How to adjust vol vol tone controls?

[Spiketronic]

I bought a Fender Roadworn Jazz, with the above control layout. I was thinking I would hotrod it to active, but I’ve become intrigued with the stock passive sound. But I’ve only ever had basses with a master volume, so in the middle of a song when the band gets louder, I can’t turn up with either of the vol controls without changing the tone. Do you have to adjust both vols equally? That seems difficult on the fly. And I can’t really turn around and adjust the amp. Don’t want to use a pedal. Suggestions?

 

[Jefenator]

I always run my onboard volume(s) cranked and adjust the stage level at the amp as needed. (Are you physically unable to reach your amp or just set against the idea of tweaking it mid-set?)
I could probably replace my 2nd volume knob with a switch because I only ever run each pickup 100% on or off. But I like the sound of my J so much as is, I’m not going to change anything.
YMMV - I’m sure folks will be chiming in with a bunch of different approaches.

 

[Spiketronic]

Yeh, mostly jazz, I’m on a stool and my amp is on the floor behind me. I can do most of the vol changes I need with my fingers/string attack, but sometimes I need a bump.

 

[TrevorG]

Never used that configuration but wondered what people did. I’d make friends with a pedal. A boost pedal if not volume.

 

[Jefenator]

Belt clip preamps and VBT J harnesses are two solutions that come to mind.

 

[Jefenator]

Also your dilemma goes away when you use only one pickup. I spend about 70% of the time using only the neck on my J. (Others of course have been known to favor the bridge.)

 

[micguy]

I bought a Fender Roadworn Jazz, with the above control layout. I was thinking I would hotrod it to active, but I’ve become intrigued with the stock passive sound. But I’ve only ever had basses with a master volume, so in the middle of a song when the band gets louder, I can’t turn up with either of the vol controls without changing the tone. Do you have to adjust both vols equally? That seems difficult on the fly. And I can’t really turn around and adjust the amp. Don’t want to use a pedal. Suggestions?

VVT setups don't really work as you would think they do - the volume controls do strange things to the tone of a bass, the only time they do what you think they are doing (or should do) is when they are full up or off - in between, they shunt the pickups output, and using a resistive shunt on a reactive pickup (reactive means its impedance varies over frequency) gives you tone that isn't representative of the pickup.

My suggestion is a pickup switch, a tone control, and a master volume - with the volume control wired the right way, like on a P bass, not backwards like on a J. You have 3 tones, with a tone control that does what you think it should (more or less), and a master volume that works like a volume control. Compared with a VVT setup, that is real progress.

 

[Ric5]

I bought a Fender Roadworn Jazz, with the above control layout. I was thinking I would hotrod it to active, but I’ve become intrigued with the stock passive sound. But I’ve only ever had basses with a master volume, so in the middle of a song when the band gets louder, I can’t turn up with either of the vol controls without changing the tone. Do you have to adjust both vols equally? That seems difficult on the fly. And I can’t really turn around and adjust the amp. Don’t want to use a pedal. Suggestions?

Put an Audere preamp in your bass

Audere Preamps (audereaudio.com)

 

[J Wilson]

Or just do the unthinkable: Wire it like I did mine with a volume, blender, and tone control.

I played active basses with a blender for years, and bought my first Jazz Bass a few years ago. TWO volumes. Prehistoric. Get it just like I want it, and now I got to turn TWO knobs up and down. No. There's always some blowback from the crowd about it it's never completely solo'd on one or the other, you can get tones with two you can't get with a blender, etc. All I can tell you is mine works just great, and if I'm missing anything, I can't hear it, and it's a very popular mod here in Nashville with lots of Jazz guys.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Seymour Duncan graciously posts a zillion different wiring diagrams at seymourduncan.com, and I've included the schematic I used on my Squier James Johnston Signature Bass. All 250k CTS pots, .047 cap, and a Super Jack while I was in there, and this was wired into some Fender Yosemite Jazz pickups I installed at the same time. Works great, and SO much easier to deal with. TWO volumes, that's like dial-telephone stuff.

 

[jdjk7]

I bought a Fender Roadworn Jazz, with the above control layout. I was thinking I would hotrod it to active, but I’ve become intrigued with the stock passive sound. But I’ve only ever had basses with a master volume, so in the middle of a song when the band gets louder, I can’t turn up with either of the vol controls without changing the tone. Do you have to adjust both vols equally? That seems difficult on the fly. And I can’t really turn around and adjust the amp. Don’t want to use a pedal. Suggestions?

