No ground wire to jack

Gear
1

I have been trying to sort out what is wrong with the sound out of my MIJ Aerodyne Jazz bass for the early 2000s.

It has “special” DiMarzio designed pickups, but I find them to be completely meh.
I had the bass plugged into the amp and resting by my desk and noticed a not of static as well.
I totally am not digging the overall tone and have been considering pickup swaps.

So I finally opened the cavity to take a peak at this ‘special edition’ bass.
There was no ground wire to the input jack, just a hot.

Is this a thing or a miss?
I am going to solder a wire over from the pot (another day), and will probably just replace all the pots and cap (once I drill out the holes to fit the larger pots or just buy a new control plate).
Makes no sense, right?

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2

I think their thing is that it grounds to the plate through the jack chassis, but that always seemed dumb and halfassed to me. I’d wire it, myself.

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3

So it’s passive but no grounding? Can you add one? I always thought that the aerodynes pickups are bit anemic but offer a very nice mid and top end.
I put Geezer Butler on one SD quarter pounder on another and dimarzio relentless/ emg combo on another. I’m thinking about switching one to a Delano 4 fe/me2 with the xpure on one of them.

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4

I’m going to add one and see what impact it has.
These pickups are the special edition DiMarzio JJ set that were in a very limited edition and they are stoopid hot hot hot.

I’ll add the ground first, then swap the pots cap etc for better, and if it still sounds bad I’m clicking over to Fralin.

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5

Yeah hot pickup is not my forte in general. I like one that requires tons of power to drive so it’s easier to dial. It would make sense on a Fender Japan where majority of the customers would be using relatively small amp so it would sound big enough.

Although di marzio pickups are generally pretty hot. The relentless is a hot hot passive

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6

Following that logic- Why do they do it half assed Vs “full-assed” and not run the ground between pots as well then?

7

Who knows, tradition maybe? Always seemed iffy at best to me.

8

My bad, I must have been sleepy…it is full -assed

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9

Is that seriously soldering the pot ground to the plate, rather than running a wire to the jack? If so, I would just call that “ass” :slight_smile:

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10

Yep. My Squier VM Fretless was wired better. So much for MIJ quality. The CIJ Aerodyne was wired well but it was heavily modded so not sure
The MIJ HMT Was wired well but that was from 90s Vs early 2000s

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11

I think this is simply a shikey thing Fender has always done regardless of region

12

One less step and save a million bucks a year in labor?

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13

Where are you seeing it soldered to the control plate?

It looks like it’s soldered to a tab on the pot to me, or am I just being fooled by a reflection in the chrome?

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14

The right tabs of the pots are soldered to the back of pot, as usual, but nothing goes pot to pot or pot to jack in the form of a wire.
They are assuming ground throught the nuts/washers on each pot/jack from the bridge ground to the tone pot.

15

Ahh. I thought I saw something soldered to the plate from a pot. Which would have been uber-cheesy.

16

Oh no, no ‘extra’ solder (or wire) anywhere. Maybe they ran out that day. :roll_eyes:

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