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help with wiring ID

parttime

parttime

Apr 23, 2020
170
207
Dusseldorf
#1
hi

i've got this project. its a 93 warwick streamer that someone modded in the past to have an xlr output and some sort of switch. ok, truth be told im diving into the deep end here but i really want to know what's happening before i tear it apart and try to put it back to somewhat close to original. can anyone help me figure out what is going on here. i see some circuit boards and a bunch of other stuff. i know the basics of circuits but this is above my paygrade i think.

thanks for any help


 
#2
Can't see enough of the mini toggle switch to tell what it does. Could isolate a coil in the soapbars for a jazz pickup effect. Can you test it at all like it is? I think the easiest way to get it workable is to swap the XLR for a 1/4" jack using a plate to cover the larger hole or an electrosocket jack holder (often used on telecaster in place of the cup. Just Google it).

If the preamp (which is what the circuit card is) works and sounds good, this could be super simple.
 
#3
hey @Reedt2000 thanks for the reply. i had a feeling that was the preamp, so thanks for confirming. orignally this was a passive bass according to the email i received. so i was thinking maybe the toggle just switched active to passive, but then i thought thats what the push/pull did? do you happen to know what the push/pull function does on the original setup?

i appreciate the thoughts on the jack and cover. but seeing as how i'm planning on refinishing anyway i would really like to get a piece of maple and fill this spot back in completely then redrill and set a new jack. the way the cutout comes around the radius i fear that even a large plate would leave some edges to be seen and yeah, if i'm gonna do it i might as well do it right.
 
#5






update: i'm soliciting more help from you folks!!

i'm at the part now where i need to actually get the circuit figured out and built. my head is spinning to say the least.

i have many diagrams at my disposal, both from bartollini and warwick (as well as many, many diagrams online i have been consulting). i've also watched i don't know how many youtube vids on the subject of pots and wiring and capacitors and pickups...not to mention the amazing help and encouragement a couple tb members have given me!

now to the question (you all knew one was coming)....is it possible to wire 2 passive bart hums (4 cable connectors) to a simple double throw switch to toggle between hum and single coil modes? ok i know that is possible and fairly simple. but then take that to the push/pull for active/passing switching and master volume on all modes. meanwhile i have 2, 50k pots (1 for each pup) that would control the tone (?) for each spearately and also be a coil sweep when in single coil mode? then all of this would run to the master volume and eq at the preamp?

tl:dr i have 4 knobs and a 2 way switch. want to do coil split, active passive, and then i don't know what the other 2 pots will do (they are both different pots and not really sure what i have there). going to take the entire old system apart and rebuild from scratch. i don't understand how the signal is supposed to flow through each piece to get what i want out of this circuit. help please!!

actually, i'm more confused than i thought. which is the master volume knob and what does the preamp knob actually do?? is it only a 3band eq sweep?

ok, this is long, sorry. but also this glock diagram below...now i remember the basic points of this circuit. but can i do what i wanted with these pots? i guess i will lose the treble control in passive mode?

https://www.glockenklang.de/pdf/de/GLOnboardVolJason9-18V.pdf
 
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#6
If you're new to it, you might be better off just getting yourself another preamp and going from there rather than trying to reverse engineer what somebody else has done. Especially if you have no documentation for the preamp that's presently in there.

First step is to precisely define what your goals are. Most important is whether or not you require a passive mode option. Not every preamp will let you do that. So picking one that does that will immediately narrow the field.

Next up is how many knobs the body is drilled for if you don't want to drill additional holes or leave any empty.

You have four spaces. Now the fun part begins. What do you want to put in each of them? Thanks to stacked pots, each space can theoretically allow you to have two knobs - or one knob one plus a switch. How you populate them is up to you and is only limited by the features your preamp choice provides.
 
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#7
I still think the best thing to do is replace the XLR jack with a 1/4" and see how the bass works the way it came to you. Its full of good quality parts, I have no reason to think they wouldn't sound good. This way you have at least a starting point and you only need to connect 3 wires.
 
#8
hey @40Hz , thanks for the reply.

so i've started about halfway through your suggestion. i should have been more clear with what i have and what my goals are. main goal is to keep the existing pots, the switch, and the preamp. it is a glockenklang preamp, and according to my best reading and sleuthing it is setup for active passive switching. that is something i want to keep, and planned to have that control in the push/pull pot (typical down for active, pull up for passive mode). i only have 1 push/pull, so that's what i plan to have it do, and of course master volume in either mode.

the switch is a double throw, so my desire was to have that control a split coil mode. one side would be humbucking, switch to single split coils. here is where my confusion comes in. my head and research seems to lead me to think that i will need to essentialy choose one coil from each pickup that could be heard during split-coil mode. but my real wish is to flip the switch to split the coils, and then have the two basic pots sweep to select which coil is being heard. so i could turn the knob all the way left for say the north coil, then all the way right for the south coil. dent center would be both coils heard equally. this is something i'm not sure is possible with the pots i have. so that would leave the 3 band eq up to the knob on the preamp.

basically, my main confusion is how to wire the other two pots into the circuit so that they are a tone control slaved to each pickup individually, or in split coil mode would allow me to have more control over which coils are contributing and by how much. i hope this makes sense!
 
