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Add passive tone to active bass

Syndacate

Syndacate

Feb 11, 2022
62
54
45
italy
#1
Hello everybody. I'm a new owner of a fender precision player plus. It has passive/active capabilities. The only issue is it lacks of the passive tone. I'm wondering if I can replace the volume pot with a concentric One and add also the passive tone. When switched in passive it works also without batteries so it's a real passive bass. I'm thinking that adding the tone just before the jack could be possible.

Can achieve this result somehow?
 
#2
sunbeast said:
Yeah, this is simple. Just pick up a 500K concentric pot like this: CTS Stacked Concentric Pot, 500k/500k Audio
And wire the Blend/Tone/Volume controls like this:
Jazz Bass w/ Master Volume and Balance/Blend Control

The output of the Volume will go to wherever it currently goes now instead of the jack (presumably to the active/passive switch)
Click to expand...
No, this is wrong. (Sorry, @sunbeast ) In the player plus, the preamp board is attached to the back of the volume pot making it difficult to replace. If you look at the back of the active/passive switch, it bypasses the preamp, and is a better place to attach a tone pot. But, the only other workable pot is the mid control, and I don't know if anyone makes a concentric pot with the correct value to keep the mid working. (not sure TBH)

Another option would be to find an American Ultra preamp, which does have a tone in passive mode and swap the electronics out. Probably cheaper to go with a third party preamp--the player plus preamp isn't all that fabulous anyhow.

I was also thinking about simply using an internal trim pot to set a fixed mid control and take over the spot on the pickguard for a tone knob.

Or can just live with it.
 
#3
Huh, I looked for pictures of the pre before posting and this was the only picture that came up and has what I assumed to be the Bass/Treble attached to the circuitboard. Are we talking about different basses? Or does the Player Plus use a stacked Volume/Volume instead of a Blend/Volume (there appears to be a Blend control in the picture)? Edit: maybe the Volume on the circuitboard is a dual-gang pot (one active volume, one passive volume) rather than a concentric pot like I imagined?
upload_2023-12-26_14-11-22.png

Fender Player Plus Active Precision P Bass PICKUPS POTS KNOBS, BATTERY PACK SET | eBay

Anyway, sorry @Syndacate if I steered you wrong, I must admit I haven’t seen one of these in person
 
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#4
sunbeast said:
Huh, I looked up for pictures of the pre before posting and this was the only picture that came up and has what I assumed to be the Bass/Treble attached to the circuitboard. Are we talking about different basses? Or does the Player Plus use a stacked Volume/Volume instead of a Blend/Volume (there appears to be a Blend control in the picture)? Edit: maybe the Volume on the circuitboard is a dual layer pot (one active volume, one passive volume) rather than a concentric like I imagined?
View attachment 5295832
Fender Player Plus Active Precision P Bass PICKUPS POTS KNOBS, BATTERY PACK SET | eBay
Click to expand...
That's the electronics in question. Going right to left, pot attached to the board is volume, then a typical dual blend pot, stacked bass/treble, active/passive mini switch, then solo mid control. Volume not concentric, so I think you're correct it's separate volumes for active/passive.
 
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#12
If you're still interested in doing this, I just successfully added a passive tone control to my Player Plus Precision Bass. The parts you need are a 100K / 100K concentric pot with centre detents (Fender part number 0053736000) and a 47nF capacitor, plus a small length of wire. You will also need a pair of concentric control knobs to match the existing bass / treble ones.

The parts list and diagram for the American Deluxe Precision Bass (2013) can be downloaded and was useful. The Deluxe is another bass that has a passive tone control concentric to the active mid control, and the parts list shows that both of its concentric pots are the dual 100K type. Luckily I found that when I opened my Player Plus and removed the mid control, it too is 100K.

Ideally I would have liked the passive tone concentric with the master volume, as I feel that makes more sense, but a couple of things prevent that - as mentioned above the Player Plus' volume pot is integral with the pre-amp board, and also a different taper is required for volume controls (audio) versus tone controls with a centre detent (linear), so that would make finding such a control very unlikely without messing around swapping internals.

To carry out the mod I basically copied what Fender did with the Deluxe, using the parts layout document. I soldered the capacitor between the active / passive switch and the bottom concentric pot, so that the new tone control only works in passive mode. I did consider making it always in circuit for extra control in active mode, but decided I'd rather be able to switch tones by a simple flick of the active switch. If you did want to have the tone control permanent it could be achieved by soldering the capacitor to the centre pin of the switch instead of the end one shown (at the same side of 3 pins). The existing active mid wires are simply soldered to the corresponding pins of the new concentric pot's top control.

The only slight complication is that the Fender pot mentioned is not metal bodied as the original mid control was, and the original is used as an earth star connection point, with about 4 wires soldered to it. What I had to do was solder one of those wires to the edge of the new pot's mounting washer (right at the edge, or the pot won't sit flush), and then join the other earth wires to this one. One of the end pins of the new tone control's pot needs to link to these.

Here are a couple of photos (sorry the labels aren't easy to read).

Before:
20240225_175054.jpg


After:
After with connections.jpg


One remaining issue for me is that I can't find a pair of chrome control knobs to match the bass / treble ones! I've only been able to locate the bottom knob for sale. If anyone knows where I can find either the top one (part number 0049458000) or preferably both of these for sale at the same place (bottom one is part number 0049457000), as I'm not in the USA where most are, and the postage is ridiculous, I'd be really grateful.
 