When you say you're playing jazz, I'm assuming you're playing stuff that's mostly clean-tone type of stuff. Is there a particular reason you can't have the volume maxed and use technique to vary your dynamics? That's the solution I would use, but I don't know what kind of music you play and so I could be off-base about why you need to be turning down. YMMV, but the only reason I have to turn my bass' volume down is to get a cleaner sound out of an overdrive/pedal/preamp/etc, and then be able to flip a switch and get full volume and distortion. But after the distortion and compression on my board, there's not much of a jump in volume (which is how I like it.)

Otherwise, the solution I would go for is a volume pedal. I know you said no pedals, but I can't think of another solution short of modifying the bass. It's simple, doesn't require power, and will let you adjust your volume without touching your bass.

 

[J Posega]

Use a volume pedal.

 

[mikeswals]

You turn up the amp. It should seriously only take 2 seconds to walk over and give it a nudge.

 

[CosmicRay]

Before re-wiring anything, I'd just try a volume pedal. If it's not the solution, you can always sell it.

 

[logdrum]

Passive volume pedal. Those Ernie Balls are indestructible and go for no more than 50 used. I got 1 for 20 or so from GC

 

[bobyoung53]

I bought a Fender Roadworn Jazz, with the above control layout. I was thinking I would hotrod it to active, but I’ve become intrigued with the stock passive sound. But I’ve only ever had basses with a master volume, so in the middle of a song when the band gets louder, I can’t turn up with either of the vol controls without changing the tone. Do you have to adjust both vols equally? That seems difficult on the fly. And I can’t really turn around and adjust the amp. Don’t want to use a pedal. Suggestions?

I set both volumes at about 8 or 9 so they both have a little more if I need it and usually turn up one a little more than the other a little bit depending on what I want, there are a lot of different sounds with both volume controls down a little bit if you play around with them, if I need more volume I just turn up the one that's already accented and maybe follow it with the other one, the change is not near as dramatic as if you have them wide open and drop one. It took me a long time to really get acclimated to a Jazz bass, I didn't start really liking them until I read about this trick someplace or other.

 

[CK McLaughlin]

Passive J-type basses with reverse phased pickups are a bit weird. With both volumes on full there's an out-of-phase quacky sound (similar to Strat in-between switch settings) that a lot of slap players find appealing. Rolling either volume knob back just a little bit to reduce phase cancellation makes a huge difference. Rolling off the bridge pickup a little bit makes for a fat yet articulate sound while rolling off the neck pickup goes the other way while retaining a decent amount of bottom as well. As noted, there's no way to adjust overall volume without changing the tone, that's just the nature of the design. Solutions might include rewiring with a Master-Blend-Tone configuration, or old-style V-T + V-T concentric controls

 

[Spiketronic]

Put an Audere preamp in your bass

Audere Preamps (audereaudio.com)

That’s what I was ready to do and have done in the past. But I like this passive tone as another flavor

 

[Spiketronic]

Thanks, everyone. Leaning towards rewiring to a vol, blend, tone setup, just wondering if that will significantly alter my tone options, assuming I keep the same pups, pots, etc.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I bought a Fender Roadworn Jazz, with the above control layout. I was thinking I would hotrod it to active, but I’ve become intrigued with the stock passive sound. But I’ve only ever had basses with a master volume, so in the middle of a song when the band gets louder, I can’t turn up with either of the vol controls without changing the tone. Do you have to adjust both vols equally? That seems difficult on the fly. And I can’t really turn around and adjust the amp. Don’t want to use a pedal.

I totally understand your dilema. I have a PBj with VVT. I've had it for 19 years now.

For me, and this sounds simplistic and I don't want to be insulting, but I just pluck harder. I can get at least 25 percent louder off my base volume. Usually, I can bury a band when I do that.

These basses are pretty responsive. If you can't get get a 15-20 percent boost plucking harder, you are probably plucking too hard to begin with. And if 20% increase isn't good enough your band needs to adjust. JMO

 

[Ric5]

That’s what I was ready to do and have done in the past. But I like this passive tone as another flavor

hey that's cool ... what I like to do with a jazz bass is roll off the bridge volume and get some of that single coil snarl ...

also to boost try one of these