Tone capacitor upgrade in Vintage Bass

[Meddle]

Next question, cloth wiring for vintage tone? Yay or nay?

[johnson79]

Originally Posted by Meddle

Next question, cloth wiring for vintage tone? Yay or nay?

Silk wrapped, for a silky tone.

[bumperbass]

How about this.......take a pair of cutters and cut the wire going to the tone control. Forget about caps and tone pots altogether. That's what I'm thinking of doing, expecially when I read of 'creamy sounding caps'. Wow. A little knowledge can be.....oh nevermind. lol

[line6man]

Originally Posted by bumperbass

How about this.......take a pair of cutters and cut the wire going to the tone control. Forget about caps and tone pots altogether. That's what I'm thinking of doing, expecially when I read of 'creamy sounding caps'. Wow. A little knowledge can be.....oh nevermind. lol

Or you could just add a push/pull switch to bypass the tone control when you want a brighter tone. Depending on the pot value and signal impedance, bypassing the tone control doesn't always yield a difference in tone, however. why not just leave it as it is?

[bumperbass]

Yes, I could. Next time I have a need to take my P apart, I just might do this. Thank you.

[Troph]

Originally Posted by line6man

Or you could just add a push/pull switch to bypass the tone control when you want a brighter tone. Depending on the pot value and signal impedance, bypassing the tone control doesn't always yield a difference in tone, however. why not just leave it as it is?

If 250 kOhms or 500 kOhms to ground is not sufficiently "bypassed" for your tastes, I think it would be easier just to use these "bypass" pots instead... as the wiper approaches maximum resistance, eventually it will "click" and open the circuit entirely. No need to mess with soldering all the extra lugs of a DPST pot.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...ntiometer.html

Personally, I don't think it would make one iota of difference, but then again, I haven't actually tried it myself.

[bumperbass]

Thanks, Troph! Don't know why these aren't more popular. From what I read, this pot doesn't have to be TURNED DOWN to activate the switch. Just go to '11' and it opens up. Nice. Even better than trying to get a grip on a push-pull pot!
Much obliged.

[johnson79]

Is this the same as the Fender "no load" pot? The fender comes with a .022 cap.
Would that cap value be creamy and/or silky?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...r?src=3WWRWXGP

[Troph]

Originally Posted by johnson79

Is this the same as the Fender "no load" pot? The fender comes with a .022 cap.
Would that cap value be creamy and/or silky?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...r?src=3WWRWXGP

Yes, for a tone bypass, that CTS no-load package would work just fine.

The StewMac version is a bit more sophisticated and flexible.

[FourtyOneHz]

Since I'm out of commission with the flu bug, I finally got around to putting the Fender Original pickup I received as a Christmas gift into my bass. While I was in there I decided to change the pots (from whatever (unmarked) to CTS) and output jack (to Switchcraft). I also decided that a fun little mod would be to add a switch to change capacitor values - from the .1uf they used in 62 to the .047uf they use now.

Funny thing is, I can't hear much of a difference between them... There is one, but it's very subtle. It makes me wonder if caps really make much of a difference at all. I used the green mylar caps that I bought from a local electronic supply shop, and both tested within their tolerances (10%) with my multimeter.

Edit: Just put on a set of Rotosound Swing Bass strings and I can definitely hear the difference now.

[Meddle]

Maybe not a big shift between 0.1uF and 0.047uF... I made a varitone (true varitone with the inductor) and the 0.1uF and 0.047uF I had on there did little to nothing in terms of changing the tone.

Where it was interesting was up with the 0.022uF, 0.005uF sorta values. Sure these are 'guitar' capacitors, but the exciting parts of the bass tone that you notice the change in the most is up at these values altering the treble frequencies.

[FourtyOneHz]

Originally Posted by Meddle

Maybe not a big shift between 0.1uF and 0.047uF... I made a varitone (true varitone with the inductor) and the 0.1uF and 0.047uF I had on there did little to nothing in terms of changing the tone.

Where it was interesting was up with the 0.022uF, 0.005uF sorta values. Sure these are 'guitar' capacitors, but the exciting parts of the bass tone that you notice the change in the most is up at these values altering the treble frequencies.

I take back what I said... After posting that I put a new set of Rotosound Swing Bass 66s on and could clearly hear a huge difference between the two (not to mention what the new pickup really sounded like). Here's to new/better strings!