G&L Club Part 6

[tehuti]

Tribute L2500 and L2000. I don't have the 2500 anymore.

 

[BillyB_from_LZ]

Tribute L2500 and L2000. I don't have the 2500 anymore.

Is that just bling under the L-2500's volume knob or is there something else that we need to know about?

 

[cyco739z]

Can anyone help? Lookin for a bridge for a L2000.

 

[cyco739z]

Tried classifieds here with no luck. Sorry for asking in wrong forum but G&l. Thanks.

 

[dcarwin]

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[Doner Designs]

Hello G&L experts. I got my first G&L recently (an M2500)and think it's pretty great. A couple of things surprised me a bit though...

- The neck is shimmed at a visible angle (you can see it where the neck meets the body). Never had a bass come from the factory that way. Struck me as odd, but I dropped the strings ultra low with flats and it plays perfect.

- The honeyburst finish differs from most pictures which don't have any bursting. I was hoping for solid like the pics, but if fits the descrition.

- Grain alignment on the 3 piece body is good on the front but bad on the back. There are also traces of borer trails in the wood, but I have seen that even in pictures of the US models.

In spite of some small disappointments, I think she is a keeper and have started planning and ordering parts to add a third pickup and am probably going to do a single 4 pole OMG switch that will affect all 3 pickups.

I'm a little torn on the wiring though. On my Stingray HH my favorite pickup selection is outer coils - like a J bass. I'm tempted to do K wiring, but that requires more surgery and more space for switches.

The OMG requires less invasive surgery and with an active EQ all you have to do is scoop the mids a bit to get the J tone.

Decisions, decisions. Any suggestions from this group? Fans of the OMG switch - have any of you found capacitor values you like better than the standard 0.1mf?

The third pickup is mostly because I like triples and also dig the far-neck tone.

 

[cyco739z]

Just arrived... my L2000 pick ups, pots,& sitches! !!! All G&l mfd. Im one bridge away from putting it together and making a project into a new beatiful bass.. cant wait.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Are you trying to get an identical pickup for the neck position, or will you settle for an L2500 pickup? They are different, and I don't believe G&L is selling the M2500 pickups separately. The biggest problem will be that you won't have any hum cancelling on the neck pickup in single coil mode because there won't be any other like coils in the other 2 pickups to cancel the hum.

Hello G&L experts. I got my first G&L recently (an M2500)and think it's pretty great. A couple of things surprised me a bit though...

- The neck is shimmed at a visible angle (you can see it where the neck meets the body). Never had a bass come from the factory that way. Struck me as odd, but I dropped the strings ultra low with flats and it plays perfect.

- The honeyburst finish differs from most pictures which don't have any bursting. I was hoping for solid like the pics, but if fits the descrition.

- Grain alignment on the 3 piece body is good on the front but bad on the back. There are also traces of borer trails in the wood, but I have seen that even in pictures of the US models.

In spite of some small disappointments, I think she is a keeper and have started planning and ordering parts to add a third pickup and am probably going to do a single 4 pole OMG switch that will affect all 3 pickups.

I'm a little torn on the wiring though. On my Stingray HH my favorite pickup selection is outer coils - like a J bass. I'm tempted to do K wiring, but that requires more surgery and more space for switches.

The OMG requires less invasive surgery and with an active EQ all you have to do is scoop the mids a bit to get the J tone.

Decisions, decisions. Any suggestions from this group? Fans of the OMG switch - have any of you found capacitor values you like better than the standard 0.1mf?

The third pickup is mostly because I like triples and also dig the far-neck tone.

 

[NWB]

Ever since I got my SB-2 for an anniversary present a couple years ago, I've found that I really dig G&Ls a lot. Next up was an M2500 this last January.

And then just last week, my latest addition (addiction?). A Fullerton Red JB.

I figured some family pics were in order.

 

[Doner Designs]

Are you trying to get an identical pickup for the neck position, or will you settle for an L2500 pickup? They are different, and I don't believe G&L is selling the M2500 pickups separately. The biggest problem will be that you won't have any hum cancelling on the neck pickup in single coil mode because there won't be any other like coils in the other 2 pickups to cancel the hum.

The third pickup will have to be identical if I'm going to cut a hole in the body. I believe G&L will sell to M Series owners as an accomodation. If not, I will not do any mods.

Your point about hum is one reason for thinking the hybrid split using a capacitor (the OMG switch) might be my best bet. I'll probably toy around with different cap values to find the right mix of single coil tone and minimal hum. Percieved bass boost is not an objective. I'm thinking .047uf, or even .01uf may work better for that than the standard .1uf.

 

[GeorgeBerlin]

Lower values than the standard 100nF (for L-series MFD's) will shift the turnover upwards as you say but will also increase the Q factor of the resonant circuit formed by the coil and OMG cap, this will result in a more pronounced response peak right below the transition region and a dip right after it.

If you get too much low midrange honk from this you can add a small series resistor (some kOhms) to the cap to make the transition smoother. You'll always have some 6dB more bass than treble vs real single coil, though. This might be no issue due to the 3-way EQ but if it is, you need a proper R//C in series to the whole mojo, working exactly like the bass shelf of the passive L-series EQ except being fixed and only activated in OMG mode.

M-series MFD's are underwound, less inductance, so with the 100nF the turnover will already be higher (and probably more peaky) than with L-series pups.


