Bassists…what should I do with this mudbucker??

itstimtime

itstimtime

Well-known member
I’ve got a J bass partscaster and I’ve got too many options. Currently have Fender Customs installed. Don’t have a problem with the sound, but I’ve got 5 basses and want something a little more I’m also impulsive and don’t want to route a giant hole and then hate it. So these are my options I’ve come up with, please, let me hear yours…

1: Mud in stock J neck spot, get something to balance well in the bridge (thinking Curtis Novak H22)

2: Same as 1 but move the Mud up closer to the neck

3: Mud in stock J neck spot + current bridge pup already installed

4: Mud up towards the neck spot + current pups installed all on stacked VT

5: Same as 4 but with the addition of a 3 way switch (fender customs down/fender + mud middle/mud up)

I know the Mud could overload the other pickups, but there’s so many people that have added a mud with a J pup and not had problems. What do you guys think?

5C264E6D-D80B-4363-99CF-425F919354E6.jpeg
 
I'm not primarily a bassist, but I would probably rig the mudbucker up so that I could float it over the strings and experiment with positioning. Maybe make some recordings for reference. Then you can be confident that you've found a good location for it before you do any routing.
 
itstimtime said:
I’ve got a J bass partscaster and I’ve got too many options. Currently have Fender Customs installed. Don’t have a problem with the sound, but I’ve got 5 basses and want something a little more I’m also impulsive and don’t want to route a giant hole and then hate it. So these are my options I’ve come up with, please, let me hear yours…

1: Mud in stock J neck spot, get something to balance well in the bridge (thinking Curtis Novak H22)

2: Same as 1 but move the Mud up closer to the neck

3: Mud in stock J neck spot + current bridge pup already installed

4: Mud up towards the neck spot + current pups installed all on stacked VT

5: Same as 4 but with the addition of a 3 way switch (fender customs down/fender + mud middle/mud up)

I know the Mud could overload the other pickups, but there’s so many people that have added a mud with a J pup and not had problems. What do you guys think?

View attachment 97571
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Not sure how helpful this will be for you but I have been messing with an artec mudbucker lately. I've paired it with a j style bridge pu and a few others in a middle position with a jag type 3 switch plate. Firstly, the mud is crazy loud, the only thing that comes close to that level of output that I tried was a Novak H22 but that one brings a beautifully balanced sound instead of the hot mud.

Combining with the artec mud is strange. It's like the mudbucker isn't even there. When I flick on the bridge pu and toggle the mud on and off it makes no change that I can hear. This is true for all 4 of the other pickups types I've swapped in there. Has me thinking about adding another pickup and just hardwiring the mud so you turn all 3 pu switches off to get that thiccness. I was definitely expecting the mud to dominate when combined.
 
I vote for three.

Swimming pool route under the pickguard so you can go that route later.
Switch: MTF's Jag-style pickup selector — for when it's only 2 pups you can wire 3rd switch as series parallel;
otherwise one switch per pup.


I just think it'd be neat to try the MBucker in the J/P sweet spot.
 
Mentaltossflycoon said:
Not sure how helpful this will be for you but I have been messing with an artec mudbucker lately. I've paired it with a j style bridge pu and a few others in a middle position with a jag type 3 switch plate. Firstly, the mud is crazy loud, the only thing that comes close to that level of output that I tried was a Novak H22 but that one brings a beautifully balanced sound instead of the hot mud.

Combining with the artec mud is strange. It's like the mudbucker isn't even there. When I flick on the bridge pu and toggle the mud on and off it makes no change that I can hear. This is true for all 4 of the other pickups types I've swapped in there. Has me thinking about adding another pickup and just hardwiring the mud so you turn all 3 pu switches off to get that thiccness. I was definitely expecting the mud to dominate when combined.
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Your single coil J’s are over powering the mud? Damn I thought it’d be the other way around 🤔
 
Feral Feline said:
I vote for three.

Swimming pool route under the pickguard so you can go that route later.
Switch: MTF's Jag-style pickup selector — for when it's only 2 pups you can wire 3rd switch as series parallel;
otherwise one switch per pup.


I just think it'd be neat to try the MBucker in the J/P sweet spot.
Click to expand...
Didn’t think about a Jag style. Over on talkbass someone suggested a 5 way rotary
 
itstimtime said:
Didn’t think about a Jag style. Over on talkbass someone suggested a 5 way rotary
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That was MentalTossFlycoon's idea, Jag-style I just appropriated it here (but have it for a lot of my "mental builds").

Rotary okay if you've got a pointy knob or round one with a bold indicator-mark. Dingwalls are all rotary-switched, but not always boldy marked, which is fine if you just use your ears — sometimes I like a visual assurance before I play a note... ... not that I'm gigging right now.
 
Feral Feline said:
That was MentalTossFlycoon's idea, Jag-style I just appropriated it here (but have it for a lot of my "mental builds").
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I’ve done jazzmasters, but never a jag. If I kept three pickups and a stacked VT for each (would that even be necessary at that point🤔) would you have a diagram floating around that brain of yours for something like that?

EDIT: Ok home from work and this is what I came up with, but after looking at it, I’d move the pickup hots to the middle lugs and the outs to the volume pots to the top lugs…
IMG_4274.jpeg
 
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Mentaltossflycoon said:
Not sure how helpful this will be for you but I have been messing with an artec mudbucker lately. I've paired it with a j style bridge pu and a few others in a middle position with a jag type 3 switch plate. Firstly, the mud is crazy loud, the only thing that comes close to that level of output that I tried was a Novak H22 but that one brings a beautifully balanced sound instead of the hot mud.

Combining with the artec mud is strange. It's like the mudbucker isn't even there. When I flick on the bridge pu and toggle the mud on and off it makes no change that I can hear. This is true for all 4 of the other pickups types I've swapped in there. Has me thinking about adding another pickup and just hardwiring the mud so you turn all 3 pu switches off to get that thiccness. I was definitely expecting the mud to dominate when combined.
Click to expand...
Is this a single volume control config?
 
Nice collection of instruments, especially the white Gretsch — I'm a sucker for white instruments and double-sure sucker for cateyes in place of ff-holes.

However, I'm NOT well versed in the wiring of instruments.

If the mudbucker has a VT control wired straight to the output jack...

Wouldn't putting the mudbucker's VT straight to the jack put it in parallel with the J's other controls, and thus there'd be some funky interaction between them.

Parallel resistors don't sum... for instance two 250k pots in parallel will turn each one into a 125k pot (if both pots are at max value). As soon as you turn one it affects the other... turning "A" down to say 110k then gives you 76.389.

Formula and calc for parallel resistors here:

I would need/want to study a variety of instrument wiring diagrams that have the same type (HB vs SC etc) and same number of pickups to wrap my brain around this one.


Paging ALL instrument-wiring gurus, and notably @MichaelW ...


Can the Humbucker be wired direct to the jack such that the rest of the pots/controls are unaffected?
 
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