P-pickup *directly* to jack, nothing else ? doable ? GO or NO ?

An on/off switch could give you a nasty click when used. I've tried that once, but I have no clue what kind of switch I used. Mine plopped which sounded too harsh and too bad for comfort in front of an amp at gig volume.

The sound will most likely have more highs, since you're going direct and not through the pots.

 

try this, why not, it's an easily done and reversible mod. if you search TalkBass for 'straight to jack', you'll get some opinions on what it will sound like.

also there exist no-load pots that don't affect the sound when open, they will give you both options in one bass.

 

IMO and IME..........by wiring direct, all you are going to get is a little bit more clarity. Do you really want a brighter, clearer and snappier bass sound? Ya probably already got the high eq on your amp for more "snap".

Fender sells a No Load tone pot that allows the signal to go from the volume pot and then direct to the jack. By passes the tone pot until it is turned.

Also to consider, 1 meg pots are pretty much direct from pickup to jack. (I know, I have trouble understanding it also, the lower the ohm on a pot the more the tone is subdued. The higher the ohm on a pot, the more direct the signal to the jack.........duh! I can't understand it.)

 

Go for it . I have done it with guitars in the past but never the bass . My bass rig is minimal by choice so need tone / vol on the bass . 5 minutes with the soldering iron before you cut up the bass would be time well spent . I love the minimal vibe as simplicity means less to go wrong . I would leave out the switch by choice but if you put one in , wire it to short out the pickup rather than disconnect it . I have done this on a couple of guitars to have a mute . Let us know how it turns out

 

Yes. Connect the pickup hot to jack tip, pickup ground to to jack sleeve, finally add a 120 kOhm resistor between jack tip and jack sleeve and it will sound just like stock.

 

A 5 - 10M resistor across the switch terminals will help with the pop.

 

Don't wire the on/off switch to break the connection to Tip, instead wire it to take the Tip to Ground.
You won't need any resistors, unless there's still a problem with popping or if it's too bright.

 

Wait, what? The shape of a P body is designed specifically to be comfortable to play while sitting. What exactly is your problem with it -- and could it be solved by just using a different kind of chair or something rather than doing all this cutting and rewiring?

 

The pot controls how much of the signal goes to ground - i.e. stripped away. The higher the resistance, the less signal is getting lost. So contrary to the way you might think a volume control works, when it is fully "open" (no resistance) the output of the bass will be "off". That's because without the resistance all of the signal is being grounded out. When at maximum resistance, very little of the signal is getting grounded out, so the output is at its loudest. It's similar with the tone pot, but there's a capacitor between the pot and ground acting as a frequency filter.

 

Thanks a million...........I need to print up your post and hang it on my bulletin board.

 

I have done FOH a bunch of times, and I would advise you to have some sort of volume control or kill switch somewhere in your rig. It doesn't have to be on the bass, it can be on your pedalboard, but whatever it is, it should be before the point where someone will insert a DI. If you don't, and you leave your bass on a stand with the thing wide open, somewhere, sometimes, it's gonna cause feedback (or hum or buzz, or.....), and the FOH person you're working with will be "less than pleased".

 

Isn't the Nikki Sixx Epiphone Thunderbird bass wired like this? I get wanting to bypass a tone pot, but having a volume is so intuitive to adjust volume.

Seems like no volume pot would be like riding one of those bikes with no brakes.

 

I did this on one of my basses. It works fine. A little brighter (as others have mentioned).

Engineers hate it.

I do not recommend this mod. If the engineer wants a little extra brightness, there are much easier ways to achieve that.

 

CAN you do it? Yes.
SHOULD you do it? Sure, if you want to, but as others have pointed out, having the ability to turn down the volume is very useful, for a number of reasons.

 

What you are describing is a single variable resistor shunting the pickup. It's not quite that simple - there are two resistances involved when a pot is used as in a potentiometer mode (what a P bass uses for a volume control). With the pot wide open on a P bass (volume at full) one of the two resistances (the one between the pickup and the output on a P) is indeed zero. At minimum gain, that resistance is the pot value, and the other resistor (between the output and ground) is zero. In a P bass, the pickup is never shorted to ground.

A VVT wired Jazz also has two resistances involved on each control; the topology is different. One of them in that case is a shunt from the pickup to ground. Still, when one of the volumes at max, the resistance between that pickup and the output (the other resistance) is zero. The big disadvantage (there is more than one) of that scheme is that it's using resistive loading to shunt a source that's reactive - it's a combination of volume and tone control, not just a volume control.

 

I wired the pickup direct to the jack on my 80's Precision Special when the active circuit failed. No switch. It worked fine. I used a graphic EQ pedal for a little tone control.

I've wondered why I don't see this kind of thing more often.

Tom

 

It worked great for Anthony Jackson and his Fodera. Go for it.

 

If you can’t sit comfortably with your bass your need a different chair, don’t chop your bass up! As the saying goes: move the bridge not the river.