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Changing potentiometers and wiring - worth it?

K

krzym1

Guest
Oct 4, 2012
18
1
#1
I own a cheap Cort Action bass, which is overall pretty nice but the main issue with this bass is :

- the potentiometers act more like on/off switches instead of fluent regulators

Basically turning them down does pretty much nothing, and then after the treshold at like ~7/8 of the turn they get mute.


After living with that for 2,5 years I'm thinking about changing the wires and potentiometers (not pickups as it would be too expensive and I'd rather buy MM sub instead) but I'm not sure if thats worth the hassle - will it make the situation any better?

I'm familiar with basics of electronics and soldering and my father is pretty good at it if I had any problems ;)
 
#6
To sum it up - I should buy simple linear pots from electronics store and not audio pots (which I seem to have now), did I get it right ? Or is it still worth to buy audio pots as the ones I have might be working that way because they are shite ?

I've also read just now that increasing the pots resistance will make the tone brighter and allow more high freqs to pass - is it worth getting 500k instead of 250k if I want my bass to sound a bit brighter and cutting through ?
 
#7
Most cheap audio or log taper pots have a noticeable spot where they change resistance. From what you are describing, this sounds like your problem.

You should just try higher quality pots.

Usually, volume is audio taper and tone is linear. But, by all means experiment and see what you prefer.

You should probably just make a whole new harness.

Get a piece of cardboard and cut it out in the shape of your control cavity and poke holes in it where the holes are in your cavity. Make sure you have the orientation correct. You can use the cardboard to hold everything together while you are soldering and make sure you have all the wires just the right length. Save the pickup for last, obviously after you have removed the harness from the cardboard and installed it in the bass. And when soldering pickups, try not to heat the lead for any longer or hotter than you have to or you might melt the windings.
Good luck
 
Last edited:
#8
MVE said:
Usually, volume is audio taper and tone is linear.
Click to expand...

Tone controls are very rarely linear taper. Though volume pot tapers are highly debatable, tone controls should always use audio taper pots. This is because the ideal behavior is to have a very high resistance at the end of the rotation to "bypass" the control when desired, but a considerably lower range of resistance throughout the rest of the rotation, to allow the control to work properly. Audio taper pots are perfect for this, as there is a steep dropoff in resistance at the last fifth or so of the rotation. When a linear taper pot is used, you generally see an on/off switch behavior, because you have to roll down very far before you get the resistance low enough for the control to start working, and then at that point, the range of control that you have is squashed into a very small part of the rotation.
 
#9
MVE said:
Usually, volume is audio taper and tone is linear.
Click to expand...

My experience has been that for V/V/T type wiring schemes (e.g. Jazz Bass), I vastly prefer linear taper for the volume. I get a lot better ability to mix and blend the two pickups that way.

For master volume wiring schemes (e.g. Precision Bass), I still prefer linear, but it's less crucial. Audio will work, primarily because I don't end up fiddling with master volumes as much.

I always prefer audio taper for tone controls, for the same reasons line6man gives.
 

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