Fender tone knob?

[Bayou_Brawler]

I play a MIA fender jazz bass (2003). how can i explain this? ok when i turn the tone knob from totally down to all the way up it seems like the progression of tone movement is off.....like the first half have inch i turn it it's still bassy then all of a sudden it jumps to way trebly and then even more trebly all the way up. i feel like i'm missing some middle tone setting there. so it jumps from no tone (really bassy) to a lot of treble pretty quick. make any sense?

 

[tortoise.sg]

This was the case for all my Fender basses too, even my '76 Jazz. It didn't bother me because I play with the tone either up or down, no inbetween. If I'm not wrong, I think most people do the same. At the end of the day, the tone is really in the fingers.

 

[Groovin_Joe]

I have an MIM Jazz, mine is a 2002 but it is the same idea. I also have had this same problem. I really wanted to change this. I found before I changed it, you have to use the volume controls to help create the either warm sound or the "jazz crunch" or anything in the middle. The eq on your amp in important too, but that is another topic all together. if you want more help with the eq part PM me and I will help ya. I am going to school for Recording now and I can help ya out.

Anyway, the way i finally changed it, after some research on pasive electronics. I simply changed the tone pot from a 250KOhm to a 500KOhm pot. From what I understand there is a bigger difference in the range of the pot from off to all the way on. If anyone knows different please tell me. This new pot I wired with the capacitor and it works lovely.

if this makes sense, and you understand it, great! if not feel free to PM me.

Good luck,

A.

 

[Treena Foster]

STEWMAC.COM

Control pots are typically wired to control the volume or tone of your instrument. In some other case they are used to blend to sources or signals together, or can be wired to control onboard effects.

250K vs. 500K

Generally, 500K-ohm pots are used with humbuckers and 250Ks are used with single-coil pickups. 25K pots are used for active systems.

You can use any value you like, but a 250K will give a slightly warmer tone than a 500K pot. The 250K pot bleeds off (attenuates) some of the high frequencies to ground. A 1Meg-ohm pot will attenuate even less than a 500K pot, so if you want to hear your guitar "wide open" you may want to try one.


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Treena

 

[Bayou_Brawler]

who here plays with the tone flat or all the way up? do you just tone it to one extreem and then get the tone from the amp?

 

[wingnutkj]

I'll generally play my Jazz with the tone totally rolled off and the pickups in series (courtesy of Smash's series/parallel mod evangelism) for a fat, thumpy tone. If I want more definition, or I'm playing with a pick, I'll generally put the tone up until just before it picks up all the clicks and squeaks of my shoddy fretting technique .

 

[bottomfeedins]

I tend to hit my strings hard so if my tone knob is all the way up on my J, they click like a SOB. I've been playing with the tone about half way or a little less, and with my neck pickup all the way up. My bridge pickup is usually pretty low. I also try to mess around with the controls on my amp. Maybe that could be an idea??

 

[shreave]

I play my MIM Jazz with all the knobs at 10. This goes into my Aguilar 659 at flat EQ with deep and bright switches on.

I kinda like the sound of it with neck 10, bridge 0, tone 6. I've never played live this way though.

I'm recording tomorrow and this is getting me to think about experimenting a bit.

 

[Treena Foster]

who here plays with the tone flat or all the way up? do you just tone it to one extreem and then get the tone from the amp?

I normally have my tone and volume turned up full. I get tone from my fingers and depending on how close to the bridge or neck I play.

Of course, I use EQ on my amp, it's a secret.......EQ is your friend!

Treena

 

[bottomfeedins]

I'm constantly trying to figure out new combinations in tone. I'm definitely not a pro with my EQ. I mess with all the knobs to figure out what kind of sound I want. It depends on my mood, state of mind. and of course the song . There are countless sounds you can get from a pretty simple rig.

 

[Adam C.T.]

my jazz does that too! but my P's tone knob is fine

 

[Ty McNeely]

I think the key is to realize what the different pickups do to the sound of that tone knob. A neck pup at 10, a bridge pup at 0, and the tone at 10 will be a DRASTICALLY different (read: LESS trebly sound) than if you also had the bridge pup dimed.

My MIM Fender was my main bass for about 4 years, and I learned that you just have to experiment with it. There's really not any way to "EQ" the trebly sound out of there--you just have to alter your technique and make use of BOTH pickup knobs

 

[fatbassjazzer]

My jazz bass also goes from one extreme to the other. I'm just fine with it though. I turn the treble knob up all the way when i'm slapping/tapping and for most of the other things i play. I've gotten used to it so i really have no problem with it. If i need a smaller change i'll just change my EQ to whatever. I almost always play with the volume and treble knobs all the way up. That just sounds the best IMO.