Music man usually uses active electronics and there is only one. Here is my question. Would I be able to use two of them with passive electronics? and also use a gibson 2tone 2 volume with selector control setup?

[jeremy]

i think a passive two mm style bass would be very cool. probably with a series/split/parallel switch for each pup. i think independant volumes is key to getting good variety unless you use a blend pot. ive built a few basses with the alnico sd mm pup and always loved the tone with the preamp or without. mm has built a few two bucker basses, the modern bongo and the old saber come to mind.

i would space the two pups so when split youd get the two active coils in jazz bass spacing and humcancelling would be nice too

[cementwave]

Alright, sounds good. But, I'm not quite sure what series and parallel mean. And I'm not sure if I would want to split them necessarily. I was just thinking have a 3 way switch with down bridge, middle both, and up neck. So would that work?

[John Wymore]

Your way would work fine and could be wired either in series or parallel. It's just that the switch to give both the series & parallel wiring gives you more tonal options. The wiring for all this might get interesting in the two pickup application though!! Series means the two pickup coils are basically hooked together end to end, parallel means they are bridged together in such a way that the coil resistance is not additive. (probably a bad description, a picture would make it more clear)

BTW, if you like the look of the Fender Deluxe pickups have a look at Norstrand pickups. The make a dual coil pickup that is very similar to the Fender Deluxe but sounds better. It is passive and can be used with or without a preamp.

[cementwave]

I looked at Nordstrand, but now I like the idea of the MM pickups. I think I'll stick with those.

Yeah, the whole Series and Parrellel thing is still kinda confusing. Do you have a picture or know of a site with pictures, cause now im curious.