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Hide the pots/knobs?

#21
HipDip said:
Thank you for the details, man.
For what I'm going for the bottom one oughta do it. Nice.

If for some reason there were 3 J's going to the single volume, they'd all be wired to the center lug?
Click to expand...


If you wanted one master volume and no individual control, yes you could do that. Running all the pickups together like that will have an effect on the tone although off the top of my head I’m not sure what. I guess you’ll have to try it and let us know. :D
 
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#22
Matt Liebenau said:
If you wanted one master volume and no individual control, yes you could do that. Running all the pickups together like that will have an effect on the tone although off the top of my head I’m not sure what. I guess you’ll have to try it and let us know. :D
Click to expand...

Lol
I think I'll let someone else experiment with the 3 pup jazz, but i think the hypothetical is helping me sort out some of these basics. Thanks!

@fig I'm just now getting what you meant about not using a pot (hardwired). Must be about as simple as it gets.

I played around with rolling back the 2 pups evenly and I hear what you're saying about the tone change. Sounds rounder, thumpier, bassier to me. Awesome.

So if you roll down the volume, do you compensate through your amp volume, and that still keeps the tone warm?
If that's a different subject all its own, forget I brought it up. ;)
 
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#23
I'm not fig, but yes - compensating volume thru the amp (mostly) preserves the sound. Running volume at less than 100% kills some highs (and output) at the source and nothing can add that back in... But then again, bumping the volume on the amp may sound slightly different anyway, depending on the amp and your ears...

If you prefer warmer tones, then you may want to hardwire some parallel resistors to mimic the sound of the bass with three pots. Or, you can play around with different values - a trimpot (or a regular pot under the hood) would allow adjusting the resistance actually, if you wired it as a rheostat.

And, if I'm following correctly that you prefer your tone knob closed (ie darkest setting?), then you can also play around with different value caps to see which one you like the most. Or, if I misread and you prefer tone open (brightest sound), then play around with caps to see if you might like a different one :)
 
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#24
sikamikanico said:
I'm not fig, but yes - compensating volume thru the amp (mostly) preserves the sound. Running volume at less than 100% kills some highs (and output) at the source and nothing can add that back in... But then again, bumping the volume on the amp may sound slightly different anyway, depending on the amp and your ears...

If you prefer warmer tones, then you may want to hardwire some parallel resistors to mimic the sound of the bass with three pots. Or, you can play around with different values - a trimpot (or a regular pot under the hood) would allow adjusting the resistance actually, if you wired it as a rheostat.

And, if I'm following correctly that you prefer your tone knob closed (ie darkest setting?), then you can also play around with different value caps to see which one you like the most. Or, if I misread and you prefer tone open (brightest sound), then play around with caps to see if you might like a different one :)
Click to expand...

I'll look into those rheostats and parallel resistors. Thanks! I'll probably be experimenting with various wiring for a bit. And yeah, I do currently have my tone 100% on the bassy side.

I'm just gonna try wiring both pups to one volume pot first, nixing the tone as well. I cracked it open and realized...three wires per pup. Red, green and grey. It's been 20 years since i wired these, probably incorrectly...?

20221228_084329.jpg


My best guess is to solder both reds to the single volume pot, middle lug, then wire to jack; grounding the 2 greys and 2 green on the same vol pot. Have I lost the plot?
 
#25
HipDip said:
I'll look into those rheostats and parallel resistors. Thanks! I'll probably be experimenting with various wiring for a bit. And yeah, I do currently have my tone 100% on the bassy side.

I'm just gonna try wiring both pups to one volume pot first, nixing the tone as well. I cracked it open and realized...three wires per pup. Red, green and grey. It's been 20 years since i wired these, probably incorrectly...?

View attachment 4916351

My best guess is to solder both reds to the single volume pot, middle lug, then wire to jack; grounding the 2 greys and 2 green on the same vol pot. Have I lost the plot?
Click to expand...


That sure looks like how they are currently wired. If it’s working don’t mess with it. Some pickups have internal shielding that is connected to a separate wire so you can still switch the phase on the pickup if needed. That’s probably what’s happening here.
 
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#26
@Matt Liebenau

I messed with it.:smug:
And it's the opposite of what i wanted.
The volume of both pups (pretty sure both) is always on and i can only control tone. LOL

I wired it like i mentioned above. Reds to same lug. Other lug to jack.
Does it matter which of the other two lugs i go to the jack from? I did turn turn the jack pot 180 degrees so wire would reach. I'm guessing no, but...

Anyway. I'm in it now, so i can just go through combinations until it works.
I gotta get one of those thing that cleans up excess solder. I'm like Joe Cocker with the iron.

PS. Do you guys remove the pups and pots to work on them out of the bass. Seems maybe easier; tricky to solder with just the plate flipped. A bit tight.
 
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#29
Got confirmation that "green and grey together go to ground. "
That seems how they were wired in the original photo; everything worked then. So it makes sense.

Assuming all 4 (2 green, 2 grey) can be grounded to one pot, then yeah, maybe it is just my soldering causing the issue.

I'll be finding out once i get the pots cleaned up later on.

I'm wondering if i can splice a grey and green together before soldering; less soldering.

Thanks again. Will update.
 
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#33
The volume pot now controls both pups!

20221229_133746.jpg


This pic is kinda useless, but:
20221229_132058.jpg

It's this:
PUPS1.jpg

Soldered grey/green together for each pup. Grounded them. Both reds soldered into middle lug. Other lug grounded. The pot i used on first try had a resistor grounded to the lug.

The volume seems -almost- as touchy as the tone pot used to be. Not remotely as smooth as previously. At full volume it's very bright. Starts to get a bit too bright at 6; like how it sounded before with the tone pot full on highs.

I rolled back the treble and mids almost completely on the ToneHammer; it doesn't sound super scooped. Maybe that aforementioned resistor was cutting highs? Think something like that was mentioned earlier. Will re-read.

So not perfect yet. Maybe warrants more work, but I'm happy.
Thanks for all your help, guys! :bassist:
 

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#37
Actually, the hardware store (ACE or TruValue not sure about HD) should have black and white plastic hole plugs. I’ve bought them at ACE recently for a couple of Strat pickguards since I turn the volume down with my picking hand if I keep the volume control that’s closest to the strings.
 
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#38
Awesome. Will be hunting them down tomorrow. :bassist:

Yeah, I'd hit the neck volume occasionally if slapping. Annoying...

To anyone:
Am i right that a 1nf capacitor can be used to darken the tone? If so, would it go from grounded on the pot to the lug that runs to the jack? Thankies.
 
#39
Read up some on the capacitor on the tone pot from the original wiring. It's a 503Z at .05 u (micro) F. If i can believe what I read these capacitors are pretty cheap and could actually be up to 0.9. The recommendation was to try a .047 or lower to get more bass response from the tone pot. I don't know if that'll make the tone change more linear when rolling the knob, as opposed to 1 =bass, 2-10=shrill.

Gonna try adding the tone pot back and trying lower capacitance. Maybe the soldering skills will improve. They need to....
 

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