Searcy String Works

The next patient from the Project Katrina instruments were two sets of 1960's Fender J-Bass pickups. One set is from a 1969 Jazz Bass and the other set is from a 1967 Jazz Bass. These two vintage Fender basses were sent to Amy and Jason at Stringed Instrument Repair for a total rebuild by working New Orleans jazz bass player Jim Markway. Let's take a look at what it takes to bring one of these 1969 pickups back to life.

According to Jim the bass was in standing, contaminated floodwaters for over 2 weeks. "It is a refin, a player's bass," says Jim about his 1969 Jazz bass. "I bought it in 1970, my first pro bass. I had it defretted in the late '70's. Jaco played it in the early '80's, when he was crashing and burning, and somehow he messed the neck up. I put a Warmoth fretless neck on it, and it was actually better."

This sort of job takes on a different feel when you've heard the story behind it. Suddenly it's not just another pickup. It's the tool of a self-employed artist. A real world pro bass player typically doing 350-450 gigs a year to pay the bills. These pickups are from a piece of history. They have their own story to tell.

This thing is caked in Katrina Crud. The bobbin is warped and stained. These leads are not the proper ones for a '69 Fender so while we're at it I'll replace those too.

The multi-meter told me that we are dealing with an open coil. Here's why; the end of the coil wire is broken at the solder joint. That's actually good news. If I'm careful enough I might be able to resolder this end without having to rewind the coil. We might get lucky on this one.

All right, it's time to see just how stubborn this stuff is. While much of it flakes off the flat work with just a good brushing, some persistent crud won't budge and the windings are not coming clean at all.

Drastic measures will need to be taken to literally get this pickup back in shape. It's time to reach for the secret weapon. Well... it WAS a secret until just now... when I told you about it... Oh... I shouldn't have told you that... I should not have told you that...

Is it soup yet?! I let this pickup soup stew for a while in the jewelry cleaner from Sharper Image. Those guys have the coolest stuff - or at least that's what people tell me. I wouldn't know. I bought this one at the thrift store in Nashville.

See? It's already looking better. Let's let it run a few more times. Ok... it took many, many times for it to come clean.

Once it's clean I let it sit for a week or so to be sure it's dry. Then I remove the old leads and get it into my handy wax pot to soak a good long time. I want to try to get the Forbon as flexible as possible.

Then it's on to the top secret "Pickup Press". A device with dual precision screw vise nut and bolt thingies that I have spent years perfecting which allows a deformed bobbin to be compressed back to it's original shape.
Long has Searcy String Works guarded this coveted and complex device. No one yet has been able to descern that it's actually just a clamp that I modified by sticking two bits of phenallic to it which allow the magnets to rest between them while pressing the flat work... well... flat… um…...I shouldn't have told you that....

Gotta get it into the press and smash it while it's still hot. Say Uncle!
Do you see how lopsided that coil is? In 1970 a Quality Control supervisor would have called this sloppy work. These days many people believe that this sort of random pattern coil winding is precisely what gives these old Fender Pickups their individual personality. Today we call that scatter winding and it is very highly regarded.
Rewinding this coil would make more work for me. But that's not why we want to avoid it. To rewind this coil would change this pickup's sound, Jim's sound, forever. We need to avoid that at all costs. Between the mud and the magnets lies the mojo somewhere.

After it has cooled for a few hours it comes out very flat indeed. Not bad!

Next I unwrap the last turn of the coil, thread it through the eyelet again, and solder on the new leads. A quick check with the meter shows 6.89k ohms. Back in the saddle again!

Being a hack bass player and a fan of workhorse Fenders from way back I'm really proud of these. I wasn't too hopeful when I first looked at them. I was almost sure they would need a rewind. I was almost sure they would need new flat work. As it turns out I was wrong. I'm glad I was.
I hope the rest of the rebuild goes as well and I hope Jim puts these bad boys back to work soon.