Fender boxer bass control defect?

[DCGuy]

Hi all,
My wife gave me a new Fender boxer PJ bass for Christmas. I'm trying to figure out if the controls are defective or if they're working properly.
When the switch is pointed down at the bridge, the bridge PU is on. Check. When it's pointed at the neck, the neck PU is on. Check. When it's in the middle, it seems to turn both pickups on, as it should. But if the bridge pickup's volume is all the way down, there is no sound at all. Shouldn't it still be getting a signal from the neck pickup?
Thanks!

 

[andruca]

That's how it's supposed to work. If either volume knob is rolled completely off it mutes the bass. You can still do balance with in between positions, but if your only need output from one pickup you use the switch. Explained here around 7:40.



Pretty cool if you ask me, an issue some people have with the regular Jazz wiring is you can't kill it with just one knob. I could get used to that, wonder how it's wired. BTW, congrats on the awesome bass

 

[DCGuy]

Wow that's super interesting. Thank you for that. Kind of non-intuitive. At least to me.

 

[JTE]

The volume pots are wired like Gibson guitars are, so if you turn down one volume pot with the switch in the middle it shorts both pickups to ground. You could rewire it like a Jazz with the switch but it may change the tone and sorta defeats having the switch.

 

[tofnbad]

Nice gift. What color did you get?

 

[Killing Floor]

That’s how Tele deluxe are wired too. Center position turning level all the way down on any pickup is no output. Don’t know why.

 

[fhm555]

…an issue some people have with the regular Jazz wiring is you can't kill it with just one knob. I could get used to that, wonder how it's wired. BTW, congrats on the awesome bass

I got a true bypass tuner pedal to kill my jazz without messing with any of the knobs. Works perfectly.

 

[egroeg]

So does it work like a kill switch? Play on the neck with switch forward, turn bridge down and toggle between middle and neck like kill switch?
Sounds cool if that's how it works.

 

[TimboZ]

Yes that is normal. A Les Paul guitar does the same thing.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Yes that is normal. A Les Paul guitar does the same thing.

Huh! When did Gibson start doing that? I had a 70s LP, my son had two reissue LPs made around the the turn of the century, and none of them worked that way. Just asking.

 

[Ric5]

rewire the bass to work the way you want it to.

for myself I would put in a 4 band Audere preamp

 

[Matthijs]

The pots are wired the other way around. Th wiper is connected to the output instead of to the pickup. The pro is the resistive load over the pu is constant and lowering the volume won’t darken the sound. In theory when you blend a smaller amount of bridge pu with the neck pu the neck pu will retain more bite, while the neck darkens a bit. With a standard jazz wiring that will be the other way around.

 

[Jazz Ad]

Volume and blend allow all that without the confusion but some people dislike them.
As is the wiring looks stupid to me.

 

[DCGuy]

Nice gift. What color did you get?

The red one. It’s VERY red. Will probably use it for an 80s band and for practice since it’s really light.

 

[fhm555]

rewire the bass to work the way you want it to.

for myself I would put in a 4 band Audere preamp

Yep, i like my little P/J Mustang, but I’m not crazy about the control setup. Apparently it’s wired so any pickup selection but the neck pickup soloed, causes the tone pot to act like a mute in the lower half of the volume pot travel. I’m eventually going to wire it up VVT and get rid of the pickup selector.

 

[GIBrat51]

Hi all,
My wife gave me a new Fender boxer PJ bass for Christmas. I'm trying to figure out if the controls are defective or if they're working properly.
When the switch is pointed down at the bridge, the bridge PU is on. Check. When it's pointed at the neck, the neck PU is on. Check. When it's in the middle, it seems to turn both pickups on, as it should. But if the bridge pickup's volume is all the way down, there is no sound at all. Shouldn't it still be getting a signal from the neck pickup?
Thanks!

I can't argue with the folks who say that your bass is simply wired to do that. I don't have one, so... c'est la vie, I guess. What I will say is that it does seem kinda weird, though. I have 19 basses with 2 pickups; 18 of them with a 3-way switch (or it's equivalent), and none of them do what your bass does. With any of my 18, when both pickups are on? Each pickup's volume control controls that pickup - period. As for the 19th bass - an '06 Carvin LB-20? The controls are V-V-T, with a 2-way switch that simply splits both the humbucker pickups into single coils. It was ordered that way; why, is a long story that has nothing to do with your question, though. So, I guess you'll just have to get used to the way your bass is wired - or have it "fixed"...

 

[DCGuy]

Thanks. I'm already used to it and have come around to seeing its utility as a kill switch and a pre-blended pickup volume combination in the middle position when both pots are on.

 

[ClassicJazz]

Totally normal. Like others said, similar to how Gibsons are wired. Works the same on my ‘84 Boxer.