Modifying your Fender Noiseless pickups

No modifications are needed to work with the 1st generation Noiseless pickups which is labeled Noiseless on the pickup cover and is presently sold as the Vintage Noiseless version.

You need to modify the generation 2 noiseless pickups which are labeled SCN on the pickup cover and is presently sold as a Mod Shop part as the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Jazz Bass Pickup.
You also need to modify the generation 3 noiseless pickup which is labeled N3 on the pickup cover and is presently a stock item in some Fender Deluxe basses.
Fender has connected the pickup common on the 2nd and 3rd generation pickups to the pole pieces.

Warning: If you do not make these mods an extremely loud pop will occur if the strings contact the pickup pole pieces when using our preamp.

This web page will show you the mods need and possible how to make your pickups sound better.

In the graphs, the blue line is the current pickup - other color is a Fender Vintage Early 70s pickup for reference.
We recommend running the SCN with a Mod type 2, and the N3 with a Mod type 1; both are fairly easy to make.

Fender SCN pickup type

This is how the pickup comes from Fender. The center square contact is for the pole pieces which Fender has wired over to the pickup common.

To modify:
1) Cut the wire from the triangle to the square
2) Remove the wire fragment. This completes a type 1 Mod.
3) A type 2 Mod is recommended for this pickup so add a new wire to the square terminal which is connected to the Grey/White wire ground wire from your Audere Jack. This completes the type 2 Mod. Your pickup will now sound exactly like it did prior to this mod, with our preamp, the original, or any other preamp so long as you solder on the ground wire as shown.

Fender N3 pickup type

This is how the pickup comes from Fender. I have shown a Bridge pickup which has red solder mask. The Neck pickup has white solder mask but the operations are the same for both pickups. The red solder mask is easier to see through and you can see where the common is connected to the copper flood which is touching the pole pieces.

To modify:
1) Cut the circuit board trace just to the right of the square (as shown below) so the flooded area contacting the pole pieces is no longer connected to pickup common. An exacto type knife will work well to remove the copper from the PCB. You can use a volt meter in resistance mode to verify you have removed enough copper. See the pictures below to see the cut area but note you will not need to add the new Grey/White wire shown.
2) I recommend adding some insulating lacquer. This completes a type 1 mod which is the recommended mod for this pickup. It will now sound a lot "better" (much more like a single coil jazz pickup and/or the SCNs) however the pole pieces will hum if touched by your hand. This is true for most Fender pickups and there is no way to remove the hum on this particular pickup and keep the improved response so I recommend stopping at this point.
3) A type 2 Mod is NOT RECOMMENDED for this pickup as it would return it to Fenders stock frequency response. If you want to do this, add a new wire which is connected to the Grey/White ground wire off your Audere Jack to the flooded circuit board plane by scrapping off the solder mask and soldering down the new wire. This completes the type 2 Mod. Your pickup is now restored to its original sound. In this configuration I do not recommend a Z-Mode preamp but a Classic with an Active Pickup connection setup would work fine.