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#13
Great work!!!! You have definitively transformed yout player plus in the ultra!!

Finally I decided to replace the whole preamp with another one. After some test i decided that the original preamp was not so good for my tastes: even in flat, when switching to active there was a boost of volume and the tone was different. I like instead, preamp that in flat does not change the tone of the instrument.

I Installed a Breda Audio preamp and I'm very happy with that. I really love and I have the passive tone control even in active mode.

Here you can hear it in action...the very beatiuful thing is that...you can always tell that is a P bass...the overall tone of the instrument is well kept

 
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#14
The best way to add a tone control to an active bass is to use the tone control that comes with an EMG active pickup. It is made for the buffered output of a preamp, or an active pickup.

You can't mix-and-match having a tone control with both the active and passive side of a bass. The only thing you can do is put the passive volume and tone both before the preamp. It would be like wiring a P-bass with a typical pickup '62-style, then instead of running the output to the jack, run the output to the preamp and then to the jack.
 
#16
iiipopes said:
You can't mix-and-match having a tone control with both the active and passive side of a bass. The only thing you can do is put the passive volume and tone both before the preamp.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I get what you're saying. I didn't actually try the tone pot wired to both. Part of the reason I wired it the way I did was because I trust Fender did it the best way on the Deluxe.
 
#17
tenpoundpomme said:
If you're still interested in doing this, I just successfully added a passive tone control to my Player Plus Precision Bass. The parts you need are a 100K / 100K concentric pot with centre detents (Fender part number 0053736000) and a 47nF capacitor, plus a small length of wire. You will also need a pair of concentric control knobs to match the existing bass / treble ones.

The parts list and diagram for the American Deluxe Precision Bass (2013) can be downloaded and was useful. The Deluxe is another bass that has a passive tone control concentric to the active mid control, and the parts list shows that both of its concentric pots are the dual 100K type. Luckily I found that when I opened my Player Plus and removed the mid control, it too is 100K.

Ideally I would have liked the passive tone concentric with the master volume, as I feel that makes more sense, but a couple of things prevent that - as mentioned above the Player Plus' volume pot is integral with the pre-amp board, and also a different taper is required for volume controls (audio) versus tone controls with a centre detent (linear), so that would make finding such a control very unlikely without messing around swapping internals.

To carry out the mod I basically copied what Fender did with the Deluxe, using the parts layout document. I soldered the capacitor between the active / passive switch and the bottom concentric pot, so that the new tone control only works in passive mode. I did consider making it always in circuit for extra control in active mode, but decided I'd rather be able to switch tones by a simple flick of the active switch. If you did want to have the tone control permanent it could be achieved by soldering the capacitor to the centre pin of the switch instead of the end one shown (at the same side of 3 pins). The existing active mid wires are simply soldered to the corresponding pins of the new concentric pot's top control.

The only slight complication is that the Fender pot mentioned is not metal bodied as the original mid control was, and the original is used as an earth star connection point, with about 4 wires soldered to it. What I had to do was solder one of those wires to the edge of the new pot's mounting washer (right at the edge, or the pot won't sit flush), and then join the other earth wires to this one. One of the end pins of the new tone control's pot needs to link to these.

Here are a couple of photos (sorry the labels aren't easy to read).

Before:
View attachment 5364905

After:
View attachment 5364908

One remaining issue for me is that I can't find a pair of chrome control knobs to match the bass / treble ones! I've only been able to locate the bottom knob for sale. If anyone knows where I can find either the top one (part number 0049458000) or preferably both of these for sale at the same place (bottom one is part number 0049457000), as I'm not in the USA where most are, and the postage is ridiculous, I'd be really grateful.
Click to expand...
Hey man, congrats on getting this figured out!
Was wondering if you could post a video or something so that I can hear what the new passive tone control sounds like, if it actually sounds like a traditional p-bass tone roll off.
I am interested in making this mod myself, but just want to be sure it will be worth the time and pain.

Also is this the parts diagram you used?

http://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10001/019-407A_SISD.pdf
 
#18
BEEFY JOE said:
Hey man, congrats on getting this figured out!
Was wondering if you could post a video or something so that I can hear what the new passive tone control sounds like, if it actually sounds like a traditional p-bass tone roll off.
I am interested in making this mod myself, but just want to be sure it will be worth the time and pain.

Also is this the parts diagram you used?

http://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10001/019-407A_SISD.pdf
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yes, that's the one.

I will try and get you a good recording of the sound (but I'm a bass novice and my little practice amp doesn't sound good when recorded from the speaker).

What I'll say is that, if you can solder and are familiar with basic electronics, it's absolutely worthwhile. It's cheap to do, and currently I'm finding myself using the bass in passive mode more than active. With the tone at about 25% and the pickup balance about 90% on the neck pickup, it sounds amazing.

I haven't been able to find a top concentric knob to match the active treble one though. I found and fitted a bottom one to the new control, but I've had to put the full-size mid knob on top. I contacted Fender about a replacement one, and they can't supply them - which I think is outrageous for something that's current production and fitted to newly made examples!
 

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