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G&L Club Part 6

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#181
NWB said:
YES!! That's really the point of buying a bass!

I'd be taking that cover off the pick guard. It might be more difficult to remove later, and the amber color will really pop out when you get rid of the covering.
Click to expand...

Yep took it off, it's kind of silly to try an keep the scratch guard from getting scratched.

Anyway - I am glad to be part of the G&L family, gotta keep spreading the word.
 
#182
lowfreqgeek said:
Where does the leakage from the switched-out coil occur? If the switching is done correctly, there should be no leakage path, so current should not flow from the disconnected coil.

Removing poles simply narrows the sensing aperture, focusing on a smaller portion of the string. There's still a mile of wire to drive, only now you're driving it with less electromotive force because you've reduced the magnetic field strength. I'm not saying it's a poor choice, it just doesn't emulate true single-coil very well. At best it emulates split-coil, which it cool in itself, or dual coil with a narrow aperture.
Click to expand...

The "leakage" as far as I can tell is magnetic and NOT electrical. With the second coil completely disconnected (and hence no possible current) in the K-mod if you take a screwdriver and tap on the poies, the selected poles will click loudly as expected. However, the disconnected poles ALSO will click although not nearly as loud. I'm guessing the some of the magnetic field from the disconnected side is leaking through into the connected coil.

In spite of the leakage it works pretty well to give a pseudo-single coil sound or at least some of the clarity you get from single coil pickups.

Physically removing the non-used poles in the single coil mode (and that magnet too, I presume) keeps the magnetic field (which is not very low) from "leaking" into the single coil side you are using. In other words doing that basically converts it into a big fat single coil Jazz pickup. The bad news is that you now get single coil hum and you can't easily switch back to MFD mode by just a switch.

So now comes the issue of connecting the remaining coil (without magnet and poles) in series with your single coil side of the pickup. Well that will quickly turn it into a decent "noiseless" pickup! And then you'll be able to solo your great single coil pickups without hum! So these would make a great pair of pickups for a Jazz -style bass. But you also correctly point out that putting that second coil in series EVEN without poles and magnet will greatly increase the inductance of the pickup. And that will change the tone!

Well, HOW much will it change the tone? I've been doing some experimenting with my SX Jazz basses. And what I did was wire a circuit that does NOT have the phantom coil when both single coil pickups are on (the way a Jazz bass cancels hum when both are on) But DOES turn on the phantom coil when you solo a given pickup. In that case you have the advantage that the two pickup tone does not change. However, the soloed pickup tone obviously DOES change. In these experiments I just used an old Jazz pickup as the phantom coil. And I must say that while the tone changes it doesn't really change THAT much (less noticeable since you are switching from two to one pickup anyway) but as to if it's "too" much? That is a judgement call for the player. This is why Alembic does phantom coils electronically rather than changing inductance.

OK?
 
#183
new member in the club.

just got a L2000 from a TBer. not sure which year though as i can't find any dates written on the electronics.

did some minor adjustments and this bass plays and sounds good.

needs a change of strings and some sheilding as the preamp picked up some radio signals when i switched it on
 
#185
bassbenj said:
I find the pole-raising and interesting approach to single coil. I've got the K-mod on all my G&L basses but one problem with it is that there is a certain amount of "leakage" between the two halves of the pickup. So that when you are in single coil mode, there still is some pickup from the switched-off poles. Still it gives a pretty nice sinle coil soud even with the leakage. And there is no hum unless you solo one of the pickups.

Raising poles (or ever better removing them from the unused side) is obviously a way to eliminate the single coil leakage and still keep the single coil pickup hum-free. The only down side that ruins it for me is then you can't go back to the agressive MFD humbucker mode.

I can see the idea of the phantom coil single coil pickup as great for a whole new bass with three those pickups. It would't be a L2x00 but it just might be killer cool as it's own thing!
Click to expand...

I discovered the leakage thing last night - makes sense due to the MFD pickup design, but it threw me for a minute. I was trying to figure out which wires were N vs S start and finish so I can split the coils the way I want to.

Keeping the poles in and just changing the elevation a bit gives a bit of best of both worlds I think. The other thing is that by raising one set the volume drop is less when going to pure single coil mode.

