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blend knobs - yay or nay?
- Thread starter Bass V
- Start date
I prefer a blend knob to the dual volume method. The one thing I really disliked about my Fender Jazz was the dual volume configuration. On my other jazz basses, I usually found my sweet spot and left it alone - and had easy volume control. Overall volume control is more difficult with the dual volume model.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,045
- 45,909
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
For me, has to be blend. Sometimes, i want like a 75%-25% sound, and doing that with knobs drives me crazy, ocd.
You could say, ‘why would you care that they’re 75-25? And I’d say, ‘shut up.’
You could say, ‘why would you care that they’re 75-25? And I’d say, ‘shut up.’
In BVT you can set your mix of pickups and then adjust the volume without affecting the mix. In VVT you cannot adjust the volume on the bass once you have the pickup mix. You have to change it on a pedal or on the amp.
You could do a blend pot but instead of the output of each pickup going to the same place after leaving the blend pot, send two outputs to the separate output jack. Only I agree it would be less versatile and would probably need a selector switch.
The idea with the three way switch comes from electric guitars wired in parallel like a les Paul. You would dial in the neck pickup for rhythm and the bridge pickup for lead and then you could quickly switch between the two and ignore the middle position which would sound worse.
I have a bass that was VVT with a PJ configuration. Switch to VBT, sounded nice on my own, but I found that just a pickup switch is more usefull live, as I play in a rock band and the infinite subtility of blended tones gets lost in the mix, and it faster to me to flip a switch when I need to change tone. If I'd did recording, I would have stayed with the VVT though.
I'm on the fence.
I just got a PJ bass and I dont know what to do with it. I'm mainly a P guy these days, I bought this PJ cause of the neck. I love the single volume of the P, so I was considering trying a blend. So far if discovered I dont like both full on, it sucks the life right out of the P pickup. And I'm trying to decide if I like the J pickup at all. I generally like J basses, apart from fiddling with 2 volumes, the JJ pickups seem to compliment each other better. in the PJ I just wanna shut off the J!
So if anyone loves a blend in their PJ, I wanna hear from you!
I just got a PJ bass and I dont know what to do with it. I'm mainly a P guy these days, I bought this PJ cause of the neck. I love the single volume of the P, so I was considering trying a blend. So far if discovered I dont like both full on, it sucks the life right out of the P pickup. And I'm trying to decide if I like the J pickup at all. I generally like J basses, apart from fiddling with 2 volumes, the JJ pickups seem to compliment each other better. in the PJ I just wanna shut off the J!
So if anyone loves a blend in their PJ, I wanna hear from you!
You articulated what I was thinking. Perhaps independent V controls? Tone and Master Volume?. I think a single pup with a Volume control thru a Fender Volume / Tone pedal would do the trick.
I put a blend on a recent Ric clone build, works pretty well. Changing volume independently on a two pup bass necessarily changes the tone as well, as the relative mix changes. I wired it Master Volume/Blend/Master Tone. I haven’t seen any real downside so far. What’s the knock on a blend?
6 of one, half dozen of the other. Really makes no difference to me as I always dime both pickups anyway.
Reverend Thundergun
PICKUP PAN CONTROL
This control allows you to blend the two pickups with one knob. Roll in the bridge pickup for more midrange punch, or bring up the neck pickup for more low thump and open highs. Dialing in the perfect tone has never been easier!
These guys use it.
It works.
What more do you need?
PICKUP PAN CONTROL
This control allows you to blend the two pickups with one knob. Roll in the bridge pickup for more midrange punch, or bring up the neck pickup for more low thump and open highs. Dialing in the perfect tone has never been easier!
These guys use it.
It works.
What more do you need?
I'm on the fence as I tend to run pure selections: 100% neck, 50/50 both pickups, sometimes 100% bridge. Whether it's VVT, VBT (or 3 way switch, for that matter) or active/passive doesn't make a lot of difference. In the end, as I pretty much use the volume to just shut down the signal in between songs, during a break, etc... rarely for volume adjustment on the fly. That said, it's easier to turn down one pot vs two, but not by much.
Also, a M/N taper blend pot is superior to the A/C for my purposes. When I installed a new harness and pickups in my P/J, I went with V, (ungrounded M/N) Blend, Tone so I could try that wiring out. Works perfectly.
If you really wanted to trick out bass with push/pull functions, VVT does give 3 pots to do so.
Also, a M/N taper blend pot is superior to the A/C for my purposes. When I installed a new harness and pickups in my P/J, I went with V, (ungrounded M/N) Blend, Tone so I could try that wiring out. Works perfectly.
If you really wanted to trick out bass with push/pull functions, VVT does give 3 pots to do so.
When I was full time touring, our band usually didn't waste much time between songs. I found my Ibanez basses with blend controls very handy along with T/M/B controls to get a quick change in tone. Imagine going from a deep throaty tone to a more midrangey tone like on "Talking in Your Sleep." If you understand your bass's wiring configuration intuitively, then it's easy to make big tone modifications in seconds. That brings another good point. Blend controls are very intuitive once you're used to them. Not to mention very effective.
Epiphany!
I haven't run into a situation (yet) where this would matter, but I can see how it can. I have a PJ in queue that I'll be getting to in the next few months. I had originally thought to go regular V/V/T for the harness, but now I want to try the B/V/T. I've already contacted "my wiring harness guy" about this.
I've been all over the place with this. I bought my first Jazz bass a couple years ago after years of using active basses with pan pots (or 'blend' knobs) and thought (and still think) it's aggravating having to run two volume pots to set my overall gain.
Better ears than me think this works better than some supposed loss with a single pan pot, and maybe it does, but it just seems unnecessarily aggravating to work this way instead of one knob for gain, and one knob for blend; I'm sure a lot of it is what I got used to over a long period of time. I just prefer that it's quicker for me if I want more back-pickup tone or more neck-pickup tone, and to be able to turn up or down on one knob.
But then, I played 80's Yamaha BB's that were all wired up vol/tone/pickup switch and got by just fine with front, back, or both, and the resulting tones, so it only proves once again just how fickle human beings can be.
Better ears than me think this works better than some supposed loss with a single pan pot, and maybe it does, but it just seems unnecessarily aggravating to work this way instead of one knob for gain, and one knob for blend; I'm sure a lot of it is what I got used to over a long period of time. I just prefer that it's quicker for me if I want more back-pickup tone or more neck-pickup tone, and to be able to turn up or down on one knob.
But then, I played 80's Yamaha BB's that were all wired up vol/tone/pickup switch and got by just fine with front, back, or both, and the resulting tones, so it only proves once again just how fickle human beings can be.
After playing V/V/T Jazz basses for over 30 years, I'd have a hard time getting used to a blend pot. I vary from bridge to neck pups depending on the song and sometimes for different sections of a song. It might be easier with just one knob to turn, but I can make changes with my right thumb and forefinger almost automatically without looking. So, for me, I see no reason to change.
B.
B.
