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Sudden GAS attack! Help! Jack Cassidy Bass?

#63
dear all,

I recently acquired one of the JC basses from '98, and have a couple of questions about how it works or is supposed to work - this thread seems to be among the newest and with most owners in one spot, so I thought to ask here first before opening a separate topic.

so, the instruments is really solid, very very resonant, and came with supertone bridge, ultralight tuner + OHC. what confuses me is the vari-gain switch, or more precisely the volume differences between the positions: 50 being the thinnest and lowest, 250 being marginally louder, and 500 being twice as loud with deepest lows. is this normal? the videos on YT seem to have less volume differences between different switch positions (which could be due to normalization, compression etc.).




next thing that worries me is the tone pot - it seems like it does not work at all. Chris Catero (1st vid) got really deep dub sound out of his and even remarked how sensitive it apparently is, while Ed Friedland did not even touch the tone pot (2nd vid), which I find strange as he always seem to show eq different settings. what are your experiences with the tone pot?

from what I could see by taking a couple of pics through the f-holes, the wiring seems to be intact and correct. the transformer is just a metal housing attached to the volume pot. bottom of the metal housing is some black goo with the wires coming out, no way to know what any wire does (except for one they do match the colour code from Cadfael's book) as there are no indicators on it whatsoever.

I was able to source all harness parts except for the transformer (apparently not available at all as a spare part), so should any repair be needed, I would be able to recreate/restore the circuit. the switch is a bit scratchy currently.

thank you in advance for any help/tip/advice! be well :)
 
#66
vedi said:
dear all,

I recently acquired one of the JC basses from '98, and have a couple of questions about how it works or is supposed to work - this thread seems to be among the newest and with most owners in one spot, so I thought to ask here first before opening a separate topic.

so, the instruments is really solid, very very resonant, and came with supertone bridge, ultralight tuner + OHC. what confuses me is the vari-gain switch, or more precisely the volume differences between the positions: 50 being the thinnest and lowest, 250 being marginally louder, and 500 being twice as loud with deepest lows. is this normal? the videos on YT seem to have less volume differences between different switch positions (which could be due to normalization, compression etc.).




next thing that worries me is the tone pot - it seems like it does not work at all. Chris Catero (1st vid) got really deep dub sound out of his and even remarked how sensitive it apparently is, while Ed Friedland did not even touch the tone pot (2nd vid), which I find strange as he always seem to show eq different settings. what are your experiences with the tone pot?

from what I could see by taking a couple of pics through the f-holes, the wiring seems to be intact and correct. the transformer is just a metal housing attached to the volume pot. bottom of the metal housing is some black goo with the wires coming out, no way to know what any wire does (except for one they do match the colour code from Cadfael's book) as there are no indicators on it whatsoever.

I was able to source all harness parts except for the transformer (apparently not available at all as a spare part), so should any repair be needed, I would be able to recreate/restore the circuit. the switch is a bit scratchy currently.

thank you in advance for any help/tip/advice! be well :)
Click to expand...

My experience with the variotone is pretty much what you describe. Slight volume boost as you go up in numbers and the highest setting to my ears anyway gives a slight overdriven tone. My tone pot does nothing until you get near the end of it's travel and then it goes to the dub sound you speak of. If yours does nothing it wouldn't surprise me as they are pretty cheap and hard to acquire pots. I leave mine on all the way anyway so it doesn't bother me. I have a Silverburst which while I like it very much I haven't been playing at all for a couple months so I may sell it soon. I have a Rick and a pbass if I ever go back to playing anyway. There are other threads if you do a search about replacing the tone pots. It is a major problem finding something that works on these basses. Someone found a source but I don't remember where or what thread it was in so I'll leave it up to you to find it if you are interested. Good luck!
 
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#67
1stnamebassist said:
My experience with the variotone is pretty much what you describe. Slight volume boost as you go up in numbers and the highest setting to my ears anyway gives a slight overdriven tone. My tone pot does nothing until you get near the end of it's travel and then it goes to the dub sound you speak of. If yours does nothing it wouldn't surprise me as they are pretty cheap and hard to acquire pots. I leave mine on all the way anyway so it doesn't bother me. I have a Silverburst which while I like it very much I haven't been playing at all for a couple months so I may sell it soon. I have a Rick and a pbass if I ever go back to playing anyway. There are other threads if you do a search about replacing the tone pots. It is a major problem finding something that works on these basses. Someone found a source but I don't remember where or what thread it was in so I'll leave it up to you to find it if you are interested. Good luck!
Click to expand...

thank you so much for your answer! I was mostly worried about the transformer, as those are apparently impossible to obtain (at least that's what TB says), but the rest of the harness is easy to replicate. I might do just that, after all - the bass is almost 20 years old ('98).

I think I will buy a couple of pots going from 1k to 5k, and experiment with that. I will probably remove the treble bleed, and someone on TB mentioned that (according to the wiring of Gibson Les Paul signature bass) the tone pot should be wired before the volume pot. might even try a linear pot for tone control instead of logarithmic. oh, and different cap values!!! fun times ahead :)
 
#68
vedi said:
thank you so much for your answer! I was mostly worried about the transformer, as those are apparently impossible to obtain (at least that's what TB says), but the rest of the harness is easy to replicate. I might do just that, after all - the bass is almost 20 years old ('98).

I think I will buy a couple of pots going from 1k to 5k, and experiment with that. I will probably remove the treble bleed, and someone on TB mentioned that (according to the wiring of Gibson Les Paul signature bass) the tone pot should be wired before the volume pot. might even try a linear pot for tone control instead of logarithmic. oh, and different cap values!!! fun times ahead :)
Click to expand...
022.jpg
 
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#70
vedi said:
true, except for watches :p

would you mind sharing your experience with VariGain and tone control on JC bass? thanks!
Click to expand...
I agree with the assessment of the VariTone, has as much effect on volume as tone. I like the tone of the lowest setting but tend to use the highest to get that extra oompf. I almost always run the tone control full open anyway.
 
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#72
vedi said:
thanks, much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Thanks for reminding me, hadn't played one in a while, just spent a nice half an hour with "crackerjack", still feel the same, what a great sound, and somehow seems easier to play than a lot of other full scale basses. Something about the neck is just comfy for me.
 

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