Educate me: A Bass's "guts"

[bassnyc1]

Hello fellow TBers,

On various threads throughout Talkbass, I read a lot about people replacing such parts in a bass like:

Pots
Cap or Orange cap
wiring harness
jacks

Am I missing anything else electronically besides the pickups? I want to learn about all the parts that are inside a bass's body, what do they do and why do people change them out as an upgrade? How do all these things make the instrument sound different or better? If I have a bass made in mexico or asia, do I need to change any of these? I'm mainly talking about Fenders and basses inspired by them at all price points.

Yeah, I know: I've asked a lot of questions. If anyone can answer one or more of them OR post a link o a website that can give me some background on any of these questions, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

 

[Steveaux]

Pots = Potentiometers ... volume & tone controls. Different values have different effects.

Caps = Capacitors ... used in the Tone circuit. Different values have different effects.

Wiring Harness = The collective wiring that connects all the electronics.

Jack = Output Jack ... where you plug the cord in. Connects bass to amp.

There are literally thousands of posts discussing each of these components. Use the Search function. Do your homework.

This might help ... Invalid Link Removed

 

[M0ses]

A wiring harness is just a like a pre-assembled electronics package that you buy all together. You buy that if you want to do as little soldering as possible. If you're buying pots and stuff, you'd be buying it all over again if you bought the harness.

Most pots are the same, you have to pay a considerable amount more to get any significant improvement. Jacks are all the same unless you're buying like solid gold one or something. Caps with the same value are all the same, too. You want to ceramic disc kind.

 

[bassbenj]

Let me expand a bit on what Steveaux has said.

"Pots = Potentiometers ... volume & tone controls. Different values have different effects."

And cheap ones tend to get "scratchy" fast which means they make noises in your amp when you turn them. So people put in better (more expensive) ones. Sometimes they change the values to change the tone of the instrument.

"Caps = Capacitors ... used in the Tone circuit. Different values have different effects."

And cheap ones (usually found in cheap import basses) often have resistance. Capacitors are NOT supposed to have resistance. (that is called "leakage") So people install expensive capacitors with very high resistance (called low leakage). One brand of these are colored orange so people call them "orange drop". But that really means a high quality capacitor such as a mylar or polystyrene type. Different manufacturers have different colors. The "orange drop" caps I put in many of my basses are actually yellow because those were the brand I had a bunch of. And yeah different values will change the tone circuit.

"Wiring Harness = The collective wiring that connects all the electronics."

A "harness" literally means that the wires are bundled together with string. Often on quality instruments they are. On cheaper ones there is just a bundle of wires but it is not tied. "harness" also refers to a situation where everything is prewired but not mounted in the bass. It's common in guitars for example to buy a pickguard with all wiring and pickups mounted on it. The reason you want wires not only tied in bundles but also tied down so they don't flop around is that a bass or guitar is moved around a lot and if the wires can flex from that movement, they can break off or come loose. Hence a quality bass will have wires bundled and tied down so they can't flop around.

"Jack = Output Jack ... where you plug the cord in. Connects bass to amp."

And the main thing about these is that cheap ones are made of soft metal parts so that after a time the metal strips that contact your cord plug loose their springyness. This means that when you wiggle your cord you may get bursts of hum or "static". The usual fix is to use a quality jack that does not lose it springyness. Many people swear that switchcraft jacks are the ONLY brand you can trust. I doubt that is true, but they are quality jacks and won't limp out on you.

"There are literally thousands of posts discussing each of these components. Use the Search function. Do your homework."

Exactly! And we haven't even covered active basses yet! There are whole circus of mystery parts inside them!

 

[uglymutt]

"Caps = Capacitors ... used in the Tone circuit. Different values have different effects."

And cheap ones (usually found in cheap import basses) often have resistance. Capacitors are NOT supposed to have resistance. (that is called "leakage") So people install expensive capacitors with very high resistance (called low leakage).

I'm a bit lost now, if you could clear this up that would be great

Thanks for the rest of the info though, very helpful and informative

 

[svirfnebli]

His description isnt nessesarily the whole story on caps. Most people dont worry about caps having a resistance - though im sure a few do.

In the bass, a capacitor is used at the tone control to remove high frequencies. I believe it is much more common in electric guitar that with bass - many bassists dont even use the tone control. A higher value capacitor takes away more treble. In a bass, the standard value is 0.047uf which is actually quite high. If I remember right strats used the same value. In a Les Paul electric, 0.022uf is regularly used and 0.015uf is sometimes used in the neck.

The capacitor is hooked in line with the ground wire. We use a tone pot to be able to control the effect. When your tone cap is at 10, virtually no signal is sent to ground. When the pot is on zero the maximum ammount of signal (based on the pot) is sent to ground.

There is ALOT of arguement and debate about what "caps" are best, and if there is truely any difference between them. Low quality ceramics are often avoided, as are electrolytics. People generally view Paper-in-oil capacitors as the best choice. Any of the film capacitors are also good choices. You can buy vintage Paper-in-oil caps on E-bay for a few bucks.

Caps have two ratings.. A rating in Farads, and a rating in Voltage. for a tone control only worry about the farad rating. The absolute minimum voltage rating is more than enough. A passive pickup maybe puts out a few volts (1-5v). It's hard to find a cap with less than a 63volt rating. Most Paper in oil (PIO) are rating between 100-400 volts.

Here are a few different caps:

1) Poly Caps - http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Orange-drop...emQQptZGuitar_Accessories?hash=item58840a8eb5

2) Paper in Oil - http://cgi.ebay.com/0-047uF-400V-PI...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518e0b503b

A famous use of the cap/tone control is Eric Clapton and his "Woman Tone"