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HotRoded · Oct 10, 2003

In a newsletter we received some time ago, there was a very interesting article about how to modify a bass with passive pick-ups to give it a brighter tone, rather than the original 'dark' tone.

And I deleted it !!! I couldn't find it on TB...
Can somebody help?
Thx.

Tim Barber · Oct 10, 2003

Is this it?

***********************************
2 Tone Tip, by Rodney Gene
***********************************

TONE TIP #2 THE 333k Potentiometer MOD.

One of the quickest, coolest and least expensive ways to dial
in your passive bass tone is to change the potentiometers.

What is a potentiometer (pot for short)? In simple terms,
it is the volume and tone controls on your bass.

In technical terms it is a resistor, a VARIABLE resistor
to be exact.

A resistor is something that most of you have seen at some
point in your life. If you have ever looked at a circuit
board of any kind (Inside a radio or effect pedal you took
apart?) you have seen several small tubular or cylindrical
components with various colored stripes on them, those are
resistors.

A resistor has a value that is measured in OHMS. The various
stripes indicate the value.

A potentiometer is cool because it can CHANGE its value,
hence the term VARIABLE.

Traditionally, basses with single coil pickups (Fender Jazz
type) use 250k ohms pots while basses with humbuckers (P-bass
type) use both 500k and 250k pots.

So- how does this help us in the real world?

The potentiometers on your bass (Volume and tone) are
affecting the way your pickups sound.

The higher the value (500k ohms - 1megk ohms etc.), the
brighter your bass tone (Also more output); conversely the
lower the value (250k typically lowest) the darker the tone
(and less output).

Although switching from a 500k to 250k pot really helps
mellow a bright bass, I have often found that 250k pots can
be too dark for some basses, while staying at 500k is just
too bright. The trouble I find is when you look to replace
your pots you can only find 100k, 250k, 500k or 1Meg pots to
upgrade with.

FINALLY here comes our mod. We can use a 500k pot (Which may
be on your bass already) and put a 1meg resistor (small
tubular component) in parallel with it to create close to a
333k ohms pot. (SEE DIAGRAM URL BELOW) This usually results in a perfect
combination of output and tone and it literally only costs
you pennies.

Diagram available at the following URL:
http://www.talkbass.com/images/Resistormod.gif

Note: The value of the pot in your bass is almost always
stamped on the side of the pot. Open it up and take a look.

Cheers.

--
Rodney Gene is a professional bassist in Southern Ca and a hired tone
technician and consultant. He is the former lead tech and Custom shop
manager for Seymour Duncan / Basslines.

Rodney has written a 250 page technical manual for pickup and electronic
troubleshooting for Seymour Duncan /Basslines and is the inventor and
creator of the Seymour Duncan TONE WIZARD.
Warwick, Schecter, Jackson and many independent builders have hired
Rodney to produce accurate instrument schematics and/or help in refining
tone/electronic solutions for instruments.
Click to expand...

HotRoded · Oct 11, 2003

Yes, Thanks.

(I saved it this time!)

Primary · Mar 1, 2021

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