Volume and Tone Knobs are lame!!!!????

[<faultsthanCali]

I know it's possible but how hard would it be to remove the volume and tone knob from my bass. I would just have to reroute the signal wires from the quarter inch jack to the pickups right. Or are these knobs that integral to the routing of the signal.
??? hmmm ???

[Stumbo]

Pretty easy to do. Do you have any pickup switching, otherwise just bypass everything.
I saw a picture of Rocco Prestia, (Tower of Power) playing a PBass with no vol/tone controls.

[fourstringdrums]

All you do is wire the pickups directly to the jack.

[barebones]

No problem. Just go for it! Be careful not to punch a hole in the fabric of the space-time continuum, though.

Matt

[fourstringdrums]

Originally Posted by stringbass69

No problem. Just go for it! Be careful not to punch a hole in the fabric of the space-time continuum, though.

Matt

..and don't cross the streams...I mean, wires.

[ROGI]

dont you dare mess with superstrings !
you don't want burst of gravitons around your bass, now don't you?!

ontopic, yes it's kinda cool to have bass without any pots, i belive you would more likely be paying attention to you technique, since both volume and tone are now going from you fingers , not your pots. i was considering to ask luthier i now to build me a bass withou pots. just a buffer (active preamp), one humbucker and that's all

[PilbaraBass]

as a suggestion, you could replace both pots with switches...

the volume pot should be a 2-way switch...mute/full volume.

the tone should be a 3-way switch...tone roll-off 1/tone bypass (wide open)/ tone roll-off 2

tone roll off 1 = 10k resistor in series with a 0.047uF shunt capacitor
tone roll off 2 = 0.1uF shunt capacitor (no resistor)

[Davo-London]

The Fender Mark Hoppus bass wiring might be of use.

IMHO losing the volume control is not a great idea. If you have to pause in a set, put your bass down, change cables, check your tuning, indeed play quieter or louder a volume control is useful.

I support the idea of no other knobs but losing volume could be a step too far ...

Davo

[Rickett Customs]

Originally Posted by Davo-London

The Fender Mark Hoppus bass wiring might be of use.

IMHO losing the volume control is not a great idea. If you have to pause in a set, put your bass down, change cables, check your tuning, indeed play quieter or louder a volume control is useful.

I support the idea of no other knobs but losing volume could be a step too far ...

Davo

+1 do a "kill" switch instead.

[Bob the bassist]

Except for my active 5 string, I've ripped all the pots out of my basses. Removing the resistance shifts the resonant point of the pickups upwards, so you get brighter tone. I never use V/T pots, anyway; they're always up full, so I don't miss the knobs a bit. I just ran new bits of shielded wire from each pickup and hooked them in parallel to the jack. Simple. Sounds great.

[Bassamatic]

My old 70's Hagstrom had a "Mute" switch, and it was SO HANDY that I have installed them in all my passive basses. It just shorts the output to ground, so it is dead silent, no problems when you set the bass down, etc.

[4Mal]

Originally Posted by PilbaraBass

as a suggestion, you could replace both pots with switches...

the volume pot should be a 2-way switch...mute/full volume.

the tone should be a 3-way switch...tone roll-off 1/tone bypass (wide open)/ tone roll-off 2

tone roll off 1 = 10k resistor in series with a 0.047uF shunt capacitor
tone roll off 2 = 0.1uF shunt capacitor (no resistor)

Nice idea - might be implemented with a mini / trim pot under the hood rather than a fixed resistor though. That way you can dial in the amount of roll off.

Originally Posted by Alembicplyr

+1 do a "kill" switch instead.

kill switch on board ? Gleck ... I'd much prefer to step on a tuner mute ... a Korg DT-10 is a better answer IMO.

[Frank Tuesday]

Fill one of the holes with a series parallel switch. I don't know what to do with the other. Anyone know where to get P and J pickguards without predrilled pot holes?

[DavePlaysBass]

You can always fill one of the holes with a dummy. When someone complains about the bass tone or volume, just adjust the dummy pot or switch and see if they like it better.

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by Frank Tuesday

Anyone know where to get P and J pickguards without predrilled pot holes?

Check out this thread:
Jazz bass pickguard doesn't fit my new geddy lee

[fruity2x]

LMAO DavePlaysBass!!!!! GREAT idea!!!!

[pbass2go]

Originally Posted by DavePlaysBass

You can always fill one of the holes with a dummy.

Thats what we did in the band, we hired a drummer.