Tone controls on passive setups / G&L setup

[dlenaghan]

Hi guys, and thank in advance. Got a bit of a strange question here: I recently outfitted an '87 MIJ Fender Jazz Special with a P/J set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders and an active/passive Bartolini 4.5 preamp with the intent of trying to somewhat imitate the control that I had on my recently sold G&L ASAT bass. G&Ls, as many of us know, have preamps that allow for both active and passive operation and a set of controls with one volume, one bass tone, and one treble tone. According to Ken Baker's G&L basses site, in passive mode these controls act as cut controls, and with the preamp toggled to one of the on positions, they provide boost.
On my Bartolini setup, the a/p switch disables the tone controls, which I didn't expect. It's the first time I've put in a preamp, and I got the a/p version in order to play passively as well, and on the whole I personally prefer passive tones to active ones.
Does anyone know the particulars of the G&L setup and how it differs from passive controls, which I've been told never control bass and treble tones separately? Does anyone know of any setups that provide the same kind of control that the G&L setup does? They don't offer either their preamps or their P/J MFD pickups for sale separately, so if I'm interested in putting something like it together, it;s going to be parts here and there.
Thanks guys!

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by dlenaghan

Hi guys, and thank in advance. Got a bit of a strange question here: I recently outfitted an '87 MIJ Fender Jazz Special with a P/J set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders and an active/passive Bartolini 4.5 preamp with the intent of trying to somewhat imitate the control that I had on my recently sold G&L ASAT bass. G&Ls, as many of us know, have preamps that allow for both active and passive operation and a set of controls with one volume, one bass tone, and one treble tone. According to Ken Baker's G&L basses site, in passive mode these controls act as cut controls, and with the preamp toggled to one of the on positions, they provide boost.
On my Bartolini setup, the a/p switch disables the tone controls, which I didn't expect. It's the first time I've put in a preamp, and I got the a/p version in order to play passively as well, and on the whole I personally prefer passive tones to active ones.
Does anyone know the particulars of the G&L setup and how it differs from passive controls, which I've been told never control bass and treble tones separately? Does anyone know of any setups that provide the same kind of control that the G&L setup does? They don't offer either their preamps or their P/J MFD pickups for sale separately, so if I'm interested in putting something like it together, it;s going to be parts here and there.
Thanks guys!

The passive controls in a G&L are rather unique. As far as I know all other active basses work as you say where going to passive mode turns off the EQ. In G&L since tone is passive it doesn't turn off in any mode. This is similar to the setup people put in active Jazz basses where there are normal active bass and treble controls plus the usual passive "tone" control which is a treble roll-off. The active EQ works in active mode and the "tone" as usual works in passive mode (and often in active too depending on the wiring).

Now Leo carries that farther by adding a passive "bass" control as well. Of course if you add these passive tone controls you then end up with four EQ knobs. So Leo just left the active ones off. For high boost he just switches in a preamp with two switchable high boosts.

In a way you could sort of duplicate this by replacing your active tone knobs with passive G&L style controls (passive circuit is right after pickups and before preamp) Then use a minature trimpot in place of the bass control so you can sort of permanently set the bass (you want some boost so "cut" control will give a bit of boost and cut) and then you replace the active treble pot with a couple of switchable resistors to give a couple of settings of treble boost.

That's basically it.