BB604 Upgrades

[Blackfishfinger]

I'm in the brainstorming stage of doing an electronics/pickups upgrade to my Yamaha BB604. Considering going with EMG RT's (vertically-challenged EMG J with a bling-bling metal cover), paired with an EMG BQS preamp. I'd likely be getting 4 single & 1 concentric Gotoh gold metal knobs to replace the plastic-fantastic knobs that come with the BQS. Would you consider this a viable upgrade path, or a wombat (waste of money brains and time)?

If viable, this upgrade would leave an orphaned toggle switch, which I'm thinking could be reused in an added circuit (ideas anyone?), or replaced with a different toggle (3-position, etc) for a (insert suggestions here) circuit.

Looking for ideas here, nothing has been purchased as yet, I've just got an itch to bust out the soldering iron &/or crimpers to make this a "better" bass.

 

[dwizum]

The BQS is a really nice preamp and it works great with EMG J's.

Lots of things you could do with the extra switch. The BQC has mini dip switches on it to select the treble frequency, if I had one in a bass with a spare toggle I'd be tempted to wire the toggle to those switches to allow an external treble frequency select. Since the BQS already has a mid sweep, having a treble frequency select too would be really cool.

 

[Blackfishfinger]

The BQS is a really nice preamp and it works great with EMG J's.

Lots of things you could do with the extra switch. The BQC has mini dip switches on it to select the treble frequency, if I had one in a bass with a spare toggle I'd be tempted to wire the toggle to those switches to allow an external treble frequency select. Since the BQS already has a mid sweep, having a treble frequency select too would be really cool.

That sounds like a great idea!

It looks like a DP4T toggle with on/on, off/on, on/off, off/off is a pretty rare beast, but I was able to find a pushbutton switch that may fit the bill:
54-662 | Push Button Switch - DP4T Sequential 6A, ON/OFF->OFF/ON->ON/ON->OFF/OFF

I may be able to find a rotary that would also fit the bill, hopefully without having to bore the hole bigger, or washer-ing it down to size.

Thanks!

 

[dwizum]

Probably no need to do a literal swap for the dip switches. It's likely the case that each one switches a resistor in (or out, if left off) of the circuit. You could replace one dip switch with a plain on-off or on-on toggle and get some switching range. Or replace one dip switch with your toggle plus a new resistor to get a different range. Something creative like that would probably be easier than doing it all in a big switch or dial, but then again a big switch or dial could be cool too.

 

[Blackfishfinger]

A 2-position concentric switch would work, I think, if i could find one. So far searches for "2 position concentric switch" are just giving me results for mobile radios with said switch...