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#9
Reedt2000 said:
I still think the best thing to do is replace the XLR jack with a 1/4" and see how the bass works the way it came to you. Its full of good quality parts, I have no reason to think they wouldn't sound good. This way you have at least a starting point and you only need to connect 3 wires.
Click to expand...

i know, you are right! i should just do that and then keep learning and researching and when i'm comfortable just pull it out and wire it into something cool. my only fear is that it won't really do too much as it is seeing as how it almost looks like the switch isn't controlling anything at this point and the one pot seems to be wired as a backup volume control for the whole circuit. (i'm most likely way off on this assessment)
 
#10
parttime said:
the switch is a double throw, so my desire was to have that control a split coil mode. one side would be humbucking, switch to single split coils. here is where my confusion comes in. my head and research seems to lead me to think that i will need to essentialy choose one coil from each pickup that could be heard during split-coil mode. but my real wish is to flip the switch to split the coils, and then have the two basic pots sweep to select which coil is being heard. so i could turn the knob all the way left for say the north coil, then all the way right for the south coil. dent center would be both coils heard equally. this is something i'm not sure is possible with the pots i have. s
Click to expand...

The usual way a coil split is implemented is to short one coil to ground and leave the other in circuit to provide the sound.

On a 4-wire pickup you could treat each pickup as two single coils and use a standard three way neck/both/bridge switching arrangement like you'd have on a guitar with two single coil pickups. You would need separate coil selector switches for each pickup whose output you could send to a blend - or - use some very complicated multipole switching scheme to cover all the possible combinations with a single switch. But that would rule out a blend between combinations.

FWIW I think your overall design goal is overly complex and bound to be less satisfying than you might expect assuming you can get it to work.

The whole point of installing a preamp is to let the preamp handle the lion's share of your tone shaping. A preamp with a good EQ section can get you virtually any sound you might otherwise obtain messing around with things like coil splitting. A hi and lo mids boost and cut control (or better yet one with a sweepable Q feature) will let you thin out a humbucker or beef up a single coil to your heart's content as well as handling your blending chores if the preamp supports that feature. And without the drop in level that happens when you split coils, or the jump in level that occurs when you toggle from parallel to series operation.

So my rule of thumb is:
  • Passive bass - fancy switching games
  • Active bass - KISS and let the preamp do the work
I've done up some ridiculously complex "ultimate bass" active and passive wiring schemes back in my progrock days when installing overkill onboard electronics was quite the fashion statement. And while many of those schemes did provide a huge number of available settings, most times only (maybe) five or (rarely) six of those settings ended up being musically useful. And from that small number of useful settings I wound up using only two or three of them most times.

There's a life lesson in there somewhere for what it's worth. :)
 
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#11
@40Hz thanks, you have pretty much confirmed my fears (that trying to do what i was thinking would be way over my head!). ok, i'm just gonna do what @Reedt2000 has been telling me to do, and now you, keep it simple, try what i already have, and then make some decisions in the future. sounds way easier! and i just wanna play this thing!

so, given that i already have the switch and it would be only a matter of a simple 1 or 2 wire fix, would you still rec to use the switch as a coil split (using just 1 coil from each pickup) or just bypass it and have a dummy switch? cause the switch is going back into the thing, whether it's active or not! and it's not really changing much of what is already there
 
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#12
parttime said:
would be only a matter of a simple 1 or 2 wire fix, would you still rec to use the switch as a coil split (using just 1 coil from each pickup) or just bypass it and have a dummy switch?
Click to expand...

Your call. If you want to try it as a coil split it's just a little soldering that's required. Who knows? On your bass might sound incredible. So might as well experiment as long as you're rewiring. If you don't like it you could either just not use the split feature, disconnect and leave it as a dummy (I've done that a few times with unneeded pots) or maybe use it as a stutter or kill switch if you're into that.
 
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#14
@parttime -

I had kinda forgotten about this video. (It's 13 years old at this point!) But this gent did something on a guitar that seems similar to what you were talking about originally. It might be of interest to check it out.



His website is gone but this is the wiring diagram he provided:

7232C8F3-CEF9-4D18-9E81-141263BA8F6D.jpeg
 

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