Precision Bass Wiring Diagram
Terresa Cherrie
No thrills, no shrills. Welcome to our step by step guide to wiring a standard Precision Bass. There is a video in conjunction with this guide and we recommend that you watch the video and study the wiring diagram before starting.
A grounded volume pot lug. Filing the eyelet before bending it back onto the pot casing creates a bridge of solder between the two when we re-heat it. Not everyone likes this method, in which case, take an off-cut of wire and do it that way instead if you prefer.
Connecting the volume and tone controls together is simple. Use a small length of cloth wire and solder it into the input lug (1st lug) of the volume pot. Then solder the other end of the wire to the lug of the tone pot directly opposite.
In recent years here at Six String Supplies we now wire our Precision Bass kits using braided hook up wire. It is cleaner and quicker from our point of view - but does also have the advantage of being better at shielding from electro-magnetic interference. However, this advantage is minimal and is the reason why we recommend twisting the ground and signal wires together from the jack socket if using cloth wire. The act of wrapping the ground wire around the signal wire is close enough to the equivalent of the braided wire.
Start by pulling the braid back away from the cloth wire and solder the inner cloth wire (signal) to the middle lug (output) of the volume control. You can use some heat shrink tubing here just to keep the braid tidy. You only need to pull the braid back half an inch or so.
We need to remove some of the braid so you can either kink the wire and poke a hole in the braid (enabling you to pull the cloth wire through) or you can simply cut up along the braid for the same result.
That's how to wire a Precision Bass. It is a very simple circuit using only two pots, a jack and a capacitor. There are other options to spice things up a bit, including using a 0.068uF capacitor in place of a 0.047uF. This gives a more traditional and darker sweep on the tone control.
Wiring diagram with one P-bass style split pickup, 1 volume and 1 tone. Typical P-Bass wiring diagram.Ready to start? Don't forget the Wire, Solder, Shielding & Supplies. Copyright GuitarElectronics.com LLC. Unauthorized use prohibited. Click diagram to view full size.
Last year I stripped out the pickups and active circuit from a Sandberg Electra VS4 P bass. I should have taken photographs of the wiring in situ but hindsight is a wonderful thing. I've sold the pickups and electronics but the buyer has asked for advice about transplanting it.
Choosing Your Capacitor ValueTraditionally, P-Basses use .047F. However, our kits give you the option of three different capacitor values so you can choose how much top end you want rolled off with the tone pot(s):
More About Our Pre-Wired KitsOur kits are hand-wired by Lollar Pickups in the USA to Jason Lollar's preferred specifications. They feature Lollar spec'd CTS potentiometers with a special taper for an even range of volume and tone adjustment. With high-quality Switchcraft switches for superior reliability and longevity, and your choice of Orange Drop Poly Film-in-Foil or Bumblebee Paper-in-Oil capacitors.
*THESE KITS ARE BUILT WITH THE CONTROLS SPACED TO FIT STANDARD USA FENDER PRECISION BASSES. CONTROLS ON IMPORT GUITARS MAY BE SPACED DIFFERENTLY. If you are installing the kit on an import guitar with metric-sized pots, you may need to ream the holes for your controls (AVOID USING A DRILL BIT) to accept the slightly larger US-spec pots (3/8" shaft diameter, 24 spline) and purchase US-spec knobs.
PLEASE NOTE: All prewired kits are built-to-order as custom work, may take three to five business days before shipping, and are not eligible for return or exchange. Prewired kits are thoroughly tested after assembly, if you have a problem with any of the wiring components during installation, STOP, do not remove or replace any of the components from the prewired kit and contact our customer service team at in...@lollarguitars.com or (206) 463-9838 for warranty service. Prewired kits that have been altered or had components replaced are not eligible for warranty service.
Can you do custom options for prewired kits like push/pull pots, additional toggle switches, et cetera?
We are not able to do custom configurations. However, you can order the pots, caps, switch, and jack as individual components and configure them however you like.
Will your pots fit my import guitar?
Many import guitars use metric units of measurement for their component sizes. Import guitars often have pots that have smaller diameter shafts than US made guitars. If you are replacing the electronics in your import guitar with our prewired kit, you will likely need to enlarge the holes for the volume and tone pots. A hand reamer tool is perfect for this job.
For more than three decades, Jason Lollar has designed and built some of the most sought-after pickups for electric guitar, bass, and steel guitar. If you're on a quest for tone, we can help. Call us today and let us help you find the best guitar pickups for you.