I decided to get one 3 pole 3 position switch and have the pickups go to single coil mode (outer) in one position, humbucking in the middle and OMG in the other position. Might use .047 caps for OMG to cut the hum more and have less bass boost effect.

I had a custom template made for routing the third pickup cavity but measured the dang thing about a MM too large. I'm going to look for a router bit where the bearing is slightly larger than the blade diameter to compensate. I hope such a thing exists.

By the way, I had a helluva time finding the wiring code. This is what I think it is for each pickup...

Bridge side Start - Green
Bridge side Finish - Yellow
Neck side Start - Black
Neck side Finish - Yellow

Black and yellow are joined for the series connection. Grounding the series connection kills the bridge side of the humbucker. Connecting the series connection to hot kills the neck side of the humbucker.

I'm not going to bother with parallel mode.
 
#186

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#187
This has been my go to bass for a couple years now. I am still kicking myself for not buying the matching 4 string 2000 that was on display next to it. Also hoping to add an SB-2 with a maple neck to the family soon!

Sorry for the poor quality picture.. spent all my money on GAS and forgot to get a new phone ;)

Would love a number when convenient
 

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#192
#195
WannaJazz said:
Geez! It's impossible to do a search for G&L Club.

At any rate, does anyone have suggestions for a drop-in replacement tuner for G&L basses?

Aside from Hipshot, that is.
Click to expand...
Are you having problems with the ones fitted?


(IIRC) The USA basses use Schaller Ultralite tuners manufactured for and stamped G&L. Don't remember the part number.

Edit. I've just read your other thread on this and don't know of a drop in replacement for the Schallers, or why you would want to, please enlighten us.

The Tributes use a far Eastern manufactured tuner with a different screw hole spacing to the Schallers but if you do swap them for Schallers the original screw holes are hidden by the baseplate.
 
#197
Doner Designs said:
I discovered the leakage thing last night - makes sense due to the MFD pickup design, but it threw me for a minute. I was trying to figure out which wires were N vs S start and finish so I can split the coils the way I want to.

Keeping the poles in and just changing the elevation a bit gives a bit of best of both worlds I think. The other thing is that by raising one set the volume drop is less when going to pure single coil mode.

I decided to get one 3 pole 3 position switch and have the pickups go to single coil mode (outer) in one position, humbucking in the middle and OMG in the other position. Might use .047 caps for OMG to cut the hum more and have less bass boost effect.

I had a custom template made for routing the third pickup cavity but measured the dang thing about a MM too large. I'm going to look for a router bit where the bearing is slightly larger than the blade diameter to compensate. I hope such a thing exists.

By the way, I had a helluva time finding the wiring code. This is what I think it is for each pickup...

Bridge side Start - Green
Bridge side Finish - Yellow
Neck side Start - Black
Neck side Finish - Yellow

Black and yellow are joined for the series connection. Grounding the series connection kills the bridge side of the humbucker. Connecting the series connection to hot kills the neck side of the humbucker.

I'm not going to bother with parallel mode.
Click to expand...

Got her all wired up and pickup is enroute!

One 3 way to switch between neck pickups and a 3 pole on/off/on switches between humbucking, single and OMG.

IMG_6774_zps2a10b010.jpg
 
#198
WannaJazz said:
It's an older one. Even after a cleaning and lubricating, one of them doesn't turn as smoothly as the rest.
I'm going with Hipshot.

Thanks guys!
Click to expand...

Ah, right.

(If you feel so inclined) remove the tuner from the bass and undo the screw that holds the gear on and the whole thing can be taken apart, cleaned, and examined.

There is a thin plastic sheet (not sure what type of plastic) that sits on a spring plate. It is used as a thrust bearing for the gear and also to provide some resistance to the worm, that may have worn through.

Or more likely the step in the alloy post (where it bears on the plate) may need a thin smear of grease (I would use petroleum jelly).
 
#199
Thanks for the advice delta7fred.

I did do that, except for the petroleum jelly.

No improvement.

I lost the little plastic piece. I finally found it weeks later.

(Last summer I lost my lighter plantin' potatoes)
 
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