Hello there, I'm having trouble getting a decent tone out of my bass for recording purposes. It's a Squire Affinity PJ with some custom Warman Stealth pickups. I'm getting a lot of nasal overtones; it also sounds quite wooden, bulbous, and warbly on sustained notes. I would like it to sound more open, and slightly more "metallic", if you know what I mean! I was considering upgrading the electronics on it, see if that helps (new pots, capacitor, etc.). Could this help at all? Cheers.
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Nasal Sounding Bass
- Thread starter Bassmaster_Gnl
- Start date
First, a good setup shows way more in recording than playing live, so I would start there. The next question is how are you recording it? Direct? Mic and amp? combo? How is the eq set at the board? There are lot of variables to play with. You should be able to get a nice sound from you bass.
I've tried a few ways of recording: direct into my interface, through a DI box, and through a Sansamp into the interface. No EQ in the equation for any of these methods. I think I'll have a look inside and see what can be improved...
Too woody/nasal pull out some 500 - 600K roughly.
Warbly, are your pickups to close to the strings. Or possibly you have a twisted string.
I don't think new pots and cap will do much for your issue.
Warbly, are your pickups to close to the strings. Or possibly you have a twisted string.
I don't think new pots and cap will do much for your issue.
Could well be the pickup height. If I'm honest they didn't fit too well in the cavities when I bought them so I squished them in there to a certain extent. The scope for height adjustment in their current state isn't great so I'll have get them out again and maybe file them down or something. Don't really feel like trying to route out the cavity itself for the sake of these pickups!
What would be the effect of wiring the volume pots in parallel, rather than series (to the tone pot)? Also wondering about using push/pull pots for the volumes to take each each pickup in or out of the circuit, is that at all possible?
The tone pot is in parallel, not series. It simply places a cap in parallel with the pickups. Switching the pickups in and out isn’t likely to solve your issue. I agree with the others that you need to get your setup sorted. I don’t think your circuit is the issue.
When I first read the thread topic my first thought was “Stop playing with your nose” but I don’t think that would have helped much.
The tone pot is in parallel, not series. It simply places a cap in parallel with the pickups. Switching the pickups in and out isn’t likely to solve your issue. I agree with the others that you need to get your setup sorted. I don’t think your circuit is the issue.
When I first read the thread topic my first thought was “Stop playing with your nose” but I don’t think that would have helped much.
I'll take another look at my setup, I spent a good while on it some time ago but I don't think it's perfect. I'm not quite sure about this but I thought that one of the signal wires from one of the volume pots went into the volume pot of the other pickup and then on to the tone pot, hence series? I haven't played with my nose for a long time now, no one wants to be known as a nose-picker!
That's the very last resort! Seriously though, they've been boiled quite recently.
I'll take another look at my setup, I spent a good while on it some time ago but I don't think it's perfect. I'm not quite sure about this but I thought that one of the signal wires from one of the volume pots went into the volume pot of the other pickup and then on to the tone pot, hence series? I haven't played with my nose for a long time now, no one wants to be known as a nose-picker!
That’s a parallel circuit. The - of both pickups go to ground and the + of both pickups connect to the tip of the output jack. A series circuit would have the - of one pickup to ground, the + of that pickup would connect to the - of the second pickup and the + of the second pickup would connect to the tip on the output jack.
Your diagram in the other post should work although the terminals on the switches may be arranged differently then you drew them. It will depend on the switch. Typically a push pull from a guitar parts supplier with have a DPDT switch with 2 rows of 3 terminals and you’d want to connect the pickup + to one of the middle terminals and the potentiometer connection to the one directly above or below the middle one depending on if you want the pickup engaged on the push or pull.
A final note, I feel like the above posters are correct and you’d be better served sorting your set up and adjusting the pickup heights rather then replacing electronics right off
I see what you mean, I guess it's parallel then. I've had a look inside now and it seems that each volume pot plus the tone pot are connected independently to the o/p jack ring connector, so not what I was expecting! I'm gonna get some shorter pickup screws so that I can adjust my pickup heights better as you've suggested. The electronics will go on the back-burner for now.
Honestly? A good P bass will sound "woody". That's kind of what it does.
Rather than throwing all kinds of money at this bass to try to make it sound like something it won't, save up and grab a cheap Ibanez. They start at around $150.
Let the P bass do what it does. Anything else will be an exercise in futility.
Rather than throwing all kinds of money at this bass to try to make it sound like something it won't, save up and grab a cheap Ibanez. They start at around $150.
Let the P bass do what it does. Anything else will be an exercise in futility.
I wouldn't go filing the pickup housings. Firstly the housing is a structural element that help control microphonics, expecially in potted pickups. Secondly, those Warman Stealth appear to be cermaic construction, which means that the magnet is probably protruding or very close to the underside of the housing - the last thing you want to do is file away the magnet, fror any number of reasons.
If the pickup won't drop any deeper into the body and you don't want to change the routs, you could, as a measure of last resort, shim your neck. This would force you to raise the bridge saddles which would in turn increase the distance from string to pickup - it might give you 1 or even 2 mm at the bridge which might be enough to remove, or at least reduce, the warble in the pickups.
YMMV
The problem I'm having is that the routing for the screw loops on the pickup housing is closer together on the bass than the pickup housing itself. As it was only rubbing slightly at 4 precise points on the screw loops I thought I'd just try to shave a little bit off in these areas- not really a huge amount. Hasn't really helped much I have to say. I think I'm gonna need some thinner foam for underneath in hindsight though, that should definitely help! I think the neck join needs some attention actually, looks like there's a bit of a gap between the neck and pocket.
