Pickups wiring MOD to parallel/single coil

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Tim Bishop

At some point in the near future, I think I'll order a set of the switches from Ken, re-wire them for the S/C mod and insert them into the Smith bass of my choice. Then run a test using my cabs and amp of choice. That will tell me what I need to know. Given the placement of P/U's on Ken's basses relative to the maximum-string-vibration-point, I am very curious how this mod will sound.

We have some 3-way switches that just came in from my Distributor in Japan to install on one of his Basses. He asked us to wire it up from the start for him so he doesn't have to modify it there. He offers this option locally in Japan now from what I have heard. I will test the single coil mode option within the next month or so and report back.

I tested this by the way back in 1982 or so right after the pick-up design was completed, the same ones we use now. I didn't see much difference between the single coil/dummy coil and the Parallel option. Actually, the Parallel wiring sounded cleaner so we went that way. The first few basses I wired up back then were in Series but after hearing the Parallel sound, I switched to that as my pre-set.