Vintage J-Bass Tone control question

[gary2nd]

I have a stock '62 J-bass with the standard 2 volume, 1 tone, controls. At every setting of the volume controls whenever I turn the tone control toward treble the volume of the bass noticeably increases. Conversely when I turn the tone control toward bass the volume decreases. Over time I've learned to live with it but I'd like to hear if any other j-bassist's have this experience and what they've done about it.

Thanks

[luknfur]

FWIW:

it's been so long since I've had a tone control on a bass I don't recall.

One thing's for sure, brighter tones are more audible to the human ear regardless of any actual variation in output. I used to play guitar in a band witha 25 watt tube amp with room to spare. You don't do that with bass.

[Baleen]

Failing just being wired incorrectly, perhaps it is one the following:
- wrong value (or bad) capacitor
The tone knob set all the way up passes the full pickup signal. Tone rolled back or down shunts higher frequencies to ground, eliminating them. If the cap is the wrong value (or is bad) and is shunting too much to ground, it could result in a significant volume drop.
- failing pickups
If there's no bottom end left in the pickups, then rolling off high frequencies could roll off most of the signal.

If there's plenty of bottom end with the tone all the way up, I'd look at the tone cap.

[gary2nd]

Thanks for the information. I decided it would help to let you hear what I was trying to describe. The MP3 has three sets of the same scale. The first is the tone control set midway, the second is tone set maximum, third is tone set to minimum.

Click to play

[Reefer]

My '62 does the same thing. This is normal. If your bass is original I wouldn't touch it.

[Nighttrain1127]

Sounds like the Tone pot is loading the system down as the tone is rolled off. I have two newer Jazz basses that had this problem and It was solved by replacing the tone pot. But if you have an actual vintage jazz You might want to consider living with it to preserve the value of the bass.

[gary2nd]

Thanks Reefer and Nighttrain1127. Yes it is an original. See picture. It's a one owner. I bought it new in my teens. I've already decided to not change it. I was wondering if any other vintage j-bass players have had a similar experience.