Help a noob with his jazz bass!

madbassplaya · #1 09-13-2009, 07:50 AM

I've never really done any modding to any of the basses i've owned, i've just played them as is. Overtime, I realized that I like certain things and have bought a Jb2 which I love, but, I want to change small things on it to they are more of my liking.

Here's what i'd like to do. It's got the V/V/T layout. I don't care for this too much. I want 1 volume knob, 1 pickup selector knob, and a stacked tone knob.

Are these the parts I need?

Stacked Pot:
http://www.warmoth.com/Concentric-Po...S-P720C58.aspx

Regular Pot:
http://www.warmoth.com/500K-Pot-By-CTS-P129C58.aspx

Would I need anything else? Is the 500k pots what the bass needs or does it need 250 k pots?

Sorry for seeming like a noob, but i've never dealt with pots before and wanted to be sure before I ordered.

atheos · #2 09-13-2009, 08:10 AM

Why stacked tone? You want individual tone controls for both PUs? If it's not a "must have" feature you should go for volume-tone-switch setup since all you need then is a simple Gibson-type switch like this: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...le_Switch.html

You'd also need wiring diagram unless you know your way around routing electronics. Basically you just take the other volume off, connect both PUs signal wire into sides of the switch and then connect the center of the switch into the volume pot etc. Very simple thing to do. Stacked tone requires a bit more complicated wiring.

EDIT: OK, you may need to enlargen one hole on the control plate but that shouldn't be a problem to anyone

EDIT2: And you may want to go for blend pot instead of pickup switch because the ability to control the pickup balance brings a lot versatility and control over your tone.

madbassplaya · #3 09-13-2009, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atheos

Why stacked tone?

EDIT2: And you may want to go for blend pot instead of pickup switch because the ability to control the pickup balance brings a lot versatility and control over your tone.

Stacked tone because, I think it would be neat to have tone over both pickups and because I really like the way the stacked knobs look. I was going to do two stacked knobs: V/T, V/T. But that would leave a hole in the body.

And yes, I want a pickup blend pot. What pot does that? Would the 500 k pots work on a J bass?

**line6man** · #4 09-13-2009, 09:15 AM

Quoting myself from a post I just made a few minutes ago:

Quote:

If you didn't know this already, due to the nature of the wiring, any time you have the pickups at an equal volume, the tones will be ran parallel to each other, and whichever one is at the lower setting will affect both pickups.
Having two tone controls in a passive bass is only useful when the pickups are ran at different volumes.

There is one way to fix this though, which is to isolate the tone controls from each other using two resistors, but that kills a lot of your output and treble.

**line6man** · #5 09-13-2009, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madbassplaya

And yes, I want a pickup blend pot. What pot does that? Would the 500 k pots work on a J bass?

I would stick with a 500K.

A blend pot is going to be the equivalent of adding a third volume control, which will further decrease the resistance from signal to ground.

If your bass had 250K pots before, two 500K pots in parallel (blend pot) is 250K

madbassplaya · #6 09-13-2009, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by line6man

I would stick with a 500K.

A blend pot is going to be the equivalent of adding a third volume control, which will further decrease the resistance from signal to ground.

If your bass had 250K pots before, two 500K pots in parallel (blend pot) is 250K

I decided while playing at church, I don't need an extra tone.

Would it be better just to leave it with two volumes?

Thanks