Basses with minimal knobs and switches.

[lz4005]

No knobs, no switches, no tuners, no nothn’
View attachment 3242730

It has all of the above, on the back.

OP: One of my favorite basses is an inexpensive Ibanez with nothing but a mute switch between the one pickup and output jack. It works great and I can get any tone I need out of it by changing my right hand technique. Don't be afraid to remove anything you don't want in an instrument.

 

[Mustang Surly]

Fender P-Bass-JR:

 

[bassville pete]

View attachment 3241907

wow that's it

 

[Hues]

Dusty has a few...

 

[bassville pete]

Amen to that.

 

[cnltb]

Dusty has a few...

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Is that a volume knob ir a tone knob or...?

 

[whero]

A p-bass only has two knobs, but don't use them. The 'tone' knob is a decoration. The 'volume' knob should only be used if the bandleader is having a fit, and threatening to fire you.

...and then you turn it up!

 

[lowphatbass]

 

[Hues]

Is that a volume knob ir a tone knob or...?

I asked that same thing a little while back....The only answer I got was "The tone is in the wood."

 

[cnltb]

I asked that same thing a little while back....The only answer I got was "The tone is in the wood."

Excellent.
So one is to assume that it is a volume knob then?
Would make sense.
I'd go with a kill switch instead.

 

[fourstr00]

Buy any bass and remove knobs and switches.

Works for me. On a semi-hollow it also means you get more holes for the sound to come out the front.

 

[funkmaster p]

 

[ZBirdV8]

 

[5StringBlues]

If you want volume and tone you could always go with a concentric pot:

 

[eccles77]

Steve Harris`s famous P bass is wired straight to the jack as he sweats so much it knackers the pots. The knobs are only for show.

 

[fermata]

Basses with only wires between the pickup(s) and output jack sound harsh to me, but one can preserve the no-knob simplicity by simulating the volume/tone pots putting a fixed resistor or two in parallel with the circuit to tame the resonant spikes.

Ralf Gauck has a Franz fretless with one (tone) knob and a switch (kill? series/parallel?).

 

[biguglyman]

Carvin used to make a Timothy B. Schmidt model LB20 with just a volume knob. I believe it was passive and had 2 Jazz style pickups.

 

[Kikegg]

Steve Harris`s famous P bass is wired straight to the jack as he sweats so much it knackers the pots. The knobs are only for show.

I don't really know if this is true, just an urban legend or whatever but for me it is strange. I mean, if you watch the Life After Death video, he plays with his knobs (I can't remember if volume, tone or both) on The Rime of the Ancient Mariner song in the creepy middle section several times, IIRC. So his bass should be standard wired.