LB70 Carvin Help

[mojosimone]

Recently I have taken up the bass at a grand age of 50 y/o. Not old to rock but slow to learn. So I treated myself to a LB70 bass by Carvin. I'm lost at the controls for passive/active. No instructions, nothing on web site. It comes with a signal splitter and I can't figure out when its humbucking and when the single coil is on. Is switch up single coil or down is single coil. In passive I have no control of tone and its volume is much louder than active if volume in is active and out is passive. I'm sweating the small stuff and it plays great and very satisfied with the instrument. Thanks for the forum. I spoke with one person at Carvin who forgot who I was after 2 minutes on hold and he got me again and said Steve who????? Someone from Carvin should? return a call. I know with this forum a comment or suggestion is always lurking. Thanks.

Steve
Wilmington, NC

 

[Bass Viking]

Check out this link: http://www.carvin.com/manuals/activepassiveguit.pdf

I used to own a 5 string bolt on Carvin bass. Regarding the humbucker, I can't remember if single coil was switch up or down. Solo the humbucker and play with the switch. When both coils are engaged you will hear a fuller sound. The tone controls don't work in passive mode, that's just the way they're made. You'll have to do tone shaping with your amp (or your fingers) when running passive.

If your passive volume is louder than your active volume, you can adjust the trim pot located inside the control cavity. See instruction number 8 in the link I attached for details.

 

[Lobster11]

I've had an LB70 for years and love it. Unfortunately, it presently doesn't happen to be where I am, so I can't answer the question about which-is-which on the humbucker coil-split switch. As the previous poster said, though, you should notice a much fuller -- and, I would add, noticeably louder -- sound in humbucking mode.

As for the volume loss when switching from passive mode (volume pot out) to active mode (volume pot in), something is wrong about that. I actually use passive mode most of the time, but punch in the volume knob for active when I want a quick volume boost. I'd be willing to bet that you simply have a weak battery, and if you replace it you'll notice a huge difference. (It would probably make the effect of the coil-split switch more obvious too.) Something I've never quite gotten used to is the fact that if you leave the guitar sitting around with the cord plugged into it, the battery will drain: Plugging in the cord turns on the active circuit. You don't have to leave it sitting there overnight like that too many times to drain the battery. So try replacing the battery and see if that doesn't change everything.