Thoughts on L2500 single-coil mod....

[sunbeast]

I posted a couple of days ago that I found the 4pdt on-on-on switches necessary to modify your L-2000 or 2500 to series/ single-coil/ parallel.
I recieved mine finally and installed it as per the diagram someone posted on the Dudepit G&L forum. I gotta say, I really dig it. I originally couldn't decide which coils to choose (inner or outer coils), but chose the outer coils as they are in similar positions to Jazz bass pickups.
Basically, they sound like an even clearer version of the series setting. I really love the neck single coil soloed, I can see why people love the single- coil setting on the L1000 so much (though I believe the L1000 uses the other coil for the single coil setting). The bridge soloed sounds great for really stacatto (sic?) playing and soloing, especially with some highs rolled off (although could be used with highs on full for some really snappy sounds), but that neck single coil just kills me! -it is very much like a P-bass (Quarter Pounder style!) but with much more inherent clarity to my ears (could be dialed out if you prefered as well. Both single coils played together is nice too, but obviously lacks the character of either one soloed- I plan to one day add a pickup blend control, which should add even more interesting options!

All in all, it cost me less than $30 for the switch and about half an hour of soldering (I soldered it wrong the first time around!) and now I have even more options on a bass that seemingly already had it all. Thanks to the person that originally came up with this mod, it is awesome that you can do this and still retain all of the stock settings as well!

Now I would love to try to carry the single coil with bass boost idea from the L1000 over to my newly modded L2500- does anyone have a schematic of the L1000 (specifically the wiring of the capacitor which causes the so called "bass boost")? Is it the same wiring that was used in older L2000s to cut the treble on one coil in series mode?

Thanks, and I encourage all you experimental types to try this out- what do you realy have to lose?

Karl Zickrick

[spideyjg]

Yep same as the older 2K schematic or look at the 1K switch wiring diagram.

The 1K's I have the coil closest to the neck is the one used in single. So is the Climax.

Jim

[sunbeast]

I thought I read somewhere on Dudepit that it was the coil closest to the bridge, the closer to the neck idea works better for me though!

[megiddo]

Could you post a link to the dudepit schematic? If you still have all the factory options I might be interested in the mod.

Thanks

[spideyjg]

Originally Posted by sunbeast

I thought I read somewhere on Dudepit that it was the coil closest to the bridge, the closer to the neck idea works better for me though!

I don't recall but I'll check next time I pull the 1K out. Too many basses I guess.

Jim

[Jagdmusik]

Originally Posted by sunbeast

I originally couldn't decide which coils to choose (inner or outer coils), but chose the outer coils as they are in similar positions to Jazz bass pickups.

I don't think you NEED to choose between the two. You could add a switch between the pickups and the series/split/parallel switch, to swap the coil leads. With the S/S/P switch in split mode this would give you the opposite coil from what you otherwise would get (inners rather than outers, or vice versa).

I was planning to do this kind of mod on my own bass once I got around to it. I'll swap out switches and pots (substituting push-pulls) to give myself a S/S/P switch, an inners vs. outers switch, and switches to let me set each pickup to series or parallel independently of the other. I can't know for certain yet, but I highly suspect the inner-coils option would be a worthwhile sound. I did something similar on my Warmoth project bass by accident, and I loved how it sounded so much that I decided not to fix my mistake.

Anyway, I'd like to second the request to post that link, please. It'll give me a starting place for my mod and make it more likely that I'll actually get around to it.

[spideyjg]

Originally Posted by sunbeast

I thought I read somewhere on Dudepit that it was the coil closest to the bridge, the closer to the neck idea works better for me though!

Whoops, I was full 'o crap. It is the coil towards the bridge. The Climax is the neck side.

No, I don't have too many basses.

