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Have I Been Misunderstanding The Balance Control Knob?

Murph_Orpheus

Murph_Orpheus

Jun 2, 2008
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Waterford, Ireland.
#1
At the risk of sounding like a total noob/moron, I put forth the question in the thread title. To give the context, I've had several Warwick basses over the years which all had a balance control to go between the pick ups rather than a vol/vol setup on a Fender jazz bass for instance. With the balance control turned all the way counterclockwise (or completely rolled off), this always seemed to be the neck pickup to my ears and with the control turned fully clockwise (completely rolled up) being the bridge pickup as it sounded thinner and had that more "Jaco" type tone for fingerstyle. I guess in my head, in a very simple way, this all made sense as rolling the control counterclockwise went left towards the neck pickup and clockwise went right towards the bridge pickup as I'm looking down at my pickups.

So what has thrown me off here is recently I bought an ESP LTD AP-4 bass which has a PJ configuration with vol/balance/tone instead of vol/vol/tone. I'm familiar with the difference in sound between a jazz and a precision bass and have played on a few Fenders with a PJ configuration in the past and recognise the difference in tone and volume between the P and J pickup (that being the P pickup is louder in that configuration). On the AP-4, things seem to be reversed in my understanding of the balance control. With the control completely rolled off it sounds like the J pickup (the bridge) and with it completely rolled up it sounds like the P pickup (the neck). So is it possible that this bass is just wired that way? Have my ears deceived me? Have I been wrong all these years!? What is the meaning of life!? :roflmao:
 
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#3
IME, most blend controls in basses are wired as your ESP. This is certainly the standard way to wire a blend control these days. But, like your warwick there are a few companies that do it the other way. Sadowsky is one that comes to mind. I believe when you order a Sadowsky, you can option the blend to be the more standard way. As a tech, I would always wire a blend as your ESP is unless specifically asked.
 
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#5
The Warwick is wired the same way as Sadowsky basses for the same reason that you observed. It can act like a "tone" control where it's more trebly as you turn it clockwise and bassier as you turn it counter clockwise.

For me personally, while the concept makes sense to me, it doesn't make sense in my hands when I'm playing... so I always wire the blend so that when it's turned clockwise it's favoring the neck pickup and counter the bridge.

If you really want to know how your bass is wired, tap the pickup with something metal to see how the pickups respond when you turn the blend.
 
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#8
Murph_Orpheus said:
It's not about where it sounds good, I like the tone in each pickup position. It was about understanding that it might be wired differently to what I was used to in other basses.
Click to expand...

Yes it is, but easy to "fix" if you want the balance pot to behave like your other basses.

Simply swap the pickup leads at the balance pot.

Easy peasy.
 
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#9
When you stand in front of the bass, turning clockwise for the neck pickup makes total sense, since you're turning the knob in that direction.

When you have the bass on the strap, the other way kind of makes sense. When you slide your pinky along the side of the knob to turn it CCW, your pinky will make a motion that points towards the neck PU.
 
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#11
JRA said:
i've only had blends that work as @Matt Liebenau described for his own axes: forward/neck, rearward/bridge.

i didn't know until this thread that some makers/brands wire them opposite. :wideyed:

but it's pretty cool to know that it's easy to have it either way.
Click to expand...

Super easy to fix. It's all just a personal preference. Whatever makes sense under your hands.
 
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#13
Some companies do it both ways depending on the model. My Carvin PB5 with the blend control rolled up is the neck pickup, which I consider normal. My Carvin B25 Brian Bromberg Signature is the opposite because that's the way Brian prefers it. Now that I think about it, the B25 also has a piezo pickup in the bridge with a magnetic/piezo blend control. The M/P blend control rolled up is the magnetic pickups. So that one base actually does it both ways.
 
#16
Wow, never knew anything other than the standard way.

So it begs the question, why would "new kids" (Warwick and Sadowsky) choose to do it the opposite of decades of convention before them? Is it just to say, "Hey, we're different!" ? Anyone know?
 

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