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New Villex Pickups and Passive EQ

#161
Tslicebass said:
I'm actually installing a villex passive 3 band eq. There is no other pre amp. Just the villex classic mm and J pickups and the villex 3 band "preamp"
Click to expand...

Hmm. I guess I misunderstood your initial post. Sorry about that.

In any case, I'm not sure that the Villex "classic" pickups are going to work with the passive 3-band EQ. The passive EQ is meant for the Villex "NVT" pickups which are wound very differently and put out a very different current-based signal which requires the use of the step-up transformers within the "NVT" module to boost it to normal levels. By contrast, the "classic" pickups put out normal signal levels without any external transformers.

Can you send me a picture of how the Villex EQ module is wired up so far?

I've got a spare "NVT" EQ module that I can try with a spare Villex "classic" pickup, if you'd like to get my opinion on how well both systems work together. (I'm snowbound anyway, so I may as well make the best of it!)

If it does end up working out, I think you can simply tape off the passive midrange circuit from the "classic" pickups and leave it unconnected.
 
#162
tubby.twins said:
....I've found that the pickups work just fine without the passive circuit if you tape off the wires (i.e. don't connect them to anything).
Click to expand...
Yes, I've done the same thing and it works fine.

Tslicebass said:
...I have a customer who wants me to install a villex passive eq into a bass with villex classic pickups.
Click to expand...
Emphasis mine. Just making sure you are not thinking of using the Villex NVT eq system with regular Villex pickups. AFAIK, that eq will only work with NVT pickups.

EDiT: tubby beat me to it
 
#163
Speaking of NVT, I had spoken to William a little while back and he said that he is no longer making the NVT system, but he did say he was working on something "even better".

FWIW in regard to the output issue...I have not found it to be a problem, although the output is a bit lower than some hotter passive pickups.

On one of my NVT basses, I installed a Bartolini TC5 preamp. This is a pure boost module (it can be configured to boost selected frequencies but it defaults to even boost) and this with a passive bypass allowed me to keep the character of the NVT sound (the TC5 is very clear in boost mode) and still have the passive eq and bypass option. Works very well.
 
#164
Here is what I assume is the mid pot with the module on it
IMG_1565_zps0bae73d8.jpg

Here is what I assume is the "pre amp" circuit. Sorry it is a little blurry. The top half has leads that connect to the other "pre amp" pots and the bottom half has what I am guessing is a common ground and a hot lead to the output jack
IMG_1568_zps89c1a622.jpg

Here is what I am thinking are the volume pots before the module
IMG_1570_zpsc20fbf6a.jpg
 
#167
Tslicebass said:
Now I'm totally confused… any idea what the other pots are?
Click to expand...

Hard to say, but I had a bass wired with regular Villex pickups once that was a vol/vol/tone harness with the PTRB added to the circuit (I had omitted the Villex mid control) and it looked a lot like this setup.

Just a guess based on the fact that the PTRB is a standalone pot, and the NVT harness has pots wired to the inductor, but not attached like that pic.

But of course, contacting William is the way to go. He can take a while to get back to you sometimes. I'd usually wait 3-4 days then resend emails.

EDIT: the Villex mid pot (at least on my systems) is just a regular pot, there is nothing attached to it.
 
#168
Marcus Willett said:
Hard to say, but I had a bass wired with regular Villex pickups once that was a vol/vol/tone harness with the PTRB added to the circuit (I had omitted the Villex mid control) and it looked a lot like this setup.

Just a guess based on the fact that the PTRB is a standalone pot, and the NVT harness has pots wired to the inductor, but not attached like that pic.

But of course, contacting William is the way to go. He can take a while to get back to you sometimes. I'd usually wait 3-4 days then resend emails.

EDIT: the Villex mid pot (at least on my systems) is just a regular pot, there is nothing attached to it.
Click to expand...

