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Nordstrand Zen Blade
- Thread starter sikamikanico
- Start date
Don't know which preamp is fitted, but does it have any adjustment for pickup gain?. My Ibanez pre had different sockets to allow them to use the Bart's or nordstrand pickups that are fitted to different models - that might give you an option to adjust gain and get a different tone?
At the moment I made a try in passive mode... so no electronics
It seems a bit strange but...probably zen blade has less output than singles?
At the moment I made a try in passive mode... so no electronics
Technically the Zen is a Humbucker (two sidewound coils) so this is a bit apples-to-oranges...
I'm sorry but I'm Italian and I don't understand what you mean with apple-to-orange...
Sorry, this is a saying in the USA meaning the things being compared are difficult to compare.
Not only do single coils and humbuckers have a different anatomy that would affect output, but due to their differences, the tone will be different (humbuckers tend to be darker in sound), for example.
This is the same question I have. I have a bass being built with a Zen Blade in the bridge position and was wondering how its output compares to Big Singles and Big Blades.
Hey guys.
I'm looking to install the Zen Blades into my Ibanez SRSC806 with a Darkglass Tone capsule. I'm new at this so I need some help. Below is how I want to set it up and extra pots I will purchase. Biggest question, will this work; and secondly, how would I wire it up? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also the Darkglass Tone capsule has the bass and midcontrols.
I'm looking to install the Zen Blades into my Ibanez SRSC806 with a Darkglass Tone capsule. I'm new at this so I need some help. Below is how I want to set it up and extra pots I will purchase. Biggest question, will this work; and secondly, how would I wire it up? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also the Darkglass Tone capsule has the bass and midcontrols.
Hi!Hey guys.
I'm looking to install the Zen Blades into my Ibanez SRSC806 with a Darkglass Tone capsule. I'm new at this so I need some help. Below is how I want to set it up and extra pots I will purchase. Biggest question, will this work; and secondly, how would I wire it up? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also the Darkglass Tone capsule has the bass and midcontrols.
View attachment 4664914
View attachment 4664918
with only one dpdt switch you can use parallel/series in only one pickup. To have p/s on both pu’s you need 2 dpdt
Hi!
with only one dpdt switch you can use parallel/series in only one pickup. To have p/s on both pu’s you need 2 dpdt
Is there a way to have them both on one toggle? I mean if I need to drill a new hole so be it lol
In short time i’ll do the same thing and for me the easyest way is to use two volume (instead of blend and volume) and get two push pull dpdt pots. So you have a bridge pickup volume that let you have p/s optional and a neck volume with the same opportunity
but you loose the possibility to have passive tone control
I don't think so... think of it this way, you have only two inputs going into your blend, each Zen blade has 2 leads so you either have to have a switch for each blade to reduce the total # of leads to 2 for the blend *or* you'd have to hard wire one of the blades to be only series or parallel and the other goes through the one switch.
If you haven't purchased the preamp yet, you may be able to get one where the A/P is stacked on a knob and then you have two switch slots for the S/P on each blade.
Makes sense?
EDIT: whoops, I see you have the preamp already, woops.
It does actually. So I took this diagram from a few pages back because it's close to what I want. Where would the Passive switch go in the chain? The bypass?
Hi, maybe too late reply. You can do it with 4PDT switch. You can even switch 2pickup between series, parallel, and single by 1 switch if you go on-on-on type switch
Replace one of the EQ pots with one of equal value that has a DPDT switch and a push/pull knob. This will give you EQ adjustment and active/passive switching with the same pot.
That stacked CTS pot may not work. You need something with more thread to go through the body. Alpha makes stacked pots with enough thread, but both gangs are the same resistance.
And you might be getting into the "Measure twice" territory.
On my last build, I was going to wire it with a push/pull volume for series/parallel, but the standard thread was too short for threading (back route, not PG) and the long thread was so long that the knob would either stick out hilariously or the control plate wouldn't fit b/c the bottom of the pot stuck out a few MM...
I have Zenblades in a custom build. I noticed that the passive mode was weak and lacking low end which I knew wasn't right. I thought there was an issue with the preamp and I sent it back to John East. John checked it and said it was functioning properly. John is such a good dude and didn't charge me anything for the diagnostic. Covered shipping back to me as well even though there was nothing wrong with his product. Class act all around!
Once I got the preamp back, I re-installed it and I noticed I was getting a lot less output from the bridge pickup and I was getting hum. So that lead me to think that maybe I was only running on one coil. So I split them in to parallel mode and hooked them up. In doing so, I discovered that when the luthier who built the bass stripped the wiring, one of them broke nearly in to. So I cut back the wires, re-stripped and connected the pickups in parallel. Everything worked perfectly. Except the output was lower and the big fat booty the bass had was gone.
So back to the bench it went and I wired them in series again. Ahhhhhhh....much better. Ya'll can keep your switches. With the John East preamp I can always roll out lows and mids if I want that "smooth" sound. No switch required. Series sounds substantially better to my ears and the output is considerably higher.
Once I got the preamp back, I re-installed it and I noticed I was getting a lot less output from the bridge pickup and I was getting hum. So that lead me to think that maybe I was only running on one coil. So I split them in to parallel mode and hooked them up. In doing so, I discovered that when the luthier who built the bass stripped the wiring, one of them broke nearly in to. So I cut back the wires, re-stripped and connected the pickups in parallel. Everything worked perfectly. Except the output was lower and the big fat booty the bass had was gone.
So back to the bench it went and I wired them in series again. Ahhhhhhh....much better. Ya'll can keep your switches. With the John East preamp I can always roll out lows and mids if I want that "smooth" sound. No switch required. Series sounds substantially better to my ears and the output is considerably higher.
I had Zen Blades with series parallel switches and found the same thing. Parallel had good clarity but no booty so the switches always stayed in series.
