Is this even possible?

[fretlessman71]

So I know very little about electronics. Please filter the following through that little truth nugget.

I have a mid 80's Korean Squier P-bass - or should I call it a P-P-bass?? It has TWO P-pickups on it. Both pickups work fine and with no problems.

Now, this bass only has a volume control and a tone control, just like a regular P-bass. So getting the pickups separated isn't currently possible.

This is what I'd like to be able to do.

WITHOUT drilling a hole in the pickguard, or moving the jack.

I also don't want to give up the tone knob.

Is there even a way to do this, or am I stuck with the current configuration? Maybe a good concentric knob?... I know that doesn't always work...

 

[mikezimmerman]

Just a concentric pot for the two volume controls should work fine.

Mike

 

[David Jayne]

Just a concentric pot for the two volume controls should work fine.

Mike

+1. Easy as pie.

 

[fretlessman71]

And the issue with it being 2 humbucking pickups won't be a problem? I'm sure it's easier with J pickups....?

 

[Revmizery]

Nope this would be easy to do. the only thing you might have to do would be to make the existing hole bigger for the concentric pot but that would be done with a little sand paper rolled up.

 

[heavyhitter]

Shouldnt matter you should be fine.

 

[bongomania]

Yep no problem with them being P pups.

 

[David Jayne]

And the issue with it being 2 humbucking pickups won't be a problem? I'm sure it's easier with J pickups....?

Doesn't matter at all.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

The bass doesn't have a pickup switch of any kind?

That's really weird.

But just as everyone said, get a dual concentric pot and wire each pickup to each deck as you would a Jazz Bass.

 

[sonic assassin]

series/parallel switch wouldnt hurt. you could put a pull pot where the tone is. THEN you've got some serious options.

 

[fretlessman71]

The bass doesn't have a pickup switch of any kind?

That's really weird.

But just as everyone said, get a dual concentric pot and wire each pickup to each deck as you would a Jazz Bass.

You're telling ME it's weird... truth be told, I've never seen another bass like it. It's a late 80's Squier, and the pickups and the routing are stock - I'd bet my right leg on it. I wonder what they had in mind for it, or what it's worth...?

Just got it back from my tech today. FINALLY getting to play it; BOY is it a killer little bass.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

I Played a '74 P bass for many years that had two P pickups on it. It's a cool sound, and they blend better than some P/J sets.

The bass had a bad neck though.. the frets never wanted to stay tight, so eventually I made it into an eight string, and then did some radical body shaping, and then much later a new neck, and now it looks like this:

All that remains is the curve of the lower body.

Of course looking back on it now, and how much old Fenders go for....

But at the time it was just a used bass.

 

[fretlessman71]

You know the trick about putting a washer inbetween the truss rod nut and the wood to get more purchase on the threads?

MY neck required a 1/8" BUSHING to straighten out. Or, imagine a washer as thick as a standard B string. But, straight it is, and plays wonderfully.

I have a Vega bass with the P-P config as well... but that one has the classic "two pickup" sound when both are on. I wonder why mine doesn't...? Maybe they're both wired in series or something...?

It's not the classic P-bass tone, so I know the bridge pickup is having AN effect, and I'm sure it's working properly. Would wiring them in parallel (as you would a two-humbucker guitar, maybe?) create that classic "two-pickup" scoop?

 

[SGD Lutherie]

You know one trick with truss rods is to not have the strings up to tension when you adjust the rod, and/or clamp the neck straight before you tighten it. The rod can hold the neck straight, but can't always get it there.

If I have a recalcitrant neck, I clamp it between two pieces of wood against a sold flat surface, with the clamp in the middle to force it straight, , and maybe even out a little back bow into it, and then tighten the truss rod and let it sit over night. That usually does the trick.

Here's an illustration from Dan Erlewine's book

 

[fretlessman71]

Would this also work upside down? Meaning, if I took my "workbench", put down two pieces of wood, placed the neck Frets Down upon the blocks, and applied the clamp?

Or is something stiff, like a level, better than the long piece of wood (plack in your picture)?

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Yes to both.

 

[fretlessman71]

Hah - it's bending my crappy "workbench" more than it is the neck, but it IS bending the neck into a back bow, I'm sure of it. I'll leave it til tomorrow and give it a whirl.

(This is on a DIFFERENT bass than the one mentioned at the top of the thread, btw - like I said, that one plays great.)

 

[fretlessman71]

Trying again. Found a 1.5" thick piece of poplar that's going to do a better job. I got the truss rod to turn at LEAST halfway around this time.

It's a really stout bass neck on this one. I hope it holds when I come back to it in the morning!

Didn't have chunks of wood, so I used two stacks of business cards, plus a few between the clamp and the back of the neck. Hoping for good things this time!


NOW... this thread went off on a bit of a hijack, so allow me to return it to its original place.

Talking about getting a concentric pot that will be Master Volume on top, and Pickup Blend on the bottom, and not really doing anything to the tone knob. What could I do there that would just be useful without being invasive (i.e., active EQ, new holes drilled, routing out for more room)?

 

[SGD Lutherie]

It will be very hard to find a concentric pot like that because blend controls are already dual ganged pots. So it would be a dual gang and concentric, that's three decks.

If you want to go the blend route, you can do a concentric master volume/tone, and then the former tone pot would be the blend.

Those parts are easy to find.

 

[sunbeast]

You know one trick with truss rods is to not have the strings up to tension when you adjust the rod, and/or clamp the neck straight before you tighten it. The rod can hold the neck straight, but can't always get it there.

If I have a recalcitrant neck, I clamp it between two pieces of wood against a sold flat surface, with the clamp in the middle to force it straight, , and maybe even out a little back bow into it, and then tighten the truss rod and let it sit over night. That usually does the trick.

Here's an illustration from Dan Erlewine's book

I've always just carefully pulled the neck into a slight backbow over my knee before adjusting a truss rod- this pushes the rod out of the cavity slightly, so tightening the nut isn't actually creating the backbow. Then you can just carefully release the neck from over your knee, and the rod will settle into its new position. I don't think the truss rod is a very efficient way to CREATE a force in the neck as much as it is to HOLD a force in the neck- if that akes any sense! The problem with simply cranking the truss nut with alot of tension on the neck is that you might just compress the wood between the nut and the truss cavity rather than actually shortening the rod and pulling the neck back (this compressed wood is generally the reason that you would need to put a washer behind the truss nut- you are basically just replacing the space that the wood used to fill before being compressed).

Karl