90's US Peavey Foundation 5 w passive VFL's (?) opinions

You have stated the entire G.A.S. problem in your post. You already own a bass that works great for you. You like it a lot and find it has many attributes. Still....you are thinking of something....more...different...!

I own one Foundation with the later VFL single coil PU's. Mine is a fretless 4 string and it is a great bass but I do wish the PU's were dual coils because hum can be a problem.

A bass model that goes for bargain prices that may interest you is the Peavey Axcelerator 5 string. They are not common but have several things that could be considered an upgrade from your Foundation. The Axcelerator 5 is a 35" scale bass with active humbucker VFL PU's, a two band 18 volt active EQ and a slender neck profile. They also have a Pau Ferro fingerboard.

I own a 6 string Axcelerator and it is a killer bass that I bought for less than $400.

Or...OR....you could resist the G.A.S. and decide to be satisfied with your Foundation.

 

It's not the same pickups. The Axcelerator 4's & 5's have active VFL powered by 9v battery same as the Cirrus and Millennium basses. The pickups in the later Foundations only use the same covers as VFLs.

When I think of modern 5 strings, i.e. 80's onwards, Yamaha is the one which springs to mind. That'll be down to Nathan East

 

David

First things is again I'll state you don't have VFL pickups, you have 2 single coils in VFL shaped covers Basically VFL's are humbuckers with a low number of windings, this gives them wide range over the frequencies but means they are of low output. To get round the low output they get a battery power boost.

Here's a link to VFL specs



And Foundation 5, you'll see clearly there's no mention of VFLs being used.

https://assets.peavey.com/literature/manuals/Foundation5.pdf

Now with any single coils you need both working to cancel hum,turn one down and they no longer cancel each other out. Doing a better job of shielding the control cavity will help a tiny amount but there's no escape from single coil hum. Swapping pickups is not easy as I've yet to find anything similar, think Kent Armstrong did something close.

I think a possible solution which I'll need to test but in theory might work. Both USA and BXP Peaveys use the same VFL pickups manufactured in Korea, I'll pop the VFLs out from a Millennium and wire it for single coil. I'm hoping the unused coil will act as a "dummy coil". Expect it'll be Sunday before it's done so bear with me OK

 

Passive VFL style pickups have a lot of mid range, not a lot bass or treble. The tone does stand out in mix though, and it will respond well to onboard or outboard preamps.

 

@DavidEdenAria

The VFL idea needs work as they do need powered. I'll open up the RSB tomorrow,it uses VFLs coupled with passive tone pots. It'll be good news if it's just a 9v connector and a cap or resistor, plenty of room in the Foundation cavity.

 

I had a Foundation 5 and added an EMG BTS control . The pickups and volume controls stay passive , the battery powers the stacked bass and treble controls . Very easy to install and there is enough room in the cavity for the battery . It comes with the Knobs and the battery jack . I think it was about $100 . It worked real well with that bass .

 

Here's a link EMG BTC Control Active and Passive Pickup Input Control - Best Bass Gear

 

This is the reason the Foundation isn't around anymore . I was way too bass heavy at the time and although it could hang with all these basses it was the most expendable . Having too many basses isn't good for me .

 

I once had that EMG BTS Control circuit in a CIJ Jazz Bass. It was great!

 

It’s a very good bass like most US peaveys.

Can do a very good “p bass on steroids” kind of sound using the neck pickup.

If you add active electronics I would reccomend that you do not do a 3 way pickup selector. Keep 2 volumes. These pickups allow for quite a lot of tone variation if you make subtle changes with blending volumes.

 

I’m pretty sure I owned this exact same bass lol. Looks exactly like mine and had the BTS and that same paint chip.

 

That BB5000 looks incredible. Does it have super tight spacing?

 

@DavidEdenAria

I'm not sure they were called anything The BTC suggestion is much better than my crackpot idea so I'll put the VFLs back in the Millennium

 

OP: I highly recommend you stay with the Foundation as they are one of the most underrated basses in history. The feel and sound are top notch. However, if you decide to go with another bass...message me.