• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

G&L L2000/L2K tone controls - think boost not cut

duff2

duff2

Guest
Dec 16, 2007
528
457
#1
I have this beautiful black G&L L-2000 tribute with a rosewood board that I got in a trade for my old SWR SM-500. I love many things about this bass - the top quality construction, excellent playability, the beautiful ringing sustain and the tone.…well the acoustic tone before I plug it into an amp, that is.

Blasphemy, you say? Keep reading...

With the volume, bass and treble controls full on, I found the tone of this bass to be very reminiscent of Geddy's Wal bass on the ‘Power Windows’ and ‘Hold Your Fire’ albums. I am not particularly fond of that sort of modern/hi-fi sound at the moment. My favourite bass tones are those produced by P-, J- and EB Stingray basses strung with GHS Boomers. No matter how much I fiddled with the switches or the bass and treble knobs on the L2K, I could not find a sound that blew me away.

So, what to do? I really wanted to love this bass. Leo got it right so many times before. So many other experienced Talkbass members are fans of the L2K. What was I missing?

Conventionally, the L2K bass and treble controls are viewed as capable of ‘cutting’ or removing low and high frequency bass signal as they are part of a passive tone stack. This is how I was treating them as I was struggling with the EQ and switches while trying unsuccessfully to get a sound I liked. Considering the insanely high output signal generated by the MFD pickups, I thought that perhaps a better way to approach the L2K EQ situation was to start with the volume control full on and view the bass and treble controls as 'boost' instead.

Lo and behold, this worked like a charm. Now instead of having the controls full on and asking 'what do I need to take out?', I start with the bass and treble off and ask 'what do I need to add?' To get an adequate amount of bass and treble to go with the sweet L2K midrange, I find I never need to push the bass and treble controls up very far, certainly nowhere near the maximum settings. Therein lay the problem I was having – I wasn’t rolling the controls back far enough. It just didn’t make sense at the time that I would have to roll them back THAT far. The ceramic magnet, low inductance MFD pickups really do generate some serious levels of lows and highs – hence the origin of the ‘hi-fi sound’ when the tone controls are set to full on.

I have also since rewired the series/parallel switch to single coil/parallel, as I found the ‘series’ mode to be a little too rich in the midrange and a lot louder than ‘parallel’ mode. ‘Single coil’ and ‘parallel’ modes generate the same output gain level regardless where I have the selector switches, making it possible to change PU and preamp settings on the fly without having to readjust the volume control. Single coil mode also brings back the frequencies lost by the humbucker in ‘parallel’ mode, giving the tone more of a vintage vibe.

If you are interested in modifying your L2K to parallel-single coil, you can find how to do it here: http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/...arallel-SingleCoilNeckOutsideBridgeInside.jpg
It’s dead simple, you only need to relocate the ends of two wires on the middle switch.

Hope this helps any other MFD pickup equipped G&L owners out there who may also be struggling to coax an awesome tone out of their bass.

Cheers,
Duff2
 
  • Like
Reactions: chapito and BluesOnBass
#3
palmann said:
Thanks for the diagramm, that's exactly what I was planning to do. Didn't know it is that simple.

Gruesse, Pablo
Click to expand...

Same here, thanks for the diagram.

I'll be sure to try treating the tone controls like boost-onlys on my tribby, but I think I've found a very servicable sound just by rolling off both a tad.

Glad it worked out for you!
 
#4
An even better mod which makes no cosmetic change to the bass is to replace the series/parallel switch with a 4PDT on/on/on switch to give you series/single/parallel. There's an excellent "recipe book" by DavePlaysBass (a TB user, I believe) here which I used to do the mod - I chose inner single coils but you can do outer if you prefer: Invalid Link Removed
 
#5
I agree with everything said here. Things started to come together for my L2500 when I started with the tone controls on 0 and worked up from there. That must have been what Leo had in mind from the start.

What really brought it together for me though was the single coil mode. I actually added a switch so I could have series/parallel/single for each pickup which makes for some amazing combinations. My favorite being bridge series with neck single. Sounds like a Stingray, but with a solid bottom end :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Berk Evren
#6
When I first got my L2500, I always ran the tone controls wide open. After experimentation, I've learned thatthe bass is much more useful when you learn how to manipulate the bass and treble knobs to suit your need.

