Is this possible?

[crazybassist601]

Ok, I got this idea thats not fully worked out. I figure it would take me a few years to pull off, but I need a price guestamate, but before the guestamate, I would like to know if it is even possible.

I would have a MM sterling neck with maple fretboard. I would have a most likely custom body (because I dont think my idea will fit in a regular body).

I would have a music man sterling pickup (with phantom coil). It would be in its normal position.

I would have a Seymour duncan quarter pounder pickup (and I dont know if this is possible) a matching jazz pickup smack dab inbetween the 2 split P's.

I would also have a peizo bridge.

(you guys keeping up? if so how well is your picture drawn by now )

i would have seperate volumes for each the Musicman pup, the p bass pups, and the jazz pups, with the p and jazz having the s-1 switching. I would then have a main volume.

Underneath I would haev an active/passive switch. Active runs it through the music man preamp and passive sends the signal through the tone (meaning I would also have a tone nob)

I would have a peizo blend nob (all the way down is all magnetic, all the way up is all peizo, in between is a blend).

I would have the 3 way selector switch for the MM pickup as in a sterling and MM stingray 5.

then Musicman sterling preamp of corse, as I stated before.

Would it be possible to wire that? Would it fit in a body of a bass? Not really worried about weight as long as it dont break my back. Im young enough to stand up with a bass slung around me for an hour or 2 no problem.

Hit up ideas or help wiring or other ideas for it. I will talk to a Luthier tomorrow who will help me if it is humanly possible.

Hit it up.....

 

[Worshiper]

you know...please and thankyou work wonders.

 

[crazybassist601]

well will you please tell me your fine opinion on this....very messed up peice of liturature that i will give you credit if you can even follow it.

 

[callmeMrThumbs]

Sorry, um....just curious....Exactly how many knobs and switches will that create??? Three different pickups and then piezos? ahhh....good luck.

-Josh

 

[crazybassist601]

that would create 9 knobs and one 3 way selector and one active/passive switch.
I have no clue how to wire it but I think if you break it up it is more simple..
Music man volume-P volume-J volume- Main volume.
followed by a peizo blend, 3 way selector switch and active/passive switch.
if active is chosen then treb mid and bass.
If passive is selected then tone.
then routed to the cable jack.

Im sure you guys know 100 times more about wiring than i do.
but then again what is 100 times nothing (which is how much I know)....it equals zero....? so how much do you guys know please help me out I am not kidding about this im talking to the guy tomorrow to start ordering parts...slowly yet surely.

 

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Like I posted before in the Basses section, this can be done. It would be more useful talking to whoever is going to build the bass to see if they'll actually do it. I don't know why you'd want to do it, but you can.

 

[crazybassist601]

it could perfectly replicate all 3 main types of basses. A p, a j, and a Musicman. What more could anyone want!!

 

[mahrous]

no it can not perfectly replicate any of those really. for some of the following reasons:
1. you will have to alter the design of your bass. essentially, u need a bigger body to accomodate all of those pickups. u have to compensate for the scale length in the neck coz u dont want to lose so many frets by shortening your neck. so ultimately, ur neck will be of different proportions as well as your body. therefore, you have lost the Musicman tone!

2. u need a majorly big control cavity to able to wire all those connections and u need to add all those knobs. ur basically talking like a hollowbody there.

3. i am not sure about this, but u need a replacement preamp that is powerful enough to handle all those pickups and so on. i am not familiar at all with MM preamps and i doubt its ability to accomodate different Volume knobs! I even doubt the ability of a Duncan Tone Circuit ability to run more than one volume knob. i am adding a blend to mine and Duncan hasnt advised of the possibility of adding mroe than one extra control to their circuit.
so ur sound will be changed immensely when u go for a different preamp

etc etc etc!

but in theory, ur whole concept is pretty do-able! but in reality, this relies on the supplies you can get and your understanding of electronics and bass controls.

 

[Dugz Ink]

2. u need a majorly big control cavity to able to wire all those connections and u need to add all those knobs. ur basically talking like a hollowbody there.

What if a shielded Serial (9 pin) or Parallel (25 pin) computer cable was used to route the signals to an external box... like a rack-mount case? Granted, the controls wouldn't be right there on the guitar, but it would eleviate the need for excavation a lot of wood out of the body.

That doesn't fix the neck-length issue (that you mentioned in #1), but it would provide adequate room to build the circuitry (mentioned in #3) to provide the appropriate pre-amplification and impedance matching.

 

[mahrous]

well, the points i mentioned above are some of the myriad of other reasons saying that he cannot replicate any of those basses he was thinking of.

an external box? that could work but i like to keep some control under my fingers. dont want to go between songs and solos to change sound and come back.

 

[Suburban]

Issues:
Space - you need a big elec cavity...
Weight - you'll be carrying a lot of metal aorund...
Magentic interference - all these magnets will affect the strings whether in use or not, thus, you will never replicate any of the original basses. And furthermore, the responce form the strings may be insufficient to your needs, in volume and in overtones.

Buy a Variax.