Complete passive bass re-wiring, options?

mowburger · #1 02-02-2012, 03:03 PM

I recently (Christmas) got a new Maestro 5 string MM COPY off tha bay as a spare/knockaround bass. I new I would need to do some work on it as it cost under $200 shipped. When it arrived it was in good shape, fretwork was way better than I thought (at worst I figured a re-fret) action and neck relief were pretty good, sound wasn't bad at all.

There was alot of buzz both when playing and not playing, touching the strings only helped slightly. So first thing I ordered was copper shielding kit and solder. I pulled the control plate which has 4 holes, 1 jack and 3 knob a lil bigger than 3/8" . The bass was wired in parallel with one coil of the humbucker wired to one pot, and the other coil wired to the next pot, then the first pot was wired in series in line with the next coils pot and the tone pot! wierd. any who upon taking things apart one volume pot actually kinda fell apart, it felt funny from the start. BTW none of the pots were marked at all. The CAP was ugly lil green guy.

I plan to replace ALL controls with nice Bourns ones and what follows is what I was thinking, I WOULD like opinons on if this will work well.

I would like to keep it passive.

I want to wire the pickup to a 250k push/pull volume, wired for series/parallel.
Next I want a extra firm 500k tone control, I would like instead of wiring a CAP onto that pot, have it tap into a 250k BALANCE pot that has a .022 cap on one throw and a .047 cap on the other throw.

I can blend between 2 cap values, AND how much bleeds thru that value. It takes up all three holes and gives me a lil more range of adjustability than say my P bass that has one tone knob with a .047 on it.

What do you guys think? any other ideas?

maybe a knob linked to a ToneStyler, or a LP type DPDT to select 2 diff cap values?

**line6man** · #2 02-02-2012, 03:10 PM

Blending capacitors probably won't work as well as you think it will.
You would be better off with a varitone.

mowburger · #3 02-02-2012, 03:16 PM

Thanx Lineman, would a DPDT or three-way be similar to a Varitone just with less #'s of caps/values?

**line6man** · #4 02-02-2012, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mowburger

Thanx Lineman, would a DPDT or three-way be similar just with less #'s of caps/values?

You can get three values with a three position switch.

mowburger · #5 02-02-2012, 03:33 PM

Cool thanx man! I bet I could even use a push pull tone knob with a 3-way switch and have 4 values, overkill tho.

slaphappychappy · #6 02-02-2012, 06:25 PM

I have a cort j/mm and it was active. I put a p bass vintage repro harness in and wired a 3 way on switch. Get a lil buzz from the j pup, as u do, but wired so i can run j/mm togeter, doesnt hum or lower output like on some j/j setups. Works great, and made me realise i prefer passive.

mowburger · #7 02-02-2012, 07:18 PM

@ Slap-Chappy: That sounds cool what Cap value were you runnin thru passively?

SGD Lutherie · #8 02-02-2012, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mowburger

I would like to keep it passive.

Wont sound like a real MM that way.

mowburger · #9 02-11-2012, 02:29 AM

Why is connecting my pickup sheild to the copper foil or output jack grounding out my signal?!? I had the meter on everything and whenever the pickups bare ground wire touches any part of the ground system in the cavity or bridge or - jack I lost signal. I cut it right where the pickup leads come out of the gray jacket and it's fine? WHY IS THIS? Anyone with a quick explination? the pickup cavity is sheilded as is the control cavity>they are jumped. I have the Pickup wired to a 500k push/pull for series/parallel then from that pot(VOL) to the jack +/- the 500k tone pot leeches off lug 3 of VOL pot and directs + flow to a 3-way switch with on .047 and one .022 caps going straight to -jack

WHY is my PICKUP BARE SHEILD/GROUND cutting my signal completly out when attached to any other ground?

mowburger · #10 02-11-2012, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

Wont sound like a real MM that way.

I know, but it still sounds more like a stingray than my P w/flats

FunkMetalBass · #11 02-11-2012, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mowburger

Why is connecting my pickup sheild to the copper foil or output jack grounding out my signal?!? I had the meter on everything and whenever the pickups bare ground wire touches any part of the ground system in the cavity or bridge or - jack I lost signal. I cut it right where the pickup leads come out of the gray jacket and it's fine? WHY IS THIS? Anyone with a quick explination? the pickup cavity is sheilded as is the control cavity>they are jumped. I have the Pickup wired to a 500k push/pull for series/parallel then from that pot(VOL) to the jack +/- the 500k tone pot leeches off lug 3 of VOL pot and directs + flow to a 3-way switch with on .047 and one .022 caps going straight to -jack

WHY is my PICKUP BARE SHEILD/GROUND cutting my signal completly out when attached to any other ground?

First and foremost, are you sure that's actually the ground wire? A lot of cheaper MM-style pickups tend to be epoxy-potted, so it can be hard to tell which wire is which if stranded wire or typical colors are not used.

mowburger · #12 02-11-2012, 06:10 PM

It's the bare sheild that surrounds the 4 pickup leads, red,white,black, and green. The bare sheild and the 4 leads are all in the gray insulated wire comming from pickup.

SGD Lutherie · #13 02-11-2012, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mowburger

Why is connecting my pickup sheild to the copper foil or output jack grounding out my signal?!? I had the meter on everything and whenever the pickups bare ground wire touches any part of the ground system in the cavity or bridge or - jack I lost signal.

The shield should not be connected to the coils.

Do this; unwire the pickup from the controls. If you have any of the wires connected together, disconnect them.

Now take you meter, and touch the shield with one probe, and then touch each of the 4 wires coming from the pickup. Do you get a reading on any of them? You shouldn't.

If you do, you have a short in the pickup.

Now it's possible they connected the shield to one end of one of the coils. If you get a reading of near zero between the shield and one of the pickup coils, you can wire the pickup so that end of the coil is at ground. You will have to figure out how to wire the rest.

Also check that when you soldered the shield it didn't melt the insulator on one of the pickup wires and short them together.