So then my guess is it is just the 2 band EQ in the wiring diagram I found on his site (2nd one down)
http://www.villex.com/wiring.html
With the addition of the passive rotary tone boost?
So then the question is how does the tone boost fit into the wiring diagram I linked above? Would it be wired in after the two eq pots but before the output jack? And I am also wondering why there are not any caps on the other pots… there is one on the high pot in the wiring diagram?
 
#169
Upon further inspection I also found that the pot with the module and the two possible volume pots are 50k and the two I suspect are eq pots are 100k. I'm also a little thrown off because according to the website the PTRB is a 4 position rotary switch where here the module is just attached to a non detent pot. I was thinking maybe it was a passive mid range tone booster but according to the site that is a switch...
 
#170
That's definitely the newer version of the NVT module. It looks quite different from the older version that I also have (and which Marcus has).

The integrated pot is the bass tone control. The midrange and treble controls are 100K pots which attach to the upper corners.

The whole system needs to be wired up like this:

NVT_48_model_web.png


FYI, Villex sent me that diagram along with the newer NVT module that I ordered from him.
 
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#171
tubby.twins said:
That's definitely the newer version of the NVT module. It looks quite different from the older version that I also have (and which Marcus has).
Click to expand...
interesting. Explains what William said to me. I had wanted to purchase an extra harness for an NVT equipped bass (I had a pot go bad, so I wanted to have a backup harness in case) and he said he didn't make that anymore.

So, apparently he has updated the NVT system. I'm curious if there is any tone difference.
 
#172
tubby.twins said:
That's definitely the newer version of the NVT module. It looks quite different from the older version that I also have (and which Marcus has).

The integrated pot is the bass tone control. The midrange and treble controls are 100K pots which attach to the upper corners.

The whole system needs to be wired up like this:

NVT_48_model_web.png


FYI, Villex sent me that diagram along with the newer NVT module that I ordered from him.
Click to expand...

So just to be clear. I am taping off the red and white wires from the pickups and only using the black as the lead and the exposed/grey as the ground?
 
#175
Tslicebass said:
Success. Everything is working fine with the exception of the Bass tone control… it doesn't appear to be doing anything. However, I haven't grounded the system to the pickguard yet… would that make a difference?
Click to expand...

Yes, I would expect the bass control needs to be connected to ground in order to bleed the bass frequencies to ground. Then again, that is also how the mid and treble controls work...
 
#176
Tslicebass said:
Success. Everything is working fine with the exception of the Bass tone control… it doesn't appear to be doing anything. However, I haven't grounded the system to the pickguard yet… would that make a difference?
Click to expand...

Maybe. When I put the NVT system in another bass one time, the EQ pots were behaving really strangely, and one of them did nothing. Once they were all grounded, everything worked fine.
 
#177
So maybe you guys can help me out again.
I have everything wired up and I still am getting really bad buzz. The buzz is worst if I touch the bridge or control pots but it goes away when I touch the cable (not the jack)
I have double checked all my grounds as well as attached all the pots to the pickguard and screwed in the pickguard. I also double checked my bridge ground on both ends.
I tried wiring the pickup straight to the jack and got buzz. I feel like I have tried everything.
I called William Villex personally and he told me that when using the classic pickups just tape off red and white, which I already did.
He also more or less told me that the NVT is not meant to be paired with the classic pickups. But I don't see how this could be causing the ground issues?
Any advice… :help:
 
#179
tubby.twins said:
That's really strange. I think I was able to get one of my project basses to do something like that once. As it turned out, I had reversed the ground and signal wires at the jack. :)
Click to expand...

That was it… Man do I feel like an idiot :scowl:
All part of the learning process I guess… interested in seeing how this setup sounds when I get it strung up… as far as I can tell the bass control is still doing nothing
 
#180
Thanks for all your help tubby and marcus. Here is a link to the repair blog I keep for the bass that I was working on with the Villex classic pickups and NVT pre. It actually ended up working out pretty nice, contrary to what Villex told me. You can tell that it is not a perfect match but it definitely isn't horrible… wish I coulda get some sound clips
http://lowdowninstrumentrepair.blogspot.com
 

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