Pedulla MVP 1984 Electronics

Hello friends,

I'm new to talkbass and have been playing bass for only about a year now, so I have a lot to learn. This seems like a great place to do that! I recently purchased a 1984 Pedulla MVP via e-bay, which is a very nice instrument, but I have some problems with the electronics. I talked to Christine at Pedulla and the only thing they will offer is to replace the old configuration with the one they use now (for a price, which BTW seems pretty fair). However, I would really like to restore the original configuration. They do not have a wiring diagram either, so I'm kind of stuck. I can take it to a local guit tech, but it would certainly help to have some idea of the original wiring. Would anyone have any knowledge of this from their own experience they could share? Or, failing that, any suggestions? Thanks for your help.

 

Thank you, Ali B. They don't seem to address it directly from a quick view, but I will take a closer look this evening. Shoulda thought of that

 

Hi pilotjones! Thanks for the note. The 1984 is a little different - a toggle for the p/u selector, mini-switch for the pre-amp, and 4 knobs. Pedulla says the knobs are neck pu volume, bridge pu vol, passive tone, and pre-amp gain. There seem to be a couple issues: the bridge pu is barely audible with the selector toggle set to bridge only, there is little difference in the sound between the "both" pu position and the neck-only position, and the pre-amp gain knob doesn't seem to make any difference at all in the sound. I'm wondering if the bridge pot and/or perhaps the pu need to be replaced, and I'm not sure how the pre-amp is set up. Forgive me, I'm a relative newbie at this. I don't mind messing with it myself if I can get some good direction, but I don't want to really screw it up. It's really a beautiful bass and sounds bloody marvelous even with these problems. I have provided Bartolini with a picture of the bass in hopes they may have some ideas, as there current harness options don't seem to exactly fit. I appreciate your interest in this, thank.

P.S. I'm a great fan of strongbad

 

Thanks very much for the ideas, I will check the connections. The battery wire issue never occurred to me - a good tip. I'm really going to pursue this and may take it to a tech as well as look at it myself, since I am of limited experience. The bass is really beautiful and has a nice feel and sound, so it's really worth it to me to put some work and $ into it. It is also one of the most comfortable basses I've played. Even if I send it back to Pedulla and they do an electronics upgrade and a complete re-finishing, I would still end up with a $3600-new bass for about 1/2 that. Again, thanks a lot for your help. I'll give an update when I know more if anyone's interested. I got good advice when it was suggested to join talkbass!

 

Thanks. Well, wouldn't want to break the rules, being a newbie and all, so here's a pic! It does indeed exist - LOL! I will definitely post results of whatever I end up doing. Thanks again for your help.

 

Hey, thanks! Bunnybass has a pretty good guide to taking pics of guitars, and I used those tips.

Yep, good catch, Ahclem is from Bozos, one of my faves. I've been a diehard Firesign fan since about 1969.

(WFTEOSLH?) ????

 

Well, THAT was pretty stupid, I kept trying to think of a quote from Bozos. Electrician is a good one, their first album, release in 1968. Most of their older stuff is out on CD now, thankfully, my vinyl's awfully worn out (kinda like me!).

mgood - nice to see you here and thanks very much for the advice to check talkbass out - this is great!

 

Just in case anyone's interested, since a couple of folks tried to help me out, an update - took the bass into my local shop here in Raleigh (Harry's Guitar Shop) and one of the techs there, who is a bass player, really fixed it up nicely. Turns out that outside of a couple re-soldering needs, the elex work fine. He also adjusted the height of the bridge pickup, which was really screwed down tight and away from the strings - Doh! - something I should have known to check. It now sounds great! I felt a little silly that it wasn't something serious, but I am glad I had someone more knowledgeable take a look (and, not to mention, save myself $400 or so on new elex from Pedulla). At any rate, a happy ending to this story. Thanks to all for your interest and efforts to help.

 

Thanks guys! Gsxtasy - I will file 3rd Coast away for future reference as they sound pretty good and I'm sure I will need work in the future.

I love the MVP. This is also my first experience with Bartolini and I am very impressed with them. I'm a relative newbie, been playing bass only a year, and I feel really lucky to be able to have a Pedulla to learn with.