That was an excellent read that should be made compulsory upon purchasing any electric guitar or bass.
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G&L L2000/L2K tone controls - think boost not cut
- Thread starter duff2
- Start date
That was an excellent read that should be made compulsory upon purchasing any electric guitar or bass.
Chef
In Memoriam
Thanks for all the info gents. I was wondering how exactly this controls worked. i am from the turn it until it sounds good school more than the know how it is working school and that has led me to about this: Bass @ 80%, Treble 50%, Volume 75% Parallel Both PUPS....I never know why but that is just what sounded good to me for many applications. Now I kind of know how it all works! ....kind of
Looking forward to putting the K wiring in and checking out single coil...( :
Especially thanks to Ken and Chef as I have used their insight numerous times. The l2k (with the fat neck) is the slice!!!!!!
Looking forward to putting the K wiring in and checking out single coil...( :
Especially thanks to Ken and Chef as I have used their insight numerous times. The l2k (with the fat neck) is the slice!!!!!!
Sort of true but not quite. Both the treble knob and bass knob are cut only. But an L series DOES have treble boost. That is the two "active" switch settings. This cuts in the preamp which has a slight treble boost in 'normal" and a more extreme treble boost in the second setting. Both those settings can be used with the treble control to give some range to the tone. I usually tend toward more rolled off sounds myself because the pickups especially with the uber-bright factory SIT strings are pretty aggressive. But there is some treble boost there if you want it.
Now the "bass" control is "cut only. BUT, if you boost bass on your amp and then cut back the bass on the G&L you now have created a situation where the "bass" control has both an effective "boost" and "cut" available! Now I will warn you that this is not quite a cure-all because the amount of cut and boost you get using this trick is rather less than what you may be used to in a normal active "bass" control. But if you have a sound you like dialed in this way, the ability to have a certain amount of both "cut" and "boost" is very useful.
So while the passive bass and treble knobs are rather different from any other bass out there, if you get the hang of using your amp EQ and the active EQ in the bass in coordination with the passive tone controls it's easy to get some very nice tones out of this system! And the beauty of the passive tone knobs is that the they don't quit as you switch between passive and active modes which is also rather unique among basses.
Chef
In Memoriam
Well, now you're putting your amp and several other factors in to play.
And really, if you need to boost bass on a G&L, you have different needs, or a very different bass than mine.
The G&L bass and treble pots are cut only, in passive and active mode.
Yes, there is a treble boost in the preamp off/preamp on/preamp on+treble boost mini switch, but this has nothing to do with the tone control knobs. They are cut only.
And really, if you need to boost bass on a G&L, you have different needs, or a very different bass than mine.
The G&L bass and treble pots are cut only, in passive and active mode.
Yes, there is a treble boost in the preamp off/preamp on/preamp on+treble boost mini switch, but this has nothing to do with the tone control knobs. They are cut only.
We are both saying the same thing, but I AM bringing the amp into it. Point is that unless you are feeding your bass direct to a digitizer the amp is part of it. So what I'm saying is that you can set your "bass" and "treble" controls to "max" which is essentially out of the circuit. in that case all they'll give you is cut. That's what they do. But you can also start with your treble a bit rolled off and your bass a bit cut in percentage of knob rotation, and THEN dial-in your amp to give you a tone you like. In that case if you turn the tone knobs toward max they actually give you some boost. Yes, the amp is doing the boosting and they are only cut, but the effect on what you hear is as if you have some boost. And the mini switch certainly does give you high boost. That may have nothing to do with the treble control (which is really nothing more than a standard "tone" control) but it certainly has something to do with the sound you are getting out of your bass. And that is the final product of interest.
This was how I learnt it about passive tone controls years ago also. You're just dealing with various degrees of cut in various places in the freq. spectrum of the PU output and that's really all.
On my L2K I've always had the best results with the preamp out of the circuit (no batteries in fact) and with everything on 11 - i.e. the tone controls defeated. I then do any tone shaping at the amp or in the software.
Depending on how it's wired, the volume control can introduce tone alterations also (due to output impedance changes introduced by adding the extra resistance) so I prefer to have the vol on 11 too. With the MFD's that's not always the best choice because they overload the input of almost everything I plug them into
. My Roland microcube seems to be the only amp I've used with it that doesn't require some kind of attenuation at the input....LS
I WAS gassing for an L series, but you guys have confused the s*^t out of everyone reading this thread. Time to start looking at the M series, or get one of each.
Joking aside, I really want to take one of these out for a spin.
Joking aside, I really want to take one of these out for a spin.
Yes, that line is at least misleading if not totally false. The tone controls on the L2000 are in the signal chain before the preamp and as such are cut only unless there has been a recent redesign I'm unaware of.
