FAQ Thread

[Michael Henson]

I think that it would be of great value if some of the more experienced TBer's could put together a thread that answers the basic questions involved with upgrading p'ups and electronics on your bass. I've been playing bass for about 6 years and have thought about how nice it would be to change some things with my bass (electronically) but I never thought that it was possible for me to do it myself. So now that I'm planning on doing this I came to this forum hoping that there would be a thread with links to informative posts or articles about this type of thing. There isn't and I'm sure that I'm not the only one that would benefit from this.

What would be nice would be to have all the basic questions covered. Such as...

-Wiring basics (diagrams and how to)
-Tools needed
-Definitions and explanations on how each electronic piece of the bass works. (e.g. pots, capacitors, control board, etc. and how to wire these things properly.)
-Etc.

I know that I would like to know how to:

-Wire new p'ups
-Wire a knob that controls how much sound comes from each pup
-Wire stacked knobs for tone control
-Install a preamp
-Toggle switches, etc

If there is already a thread that has this, I'm sorry for the repetition and could someone point me in the right direction. If not, what do you guys think? Is this a possibility?

[Indiana Mike]

maybe a FAQ forum could be formed, right now stickies and searches can do the same thing with some effort.

I like the idea but who is going to put it together and keep it properly formatted?

[Michael Henson]

I don't know. I'm sure that the info is probably out there somewhere already it would just take some of the TB veterans that know where it is (or the ones that put it out there in the first place) posting up links and then maybe a mod could consolidate it all...

I have family that lives in Haubstadt just a few minutes from you. Same last name as me...ever run into them? Prolly not.

[luknfur]

FWIW:

I've started to do something along this lines a couple times just to cut down on some repetivitive posting. I lose steam before long because it's boring. No way to cover all the basses and even covering the basics gets involved. There's more to go wrong than right simply becuase there's no standard anything.

Specific wirings was not part of the plan, requires a diagram not words, and there are endless wiring schemes - most of which are out there with a little bit of searching. Mostly in parts and you have to patch the parts together but that's actually a lot more simple than it sounds. It's usually finding a piece that is more difficult and time consuming.

[Michael Henson]

So basically I need to get the parts that I want to install and then find wiring diagrams to follow when wiring everything together?

[luknfur]

Originally Posted by Michael Henson

So basically I need to get the parts that I want to install and then find wiring diagrams to follow when wiring everything together?

If you basically know what you want and know the parts are available, then I would put the diagram together first then get the parts. The diagram and your parts list may change in the process of doing the diagram and why by parts till you know how they go together.

[Michael Henson]

Pardon my newbiness but how do I go about putting a diagram together?

[luknfur]

Originally Posted by Michael Henson

Pardon my newbiness but how do I go about putting a diagram together?

Google, TB search, virtually all pup makers have diagrams on their site, seems some are listed in FAQ, guitarelectronics.com has them.

Wiring is basically wiring - bass or guitar doesn't matter. If what you want is V/V/T then find any V/V/T diagram and it will work. Yeh you can wire differently but that wiring diagram will still get the job done and the main thing is to get one that works. You can expand from there if you want.

If you have no experience with wiring, then you probably shouldn't be piecing (mixing) diagrams till you understand the basics. That comes from experience not reading. There have been engineering students on this site who couldn't even wire a simple harness to work.

All pickups are basically a single coil with a hot and ground or some variation there of. Active pickup you add a battery lead. If what you've got is beyond that and you don't understand it, then wisdom would dictate a project scaled to capability. You will learn and expand over time.


When you start messing with preamps you've got the manufacturer sites and if it takes more than that, probably a good idea to pass on that project unless you're just wanting to throw in something simple like a cutoff switch.

The main thing in the beginning and ALWAYS in trouble shooting is to keep it simple and NEVER assume anything - VERIFY.

[Michael Henson]

Alright, thanks.