Jag Bass Mod Question...

JoZac21 · #1 01-01-2010, 06:36 PM

Hey all...

I love my jag bass, but I want to have more control over the individual pups, aside from on/off switches and master volume and tone.

I've decided on two configurations:
- a concentric volume/tone control
- pickup blend

OR:

- concentric volume/tone
- concentric volume/tone

Both seem to have some advantages/disadvantages... and the good thing is that neither mod would be invasive...

Thoughts?

(P.S. - I'm also considering a Badass II bridge and a bass mute from http://bassmute.com/)

NickInMesa · #2 01-01-2010, 06:43 PM

There is such a thing as too much control.

In the case of the Jazz, usually 2 assorted pots will let you do your blending properly.

Some pups can be set in single/dual coil mode like for instance the Hot Stack Jazz by Seymour Duncan. My teacher has pull-pots which allow him to switch to the noise cancelling mode or to the more stock sounding single coil mode.

Finding assorted 500K audio pots is a good idea and is a mod I would advise you to try.

Individual tone pots on a Jazz is not a good idea. I tried it and it did not do anything at all, actually. One thing you can try is a rotactor with different value capacitors. Some people have some cool schematics like that on the Web.

Personally I do most of my sound by playing with the EQ and my SansAmp BDDI.

David1234 · #3 01-01-2010, 06:54 PM

One downside with modding a Jag is the locations of all the existing controls. They're spread out and a lot of wires run inside the cavity, and any changes to the existing logic increases the amount of wire e.g. from the blend pot to the preamp then back to the volume pot, which is next to the blend pot ... that's a lot of opportunities to pick up noise and interference. If you want to keep both a blend control and an overall series-parallel switch, that's quite a few wires criss-crossing the cavity.

I'm thinking of tossing my preamp out and using those pots on that top control plate as volume limiters for each pickup (wired in series between each pickup's Hot and it's on-off switch on the bottom control plate) allowing me to simulate a blend control with a slightly more modest increase in wiring.

ANYWAY ... out of your original two options, even though it's more wiring, I'd go for VBT. Two tone controls is counter productive, particularly if you want to retain the series-parallel switch that is one of the few features setting jag bass apart from jazz basses.

NickInMesa · #4 01-01-2010, 07:07 PM

Sorry I misread, did not see he meant a JaG.

JoZac21 · #5 01-01-2010, 07:19 PM

So, it looks like the VBT option is winning... which is what I was thinking. I honestly almost never use the bass in active mode, but I'm a man who likes options (hence why I like the jag bass... and own two jag guitars).

I have a PJ bass w. VVT... would that be a better idea? I just want a little more control over blending the two pups... I get a great sound w. the bass, but being that almost 80% of the time I use it w. both pups on, having more options is preferable.

**line6man** · #6 01-01-2010, 08:05 PM

If you have individual pickup on/off switches than you can't do a blend control unless you get into elaborate multi-pole switching to bypass the blend pot when only one pickup is on.

Having two tones is pretty much useless, as they are going to interact with each other.

JoZac21 · #7 01-02-2010, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by line6man

If you have individual pickup on/off switches than you can't do a blend control unless you get into elaborate multi-pole switching to bypass the blend pot when only one pickup is on.

Having two tones is pretty much useless, as they are going to interact with each other.

Ummm... so VVT then?

(BTW, I have no idea how these things work, as you may have already gathered

)