NBD: Washburn, with questions

[Major_Rager_4MF]

Confession 1: I’m a sucker for 5 strings on craigslist for <$200. Recently picked up this Washburn, didn’t have high expectations, but seriously impressed with the tone, so punchy and penetrating it just jumped to the top spot, and I have some nice basses!

confession 2: I don’t know much at all about my instruments’ electronics (shame on me, I know). But one of the first things I realized, this baby has a push/pull active/passive knob, a first to me. To my surprise, the passive position seems significantly louder and way punchier than active. I opened up the electronics compartment in the back, and I’m guessing this is not stock. Any thoughts on what I’m dealing with here? Thanks

 

[Rob Chapman]

Hey. Did you bring this bass back to life? I have often found Washburns that I like the sound of even though they are kinda not really thought of as great instruments. My 1986 is a passive P type with only the p pickups and has a push/pull on the volume knob. I have swapped the pickups in it twice now and the last time when I was pulling the pickups out I noticed that they only had two wires coming off of the set(they were wired in series) and the replacements were wired with each pickup separately. Of course I didn't know that because I had a friend who is a guitar tech do the swap, he also did some fret work on it at the same time. Anyway in my research as to how to rewire this I realised that the Dimarzios I was putting in with the two pickups separated were like that in case I wanted them in parallel instead. Further digging revealed that, that was what the switch was originally for. I knew it changed the tone but I never knew how. The concept of series parallel is not lost on my as I am an audio guy and we commonly do stuff like that with speakers to allow us to achieve the correct loading in the cabinets. Once I rewired it and started playing with it I remembered why I liked it in parallel so much. I am told that trick works really well with Jazz style kits too. When you combine the two pickups with a blend or separate volume pots they are in parallel. The P's in series are much bigger sounding where as they take on a much more driving tone in parallel. Of course the Dimarzios accentuated the drive tone more.

 

[murph7489]

whats up with the plastic bag wrapped over that PCB...I would of ripped that thing off...somehow it bothers me..lol...perhaps the active circuit has a pot where you can adjust the output of the pre..mine does...

 

[Rob Chapman]

Confession 1: I’m a sucker for 5 strings on craigslist for <$200. Recently picked up this Washburn, didn’t have high expectations, but seriously impressed with the tone, so punchy and penetrating it just jumped to the top spot, and I have some nice basses!

confession 2: I don’t know much at all about my instruments’ electronics (shame on me, I know). But one of the first things I realized, this baby has a push/pull active/passive knob, a first to me. To my surprise, the passive position seems significantly louder and way punchier than active. I opened up the electronics compartment in the back, and I’m guessing this is not stock. Any thoughts on what I’m dealing with here? Thanks

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So I just picked up a Force 5 ABT which looks to be something maybe early 2000's. It seems like it like the fully loaded model. LOL. Anyway the previous owner bought it stock. At one point his preamp died so instead of just replacing the preamp he removed it and dumped a set of EMG actives in it. I like them but the output of that bass compare to the B-2 with the passive Dimarzio's is so much lower. I am thinking of adding another gain stage which will change the sound. I am trying to decide what I want it to sound like though. It has a bit of drive but not quite as much as the B-2. Do I want that or maybe a smoother brighter tone? I am thinking Aguilar for more drive, Nordstand for the fuller smooth?