Bartolini wiring nightmares...please help!!!

[mlwarriner]

First off, let me preface this by saying that I am not, in any way, shape, form or fashion posting any of this to talk badly about Bartolini, or Best Bass Gear. I'm almost 100% certain that any issues that I'm having are due to my own error and are no fault of either of the other parties mentioned above.


That being said...my Barts sound like 2 tin cans got into a fight over who could be the tinniest. Super low output, no "balls" at all. If I kill all of the highs on my amp (a GBE1200), crank the individual channel gains from 2 or 3 (for my Aerodyne) to nearly 7 or 8, and max the bass boost, i can almost get a tone out of it resembling a bass.

I recently bought and installed the pups myself. I'm not the world's prettiest with a soldering iron, but it's funtional. The pickups in question are one each of a Bart M44CT and one each of a Bart M44BC-B. These were purchased new from Best Bass Gear a few weeks back and arrived completely undamaged, as far as the naked eye could see.

They are wired as explained below. I will post a drawn-out schematic tomorrow, but for tonight I have no way to get the drawing from paper to the virtual world. Sorry.

Anyhow. The whole setup is passive, with 2 volume pots and a jack. No tone controls at all. The wiring is:

Red/White Wires from M44CT to lug 2 of Pot 1
Black/Green/Bare wires from M44CT to case of Pot 1
Lug 1 of Pot 1 to Tip of Jack
Lug 3 of Pot 1 to Sleeve of Jack
Case of Pot 1 to Sleeve of Jack

Red/White wires from M44BC-B to Lug 2 of Pot 2
Black/Green/Bare wires from M44BC-B to case of Pot 2
Lug 1 of Pot 2 to Tip of Jack
Lug 3 of Pot 2 to Sleeve of Jack
Case of Pot 2 to Sleeve of Jack


I know. It's probably more confusing without the schematic, but I'm looking for any help I can get as soon as I can get it. So... But I will post the schematic early tomorrow morning, for those that need it. Hopefully, it really is just something that I've screwed up, and can easily fix.


Please and thanks to any and all with some help for me...

 

[Kalango]

Hi, second post here
I have used some barts and I have never been able to get the kind of sound you are describing. IIRC, if you you want the bobbins in parallel like you are doing, you have to swap the leads of one of the bobbins. Try swapping black and white in each pickup, and please post a reply, I'd like to know how it turns out.

 

[Kalango]

And if you want your pickups in series (just remembered the white and red leads generally come soldered to each other), you have to keep green and bare where they are, unsolder red and white from the pot, solder them (red and white) together and isolate them, solder black to where red/white were, and repeat everything for the other pickup.
You will have:
Black wire from M44CT to lug 2 of Pot 1
Green/Bare wires from M44CT to case of Pot 1
Lug 1 of Pot 1 to Tip of Jack
Lug 3 of Pot 1 to Sleeve of Jack
Case of Pot 1 to Sleeve of Jack
Red/White together and isolated

Black wire from M44BC-B to Lug 2 of Pot 2
Green/Bare wires from M44BC-B to case of Pot 2
Lug 1 of Pot 2 to Tip of Jack
Lug 3 of Pot 2 to Sleeve of Jack
Case of Pot 2 to Sleeve of Jack
Red/White together and isolated

This is the most usual way barts are wired, and this way you will get more output and more mids than if you wire them in parallel.
Let me know what happens.