A simple varitone circuit for your bass -

Dark Horse said:
I've been doing these for so long that I just threw them in there, no playing around because I knew how I wanted this bass to sound. But when I started, I tried out a bunch of cap values and materials.

For a big "thump/dub" bass tone, you may want to use a .1uf on the end - something like these values

.001uf
.0047uf
.01uf
.033uf
.1uf

That makes for a versatile, really cool setup.

:)

I want to revive this old thread since I finally got around to putting one in my PJ.

I love it.

I actually don't use the tone knob at all, but thought this would be a fun quick project. I used the values DH listed inthe quoted text above. Imho, Open is best and the second cap is solid, but the .1is he coolest. Thumpy! Gives me that flat wound sound with my nickles. The rest are not all that useful for me, but still a neat setup. I highly recommend this fun little setup.
 
I am thinking about doing one of these again after realizing (for the dozenth time) that when I totally remove the tone pot from the circuit--the lug to the cap to ground is touching the signal without any added resistance in between--there is a sweet resonance from the cap apparently retuning the circuit. I love how it sounds and it goes away the instant I add any tone back in with the pot.
 
Super zombie thread, but just read through and found it really interesting and educating! Considering a varitone-ish control in a new project bass and learned a lot here.

Here's another idea: Because as the capacitance increases, the volume drops as so much signal is getting sucked down the ground drain, you could wire resistors in series with the bigger caps to keep things more even across the board. Not too much to kill the effect, but just enough so it's not a total drop off.

I think having a veritone and tone pot would be too much for me to noodle with, so might also consider having it "under the hood" so I can still tweak it, but not during a show or rehearsal. Could even sneak it into a battery box on the back of the body for slightly quicker restricted access.
 
I guess I've done some thing on similar level, but using toggle and a push/pull on the volume also a 4bit switch, giving a range of 0-5-10-15nF (330pF step ups) and 0-32-64-96nF (2nF step ups)

Also have another toggle that let's me have 15K after (earth/15k) , and a push/pull on the tone that bypasses the tone pot and puts in a 1M5 resister in PAR with the cap

946907_4909250653928_347322392_n.jpg
 
For anyone that may be interested I have just completed a major electronics mod on a SX short scale fretless J-Bass. This mod utilizes a 12 position decade switch with 11 capacitors and a pot for fine tuning. For details with pics please visit This Thread. A lot of my ideas originally came from many of you here on this thread so I thank you all!!

i love this for my jazz bass...need to know where you get your electronics parts.
View attachment 1824691



Thanks again!!
 
Resurrecting an old thread because of an "intrusive thought"... I'm a beginner in electronics and with my limited understanding I have a lot (maybe too much) of ideas; one of these is: is it possible, with a passive circuit like the varitone (the original gibson or the "new" one of this thread) or some other passive circuit, make a pair of thunderbird style humbackers sound like (not same but close) a pair of jazz style single coils with a flick of a switch that applies an "eq preset" (maybe a mid cut or else)?

I mean...the pickups locations are similar, so MAYBE with some eq one could mimic the result effect of a different wired bobin...

And tipically the thundrbird has pickups that are very mid-full as opposed to a jazz bass that is naturally mid scooped...so...intrusive thought: have a bass with thundrbird humbuckers that becomes a sort of a jazz bass with a switch!

Am I crazy?
 
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Resurrecting an old thread because of an "intrusive thought"... I'm a beginner in electronics and with my limited understanding I have a lot (maybe too much) of ideas; one of these is: is it possible, with a passive circuit like the varitone (the original gibson or the "new" one of this thread) or some other passive circuit, make a pair of thunderbird style humbackers sound like (not same but close) a pair of jazz style single coils with a flick of a switch that applies an "eq preset" (maybe a mid cut or else)?

I mean...the pickups locations are similar, so MAYBE with some eq one could mimic the result effect of a different wired bobin...

And tipically the thundrbird has pickups that are very mid-full as opposed to a jazz bass that is naturally mid scooped...so...intrusive thought: have a bass with thundrbird humbuckers that becomes a sort of a jazz bass with a switch!

Am I crazy?
If you get a splittable thunderbird pickup it should get close. You making this bass or buying?
 
I'm making It. The pickups are originals Gibson (Epiphone?) probucker 760 taken from an Epiphone embassy (not the one from the 60s but the recent one). I paid for the entire bass new, less than a set of Mike lulls. And you can find the same PUs in Gibson and Epiphone Thunderbird vintage models (like the Thunderbird IV I think) that cost over a grand.
Great PUs with the classic Thunderbird growl.

But I hate the embassy look and I'm about to build a bass from scratch that will be my "the one" bass. Like a signature but DIY. The design is also original.

I haven't taken the Epiphone apart yet, so I'm not sure if the PUs are with 4 wires but I'm afraid they aren't.
 
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I haven't taken the Epiphone apart yet, so I'm not sure if the PUs are with 4 wires but I'm afraid they aren't.
Well if they’re 4 wire, split the humbuckers. If 2, maybe the grabber schematic (old one not current) may get you the tone you’re looking for. Tbh, an embassy wired like a grabber could be sweet. I’ve seen that schematic a couple of times here on tb. It uses Bill Lawrence’s wiring. Their website seems to be down, so I’m not sure who’s currently building them. I’m sure you could find someone to build you one if you provide schematic though.
 
Everywhere I looked, it says the grabber has quite a standard wiring, with the first model that has a movable pickup (that you can "grab" and move) and the second iteration, the G3 (didn't find any g2 though), with three single coil. But the wiring were VT and a pickup selector switch...

I found another Gibson model, the Ripper, that maybe is what you referred to, that had a mid-cut knob. I found the schematics in another thread here at tb.

Is this what you referred to? Ripper wirings
 
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Everywhere I looked, it says the grabber has quite a standard wiring, with the first model that has a movable pickup (that you can "grab" and move) and the second iteration, the G3 (didn't find any g2 though), with three single coil. But the wiring were VT and a pickup selector switch...

I found another Gibson model, the Ripper, that maybe is what you referred to, that had a mid-cut knob. I found the schematics in another thread here at tb.

Is this what you referred to? Ripper wirings
Yeah that’s it. For some reason I thought it was on the Grabber too.

Here’s the one floating on tb.
IMG_1341.jpeg
 
The problem is to find the component called "Drosselspule" 70-442. I think is translated "inductor" or "choke". That's german and I'm italian so I'm not sure what the actual english translation is. Anyway, even with that numeric code I couldn't find anything online and I'm not sure what to ask in local shops. I think that that's an old component so maybe there is some equivalent? (As if there were an orange drop capacitor: it's not mandatory to use that, it is sufficient to use an equivalent capacitor)
 
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