I always approach the controls as cut. Wide open I have the crazy agressive tone that MFD's are famous for. As I roll back the controls, I get less agressiveness and the bass goes from sitting in front of the mix to balancing in the mix. I find a setting of 75% bass and 50% treble to be a good starting point for what I do and I adjust the switches from there. There are a lot of sounds in there that take much experimentation to find.
 
#7
Glad you found something you liked in it. They are great basses. I usually work with my treble and bass controls somewhere +/- the center. I have never ever used the eq dimed on any G&L bass I've had.
 
#10
I personally got my L2500 BECAUSE I wanted the Geddy Wal tone lol! But, I find that tone doesnt work well in my band's mix (a cover band). The only time I get to use it is when we do the 1 or 2 Rush songs we throw in at the end of our 3rd set. And Ive found I could never run the volume or the tone controls all the way up, its just way too hot. I have been thinking about doing the single coil mod as well but since I already modded my L2000 with an ACG preamp, I was trying to keep the L2500 stock. Maybe I just buy another one and mod that? =)
 
#12
This is "old news" to us G&L Olde Timers;)

Yes, the controls are listed as cut only, and in fact they are.
To me, it's much more useful to think of them as boost/cut when trying to dial in "traditional Fender" sounds.

Also, if you want more traditional sounds, lower the pickups, and, crack the volume shut to 80-90% on.

The MFD's work so well passive, that that's most often what I use, unless you "want the full on G&L tone," as opposed to more traditional things you may have in your head as tone references.

Rawk 'em if you got 'em; and "Stay MFD'd my friends!"
 

Attachments

  • stay mfd'd.jpg
    stay mfd'd.jpg
    40.4 KB · Views: 336
  • Like
Reactions: Raman and BluesOnBass
#14
neepheid said:
An even better mod which makes no cosmetic change to the bass is to replace the series/parallel switch with a 4PDT on/on/on switch to give you series/single/parallel. There's an excellent "recipe book" by DavePlaysBass (a TB user, I believe) here which I used to do the mod - I chose inner single coils but you can do outer if you prefer: Invalid Link Removed
Click to expand...

This shurely is a usefull document, but it doesn't describe a parallel and single coil mod. I don't need the serial mode.

Gruesse, Pablo
 
#15
Ya just gotta love life's little surprises...a few days ago I was considering putting my L2K up for sale because I didn't like the way it sounded. Now that I finally understand how the MFD pickups differ from conventional designs and how the EQ can be used to tame all the extra high and low end, I can't put this bass down!!!

Even though it's for g****r, I found this video on MFD pickups from G&L to be very informative:

The black sheep of the family is now my #1! :bassist:

Cheers,
Duff2
 
#19
What a difference a mindset makes. I bought a beautiful El Toro recently and was thinking, passive controls, gotta keep the 'bass' way up. But I just approached it from the other way, turning it up to the sweet spot and voilà, the over-boominess is gone! So obvious, yet so oblivious! I like thinking of the active-passive switch as my guitarist-just-stepped-on-another-pedal switch, to give a nice volume boost on the fly while holding the same general tone.
 
#20
Man, on the Toro, even more so for this approach.

Also, I never cared for passive on the Toro. While active, man, that thing is *alive.*
To me, it just fell flat on it's face passive, not at all like the L1000/2000.

I've been messing all morning with eq points for my new 2500. It's been awhile since I had an active G&L I'd forgotten where sweet spots are.

At your amp, if you can, boost a little at 2-300hz, but a little at 6-900hz, and boost a little at 5khz. I havfe both the Walkabout and M9 tweaked about like this, and it sounds similarly killer thru both; the only tweak I have to make from one to the other is to open treble at the bass a little more for the Walkabout.

'course, you might hate my tone;)

At the bass, I'm in passive mode, single coil (which many of you won't have on your 2X00) with bass about 40% open, and treble at 70% open.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back