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Help an old dude understand electronics

B

bogiebusta

Guest
Dec 26, 2013
10
2
#1
I am trying to understand the value of upgrading electronics in my bass guitars. My 18 year old grandson is constantly telling me I need to upgrade pickups, pots, capacitors........convert from passive to active and change bridges/tuners etc.. Everything he plays had been modified and to my ear doesn't sound that
much different than my Thunderbird, Peavey, P Bass, Jazz Bass, Warrick, etc...Mine are all over 25 years old. Recently, my P Bass has some shortage in the tone control and he is again pushing to " upgrade "
my pots and input jack. What would be the value to me? Money is not the issue. I am 63 years old and our band plays everything from Allman Brothers to Spirit to Stone Temple Pilots to Rev Theory. Oh, I prefer a warmer rather than
brighter sound.

Any general agreement on what upgrades benefit the sound? Are there any manufacturers of upgrades that are considered better than others?

Would be interested in comments.

Bogiebusta
 
#2
The only thing you need to understand: If you like how a bass sounds and feels don't mess with it.

That being said, pots and jacks eventually wear out. If the tone pot is going bad and doesn't just need cleaning, I'd replace the volume pot and output jack at the same time. Not to upgrade, but because they've got 25 years of wear and will eventually go bad on you, so you may as well replace all of them at once and not have to worry about it for another 25 years.
 
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#3
+1. Upgrade pots and jack for mechanical reasons, not tonal reasons, although replacing 250k pots with 500k will brighten the tone a bit.

Pickup swaps, though, are all about tone. There are so many different aftermarket pickups available that the choice can be bewildering. The good ones all come with generalized descriptions of their tonal profile, but the only way to know for sure if you like it is to try it. So if you're happy with your instruments now, don't worry about it. But if you want a different sound, a pickup swap can do that for you.
 
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#4
Changing pots, capacitors, jacks, etc. will not change the tone unless the values are being changed, or the manufacturing tolerances allow the values to stray from rated values. Bridges can change the tone, but tuners usually don't.

It sounds like your grandson is being mislead into thinking that you need to spend money changing everything out to get a playable instrument. Generally, there is no need to do any of that unless there is actually a problem with the bass, or you are unhappy with some aspect of it. Upgrading parts won't really make the bass any better if you are doing it for the sake of upgrading, and it certainly won't make you any better of a player
 
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#5
line6man said:
Changing pots, capacitors, jacks, etc. will not change the tone unless the values are being changed, or the manufacturing tolerances allow the values to stray from rated values. Bridges can change the tone, but tuners usually don't.

It sounds like your grandson is being mislead into thinking that you need to spend money changing everything out to get a playable instrument. Generally, there is no need to do any of that unless there is actually a problem with the bass, or you are unhappy with some aspect of it. Upgrading parts won't really make the bass any better if you are doing it for the sake of upgrading, and it certainly won't make you any better of a player
Click to expand...
+1 on the above. If you are happy with your bass, keep it passive. Active are harder to get that vintage tone. I have both active and passive and I love playing my passive.
 
#6
If you like P basses, you are lucky in terms of mods & repairs!

These are very simple creatures and most just change pickups and only repair otherwise.

Any active bass I would leave alone personally, unless it is a really fine bass and needs repairs such as dead pickups etc....these can be a real money pit imo.

Hands down the cheapest and easiest bass to buy and mod or repair is a P Bass or copy.

I have seen outstanding modded P Bass copies with upgraded pickups only.
 
#7
All of my basses are active and I basically have no use for a passive bass.

That being said....definitely don't change your setup just to be changing something. There's nothing at all wrong with a good passive setup, I just prefer active myself. Passive is definitely less prone to problems and is easier to maintain. I wouldn't bother if I were you.
 
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#11
bogiebusta said:
Thanks for all the feedback. I think I will have my classics just stay classic. Well, maybe I will experiment with one.
Click to expand...

Good call. Keep the ones you like how you like them, but be open to trying new things.
As much as I prefer passive basses, it is really convenient to have active eq in the instrument on some gigs.
 
#15
Now, if you do decide to experiment with one, I also would suggest purchase another bass. If you want to go with a new, off-the-shelf basses at a low price point, Ibanez basses are good value-for-money. I gig an SRA305, which is not called the GR series. There is also the SR300 series, which are very good basses for the money.

If you don't want to go through all the hassle of learning about master volume/balance knobs instead of V-V-T, separate treble and bass, separate stacked mids with level and frequency sweep, then EMG makes an EXB that is a variable scoop knob that will simultaneously cut mids while raising both bass and treble with one knob. This gives the player a variable vintage-to-modern or straight-to-slap contour control and for me takes care of 90% of the changes I need to make on stage, playing everything from 50's to present with all styles. You can wire it between a passive setup and the output jack if you want to keep the pickups. When rolled off, it has no effect on tone, but does buffer the output of the bass for a cleaner signal.

If you want to experiment with active pickups, EMG's solderless conections are a good way to go, with models and preamps that will retrofit without having to carve on an instrument.

While you're at it - are any of your basses 5-string? This might be a good opportunity to get a 5-string as well.
 

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