Schematics

[Monomer]

Here's what I have to work with:

My bass's current setup is weak. It's a standered P/J wiring with FOUR pots (which mean four hole in the bass to work with, plenty.)

Passive, of coarse. I need a schematic that would allow a much greater signel, and much more tone control.





any elecrial engineers on the forum?

 

[Ívar Þórólfsson]

Just to be clear...

Do you want to stay passive? If so, then you have limited tone control.

Or do you want to go active?

 

[Monomer]

I'd like to stay passive, if possible.



I dont think theirs enough room to fit a 9v.

 

[daveze]

Sorry chief but it doesn't sound like you have much in the way of options. To me, the best way to get greater signal (volume, right?) is to rid yourself of those pesky knobs and whatnot. Unfortunately, if you want greater tone control, you're after more knobs.

I'm guessing your current setup would be either 2xVolumes and 2xTones or Volume/Balance and 2xTone?

The only suggestion I could offer is maybe trade one of your tones for a series/parallel switch. That'll give you another fairly radical sound and more volume when in series. Have a look around, there's more information here than you can poke a stick at and you hardly need to be an electrical engineer.

 

[David Wilson]

if you want to stay passive, as mentioned try series/parallel.
Alternatively, try a Villex output booster - completely passive.

 

[Monomer]

I'd like to make use of all four holes that are currently in my bass, although I could just use a couple and have some "dummie" pots in the rest.


The electrical engineer thing was just a joke, as I'm Germen and we have a tendency to over-complicate things.

 

[DavePlaysBass]

All kinds of options

- Master Volume
- Blend (always prefer a blend over a volume / volume setup)
- Tone
- 2nd Tone (not sure a 2nd tone is all that useful though)
- Series / Parallel for the P pup (Parallel P might blend better with a neck Jazz)
- Series / Parallel for the J and P pup arrangement (I hear this a nice fat sounding mod)
- No load option (switch all the pots out of the circuit)
- Passive Bass Cut (like they do on a G&L)
- Dummy Pot (whenever someone complains about your volume or tone, just turn the dummy pot. Mind over matter. If you don't mind it does not matter)

You can use push pull pots for the Master Volume and Tone which each have a DPDT switch underneath the pot.

Being an EE is blessing and curse when it comes to wiring your bass. I have SPICE simulations for many of the mods suggest .

Dave

 

[fookgub]

I'd wire it with a master volume, 4-way neck/series/parallel/bridge switch, and a passive tone. As for the fourth hole, I dunno... maybe a cupholder for your beer?

 

[Monomer]

Ok, I've decided on which to use.



I want a volume and a tone control per pickup, sumed to the output.

All this'll take is one extra 250k pot, and some new pickups (8.7k) (heh, the reverand shop is right down the street from me...)




Is there a schematic floatin' around anywhere for that?

 

[rumblinbass]

4 pots for a passive bass...wow.

You could use 3 pots in this configuration: master volume/volume/volume. Just an idea. Essentially you would control the volume for each pickup individually and then also have a master volume. The 4th for whatever you want.

Oooh-ooh...Master volume/pickup select/tone/tone. What I mean by pickup select is one pot to control the strength of each pickup. When dialed all the way in one direction you get your neck pickup, all the way in the other direction you get your neck pickup and in the middle you get both. One tone pot for your highs and the other for your lows.

 

[Monomer]

I want to avoid using blend pots.



It's gonna be wired with all 500k pots, and only 2 pots per pickup.

 

[rumblinbass]

I want to avoid using blend pots.

ok, Pup vol/Pup vol/tone(hi-cut)/tone (lo-cut).