Long story details:
I recently bought a Fender players series Pbass and decided to upgrade the pickups, pots and bridge. I added a set of Darkmoon Hellhounds & wiring harness, which only have a single ground, but I noticed as I took out the stock pickups there was also ground to the bridge which was not on the new pickups and pots. As a newbie, not sure if that was important. I grounded the one wire that came from the wiring harness.
Short story details:
I am getting a lot of buzz (and not the happy kind) when I crank the tone knob clockwise, it disappears if I turn it counter clockwise. If I also touch the instrument cable the buzz ceases. Knowing F all about electronics, I am assuming that I also need to ground the input plug, but just want to confirm.
I just got around to fixing my issues, big thanks to @Howard and @Wombat-metal. I know a heck of a lot more now about grounding & soldering than I did before and the Pbass sounds awesome thanks to the replies.
I have always read that a P-style pickup sounds crappy wired in parallel; the series wiring is a distinctive part of the sound. But, uh, I dunno. I guess you would get less mids, less output, more highs and lows?
I wonder if a P-style pickup, still in series, but out-of-phase, would sound cool? I think I've read, though, that the sound is 'phasier' if the pickups are farther apart, and with a P-bass, well, the pickups AINT too far apart.
This pre-wired Fender Precision Vintage Wiring Harness is designed for replacing old electrics or upgrading the electronics of imported models or for use on DIY Kits. We take a massive amount of care and attention when putting our Bass harnesses together. Everything is fully tested before being posted to you.
Read about our Vintage Wiring Harnesses here >. We use our P Bass vintage wiring harnesses in our workshop for our clients guitar upgrades and also for our Axeify guitar upgrading services, read more here >
Will this fit my guitar?
Our pre-wired Fender Precision Bass Vintage Wiring harness is wired to fit genuine Fender USA / Mexican control plates. If installing into an imported model / DIY guitar kit you will need to ensure the Potentiometer holes on the control plate will take CTS pots (approx 10mm). This can be done using a round file or carefully with a 10mm drill.
Installation, Documents & Support
Please see our Support Page for wiring diagrams and fitting instructions.
The Precision wiring harness is one of the more simple harnesses to fit with just 3 wires to solder, 1 x ground and 1 hot wire from the pickups and the ground wire from the bridge. All ground wires go to the back of the Volume Potentiometer and the pickup hot wire goes to the input terminal on the Volume Potentiometer. There is sometimes an additional ground wire from the body which you will need to solder to the back of the Volume Potentiometer. We have made it as simple as possible to install your Fender Precision Bass Vintage Wiring Harness. We offer full after support should you need it.
All wiring diagrams for our pickups and some various diagrams for custom wiring. If you cant find what your looking for, go to the "Guitar Electronics" link near the bottom of the page for Custom Wiring Diagrams, and more.
All pickup dimensions are located on each product page.
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Important information about the potentiometers:
The pots used are solid shaft CTS pots with 6.35 mm shaft diameter. This corresponds to the original US fender pots. For basses from Asia, Mexico and Europe, mostly 6 mm diameter split shaft pots are used, e.g. also in the Strat models. This means that the buttons may have to be slightly drilled out or replaced, but are usually possible without any problems. Each kit is also optionally available with split shaft pots of the same quality upon request (please before purchase).
If you need help with the checkout form or payment, please don't hestitate to contact us via e-mail. We just need your address and the designation of the desired items. As soon as we have received the above information, we will send you the detailed invoice.
All our prewired kits have matched pots and caps. This means that we measure all potentiometers and capacitors before installation, select them, and use them according to their values where they deliver the best possible result in combination with the pickups. This is important because original pots have tolerances of up to +-20%. In extreme cases, a 500k pot can have values of only 400k or up to 600k ohms. Not infrequently good pickups are replaced unnecessarily, because they sound muddy, weak or thin. In reality, however, the problem is often not due to bad pickups, but simply to inferior wiring, which mercilessly destroys the actually perfect sound.
We compared enormous quantities of capacitors in interaction with various pickups and thus determined the most suitable tone caps under real conditions. The capacitors are hand-selected HQ film capacitors with very low tolerance, very similar in design to the originals from the fifties. The vintage paper wax skin gives the caps an additional look. Our capacitors are so close to the originals of the 50's that nobody will hear a difference.
In all our kits only the best components from well-known manufacturers like CTS, Switchcraft, CRL or Oak Grigsby are used. All kits are carefully manufactured in small quantities and professionally handcrafted, and delivered to satisfied customers all over the world.