volume drop when coil tapping

[wshines1892]

I love the sound my bass gets when I have coil tapping engaged, but it's annoying at times because I have a significant volume drop when I flip the switch. Is there any wiring tricks I could use to counter this?

[line6man]

That's normal.

You could try switching in a trimmer pot to attenuate the output in full coil mode.

[Chasarms]

I am assuming the coils are series when both are on. That would certainly explain the big volume drop. It would also happen in parallel, but to a lesser degree.

It is the nature of the beast. The only way I can think of to "balance" the output would be to design a circuit that has appropriate resistance with both coils in. It would, in effect, be a pre-set volume knob that attenuates the output to balance the single coil mode. You would then set all the other levels from there.

What would be really cool would be to do this and wire the resistance on a push=pull or mini toggle so you could bypass it. It would then serve as a "boost" switch when the "need" arose.

[Chasarms]

Originally Posted by line6man

That's normal.

You could try switching in a trimmer pot to attenuate the output in full coil mode.

I like the trim pot idea better. It would allow you to fine tune the output balance.

[wshines1892]

What exactly does a trimmer pot do? sorry if that sounds ignorant, I've just never wired anything with one so I'm unfamiliar.

[Chasarms]

Originally Posted by wshines1892

What exactly does a trimmer pot do? sorry if that sounds ignorant, I've just never wired anything with one so I'm unfamiliar.

It's basically a micro potentiometer with enough friction in the attenuator to stay where you put it. They are fairly common on certain makes of onboard preamps to trim output gain, adjust pre-set EQ switches, etc.

[line6man]

Originally Posted by wshines1892

What exactly does a trimmer pot do? sorry if that sounds ignorant, I've just never wired anything with one so I'm unfamiliar.

A trimmer pot is a miniature potentiometer, which you could use as a voltage divider. (A volume pot.)

It's small enough to mount inside your control cavity.

[johnk_10]

i installed a trim pot in my stingray that has a nordstrand MM4.4 in it so when it's in the series mode, it's set at the same level as when in the parallel and split modes (which in my bass are almost exactly the same).

here's a pic of it:

[colcifer]

They're used for set-and-forget things like this. Unfortunately the mod means sacrificing the hot bucker sound . That and loss of high end is what's kept me from doing this myself.

[johnk_10]

i didn't lose any high end on my stingray. there was no tone change whatsoever. it just lowered the volume to match the other settings, but i have heard them do it on some pickups.