FWIW, I found I can get a good and 100% hum-free SC'ish sound out of the parallel pup setting and with 4 pole pieces pulled completely and the remaining ones raised, so the pup looks and works more like a split coil P.

 

[Doner Designs]

Lower values than the standard 100nF (for L-series MFD's) will shift the turnover upwards as you say but will also increase the Q factor of the resonant circuit formed by the coil and OMG cap, this will result in a more pronounced response peak right below the transition region and a dip right after it.

If you get too much low midrange honk from this you can add a small series resistor (some kOhms) to the cap to make the transition smoother. You'll always have some 6dB more bass than treble vs real single coil, though. This might be no issue due to the 3-way EQ but if it is, you need a proper R//C in series to the whole mojo, working exactly like the bass shelf of the passive L-series EQ except being fixed and only activated in OMG mode.

M-series MFD's are underwound, less inductance, so with the 100nF the turnover will already be higher (and probably more peaky) than with L-series pups.


FWIW, I found I can get a good and 100% hum-free SC'ish sound out of the parallel pup setting and with 4 pole pieces pulled completely and the remaining ones raised, so the pup looks and works more like a split coil P.

Thanks George! You are a little above my head on some of that, but I think I get the concept and ultimately need to try a few different values when wiring it up. Each of the three pups will have its own cap, so I may vary them by pickup.

With the 4 poles removed it sounds like you effectively have a single coil with a dummy coil beside it? Very interesting. Did you stagger the magnet removal (not sure that would even work) or pull them all from one coil?

One thing I'm enjoying about the G&L is the fact that so many folks seem to hot rod them (as with Fenders but unlike Stingrays which folks tend to leave alone).

 

[modrodz]

this is my baby as well Im using a bart pre/this baby really sings

 

[Chef]

coil taps?

 

[dcarwin]

With the 4 poles removed it sounds like you effectively have a single coil with a dummy coil beside it?

I don't think pulling the screws out of the housings would completely take the coil out of the picture, just make it a lot quieter than the other one with the poles left in.

This gave me an idea to try using two poles up and two poles down on each pickup coil to see if it makes it any closer to P.


UUdd
ddUU

 

[GeorgeBerlin]

With the 4 poles removed it sounds like you effectively have a single coil with a dummy coil beside it? Very interesting. Did you stagger the magnet removal (not sure that would even work) or pull them all from one coil?

Here you can read and see more about it. Basically you can pull any pole piece and the coil will be just lower volume for that string with no ill-effects. On a detailed level, there is a slight loss of humbucking effect when the magnetic masses are not balanced between coils, and some other minor changes in pup electrical parameters are seen, but no big deal.

One thing I'm enjoying about the G&L is the fact that so many folks seem to hot rod them (as with Fenders but unlike Stingrays which folks tend to leave alone).

I think G&L's, notably L series, are modder's heaven. 4-wire pups, three pots and switches in standard form factors to load with whatever you have plus easy access to a large control cavity invites people to experiment without drilling and milling and that's great.

 

[Doner Designs]

Here you can read and see more about it. Basically you can pull any pole piece and the coil will be just lower volume for that string with no ill-effects. On a detailed level, there is a slight loss of humbucking effect when the magnetic masses are not balanced between coils, and some other minor changes in pup electrical parameters are seen, but no big deal.

I think G&L's, notably L series, are modder's heaven. 4-wire pups, three pots and switches in standard form factors to load with whatever you have plus easy access to a large control cavity invites people to experiment without drilling and milling and that's great.

That has to be one of the most innovative things I have ever seen done electronically; its right up there with the OMG wiring concept! I might have to try it, but like you say it may hum more with a 5.

Did you try inline and staggered both? I see you did reverse P on one pickup and regular P on the other. Is that to improve hum cancel when using both pickups together (eg: poles are on inner and outer)?

I really like the active EQ on the M series, but do wish there was more space for switches like on the L.

If I got to three pickups as planned, the phantom coil idea could work out great and would likely be one of a kind until somebody copies it.

Very cool; thanks for sharing!

EDIT - I just tried something similar with the poles but less extreme. I cranked the pickups down and the outer coil poles way up. I did not remove the inner poles but left them screwed all the way down. The tone change is remarkable and very single-coil-ish. Most notably it has a fat jazz bass tone when the two pickups are on equally. No hum in any position (of course). Ingenious; thanks again!!

 

[GeorgeBerlin]

Great to hear that this simple "trick" works for you. I also was quite surprised that it made way more than just a subtle change. For a config in which either inner or outer coil pole pieces are pulled/adjusted, one can increase the effect a bit by also tilting the whole pup.

That P + reverse P thing you see in my L2K actually happens to be the best config in terms of balancing coils because there is also perfect geometric balance (with both pups active), but that was not the rationale. I'm still trying different configs to see what makes the most balanced mix for the different pickup selector settings.

In general, removing/adjusting pole pieces will be less prone to hum&buzz than any kind of coil splitting (within the same pup or accross pups), be it a full short or a partial short with that OMG capacitor...
... speaking of which, you can also run OMG mode with complete pickups...

 

[msact]

Here is my first G&L. It's one of those oops white M-2000's. I have to say it looks and sounds great. I bought this from TB'er BadJazz who took great care of it. Not a scratch on it anywhere. This will soon be joined by two custom order G&L's (greenburst L-2000 and sonic blue SB-2).

 

[Tunaman]

Made on offer on a used Tribby 2500... hoping he accepts