Anyone seen and/or used one of these? Did it come from BBE? Didn't know G&L ever made or put their name on pedals.
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I recently picked up my first G&L, a Tribute series L-2000. I love it. Makes me wonder why I've overlooked G&L for the last 25 years.
While I'm familiar with the functions of all the knobs and switches, there are a few quirks on my bass that I question; I don't know if they're normal or not.
First, (not so much a quirk as a general question) with the preamp switch set to passive, why do the bass & treble controls still work? What's going on there & how does it work?
Sticking with that preamp switch, there is a HUGE drop in volume when switching from either active mode into passive. It isn't quite as noticeable with the bass & treble boosted, but if either of them (especially the bass) are set flat/no boost, the volume drop is ridiculous; it's cut by at least half.
The tone controls. boost-only bass & treble. Got it. The treble control seems a little weird. Set to flat/no boost, it doesn't darken your tone, it adds a ton of unpleasant nasal AM radio midrange honk. Maybe "unpleasant" isn't the right word; if I play around with the bass boost and series/parallel switch on either pickup soloed I can get some decent sounds. It just doesn't seem right that as I turn down the treble boost, the highs slowly go away, until the last bit of travel when the pot gets scratchy and then ... The Honk.
I did buy this bass used, so maybe the previous owner has fiddled with something. For all I know, this is how all L-2000's are, I don't know. That's why I'm here!
While I'm familiar with the functions of all the knobs and switches, there are a few quirks on my bass that I question; I don't know if they're normal or not.
First, (not so much a quirk as a general question) with the preamp switch set to passive, why do the bass & treble controls still work? What's going on there & how does it work?
Sticking with that preamp switch, there is a HUGE drop in volume when switching from either active mode into passive. It isn't quite as noticeable with the bass & treble boosted, but if either of them (especially the bass) are set flat/no boost, the volume drop is ridiculous; it's cut by at least half.
The tone controls. boost-only bass & treble. Got it. The treble control seems a little weird. Set to flat/no boost, it doesn't darken your tone, it adds a ton of unpleasant nasal AM radio midrange honk. Maybe "unpleasant" isn't the right word; if I play around with the bass boost and series/parallel switch on either pickup soloed I can get some decent sounds. It just doesn't seem right that as I turn down the treble boost, the highs slowly go away, until the last bit of travel when the pot gets scratchy and then ... The Honk.
I did buy this bass used, so maybe the previous owner has fiddled with something. For all I know, this is how all L-2000's are, I don't know. That's why I'm here!
Well, the bass and treble controls are actually passive controls, which is why they work in passive mode, which brings me to my next point, the bass and treble controls are CUT only, not boost only. As far as the volume loss, I haven’t noticed a huge drop in volume on my G&L’s when going from active to passive mode. Some loss, but not half. So not sure what’s going on there.
Hey all, just got a used L2000 Tribute and the pots are really scratchy. I tried cleaning up with contact cleaner, but so far, no luck. If these two pots need to be replaced, can anyone recommend the right pot to get for the bass control? The treble pot is just a common 250K pot, but the bass is a "1 Meg Reverse Audio Taper" with long shaft. I went to the parts page on the G&L page but they dont seem to have those in stock. I found this on the Mouser page, but wasnt exactly sure if this was the right one to get:
Link Removed
Will that one work on a L2000 Tribute?
Link Removed
Will that one work on a L2000 Tribute?
The bass pot is a tricky one to source. I’d reach out to G&L directly if the site says that they don’t have it. They sometimes aren’t the most up-to-date with their web stuff.
I’ve used the C1M pot that Mouser sells on a different project before. It’s the smaller dime-sized one and the threads wouldn’t make it through the body.
As @Jackcrow has indicated, the Bass and Treble controls on an L-2000 are completely passive (thus working with/without the preamp being on) and cut-only. Therefore, the "flattest" response from the bass (least change via the electronics in what the pickups are putting out) is with both knobs dimed. Most players tend to start off with each control backed off by about 30-40%; this both balances up the mids and helps with the hotness of the output from the bass. In my experience as well, throwing the bass from passive to active produces relatively little boost in gain and a slight change in tonal character. Moving to the last position of the preamp switch (which is active plus treble boost) again doesn't cause much change in overall output but does put a very crisp edge on things. One thing you may not know is that with MFD pickups the volume control also affects the tone of the bass. Full up you get a robust, hot, slightly gritty pickup tone that is unlike any other pickup I've tried. Back the volume off by about 30% and the output both pretty much matches a stock P-bass, plus the tone of the bass also becomes more "traditional" and more polite, approaching what you'd think of as a standard, Fenderish tone. So...add into this the pickup switching and the series/parallel switch and there's a world of tones available. Enjoy!
You mean the shaft wasnt long enough to go through the body? They seem to have several on the Mouser site, and the one I linked to has a 30 mm shaft length (and 6 mm diameter). There is another one with a shorter shaft too. I put in an email to G&L to see if they have any.
The threaded portion of the shaft would not come through the body enough to get the nut to hold it on.
Also, just glancing at the one you linked, it says 10k ohms resistance. You need 1M (or 1000k) ohms.
Think i copied and pasted the wrong link! This is the one i was looking at:
Link Removed
That one shows linear taper. The G&L spec calls for “reverse audio,” or “C” designation. (A = audio, B = linear, C = reverse audio) Any will work, but the sweep will be different. The full open and full closed positions would be the same with A, B or C, but the way the pot responds as it turns will be different.
And the threads still look too short to make it through the hole on a L-series bass. On a bass with a pickguard, it would be fine, but not through the wood top. See picture below. The pot on the right is comparable to what you’re looking at on Mouser. The pot on the left is the Alpha C1M pot that G&L used to use on their USA basses. You can see the difference in the thread sizes.
Thanks! I do have an email into G&L but who knows when or if I’ll hear back. I’ll keep searching mouser unless someone else has an idea where to get one?
As for sourcing the pot itself, I have no suggestions beyond seeing if G&L will get back to you.
As for an option to work around it, you may want to read this:
BassesByLeo.com, est. 2009 • View topic - Bass Pot Replacememnt: 250K Linear vs 1Meg Reverse Audio
Also, for whatever pot you order, you want to make sure the threaded part of the shaft is 3/4” or 19mm or thereabouts.
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Seeing a growing garden of white G&Ls at chez Holdsg.
Man, I love my SB-2 so much too. I love it's aggressiveness. That's beautiful one for sure.
My SB-1 has arrived for its refuelling stop in Virginia, and @RocketMusic tells me that the quartersawn neck has added an ounce or two to the weight - it's now a backbreaking 7 lbs 
And apparently the neck is so perfectly quartersawn that "the rays shoot straight out of the fingerboard, perfectly perpendicular."
So worth waiting for, twice over
And apparently the neck is so perfectly quartersawn that "the rays shoot straight out of the fingerboard, perfectly perpendicular."
So worth waiting for, twice over
Did this affect any output levels? Do the pickups sound the same with the tone dimes, so wide open like no time? I want to do this to my sb-2, do you happen to have a diagram?
thanks
Concerning tone, my opinion is that you don't relinquish any of the tonal options of the SB2 by adding a tone knob. You just make it more versatile and with less volume drop. But that's my opinion. You will find that about half the people like it, the other half prefer the original design. It's really up to you.
I did it because the volume drops were not easy for me to deal with, live. But that's me. Others said that they found ways to deal with it.
I did it because the volume drops were not easy for me to deal with, live. But that's me. Others said that they found ways to deal with it.
- Feb 3, 2005
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- Endorsing artist: Bergantino Audio Systems and GHS Strings