Jim

[sunbeast]

http://www.vintagebass.com/thedudepi...3&page=2&pp=10

Here is the page on the Dudepit forum, go down to the post by Daveplaysbass that has a link to a word document. I found that this schematic assumes that you have one of the older l2000/2500 with the capacitors attached to the series/ parallel switch. If you have one of the newer ones such as I do, the wiring will look a little different than his stock wiring picture. His diagram also shows that you need to wire each pickup opposite to get hum cancelling pickups, I tried it the way he described and got the outer coil on the neck pickup and the inner coil on the bridge pickup- which do not cancel hum when played together. I found that on my particular bass, I needed to wire both pickups the same way in order to to get the hum- cancelling single coils (either inner or outer coils). In other words,
for outer coils- black goes to ground on both pickups (which mirrors the bridge pickup in his diagram).
for inner coils- green goes to ground (which mirrors his diagram of the neck pickup).

I guess this means that G&L actually make 2 seperate pickups for bridge and neck which are polar opposites (or whatever you call pickups that cancel hum when played together!), but originally they must have just used 2 of the same pickups (assuming this diagram works with older G&Ls).

I would be interested in trying out the .1uf capacitors sometime just for the hell of it as well, apparently this is how the original L2000s were wired and also the 1 pickup on the L1000.

As far as I can tell from the schematics on the G&L page, the L1000 series/ single coil/ single coil w/ bass boost is wired virtually identical function-wise to this L2000 mod, but with only the single neck spaced pickup instead of 2 pickups. This means that the single coil w/ bass boost is actually not a single coil option at all, but a series connection where all of the highs from 1 coil are taken out. They probably just called it "single coil with bass boost" as it does not cancel hum due to the presence of the capacitor, and it probably sounds much like just a single coil with added bass, as the 2nd coil only adds the low frequencies in this mode.

Hope that helps, I am definitely no expert on these matters (just figured the problems out through trial and error!), so if I said anything wrong please correct me!

Good luck with your experiments!
Karl Zickrick

[sunbeast]

I might switch around the coils on mine for the hell of it sometime, although I can't imagine that anything could sound better than that soloed neck outer coil at the moment!

[earlgray]

Originally Posted by sunbeast

This means that the (L-1000) single coil w/ bass boost is actually not a single coil option at all, but a series connection where all of the highs from 1 coil are taken out. They probably just called it "single coil with bass boost" as it does not cancel hum due to the presence of the capacitor, and it probably sounds much like just a single coil with added bass, as the 2nd coil only adds the low frequencies in this mode.

Ah. Does that mean its kinda like having 2 pickups side-by-side, both contributing bass, but with the upper end rolled off on one?

interesting. i definitely love this mode on my L-1k.

[sunbeast]

Yeah, thats the way the diagram on the G&L website makes it look. They even call it "series with .1uf capacitor" on one of the shematics. If anyone has an L1000, try this test- put it in "single coil w/ bass boost mode" and lightly tap on the polepieces of each coil. If you can hear both, it means that they are both on and my assumption is correct (so its not actually a single coil mode, but a series mode where all of the highs are pulled out of one coil through the .1uf capacitor and sent to ground). I've heard nothing but good things about that mode on the L1000, so I may try it on my L2500- the only problem being the fact that that setting does not cancel hum, while the current series setting does. Is the "single-coil with bass boost" mode on an l1000 really noisy?

[earlgray]

Originally Posted by sunbeast

Yeah, thats the way the diagram on the G&L website makes it look. They even call it "series with .1uf capacitor" on one of the shematics. If anyone has an L1000, try this test- put it in "single coil w/ bass boost mode" and lightly tap on the polepieces of each coil. If you can hear both, it means that they are both on and my assumption is correct (so its not actually a single coil mode, but a series mode where all of the highs are pulled out of one coil through the .1uf capacitor and sent to ground). I've heard nothing but good things about that mode on the L1000, so I may try it on my L2500- the only problem being the fact that that setting does not cancel hum, while the current series setting does. Is the "single-coil with bass boost" mode on an l1000 really noisy?

At work at the moment (can't you tell? )

I'll try that tap test tonite.