Hey folks, I'm sort of new to posting here on Talkbass but I've been a long spectator... maybe you guys can help me out?
The good: I'm recently the proud owner of a '78 red/rosewood Peavey T-40.
The bad: Modifications have been made to the tone circuit, I knew that about the bass before I bought it and was okay with that but didn't realize what I was getting myself into with how complicated all that can become. Sooo here goes...
#1 The tone knob to the neck pickup is not stock, and with the pickup switch in the up position the tone knob just lowers the volume of the neck pickup drastically, no actual tonal differences are audible. I can't even tell if the tone knob does anything with the pickup selector in the middle position... again, nothing majorly audible happens except for less volume to the neck pickup. Looking at pictures online, the capacitor connecting the pots to the neck pickup and the tone knob is not stock either. It looks more like what comes in an allparts kit or something, no idea if that makes a difference or not.
#2 With the pickup selector in the middle position the pickups sound waaay different than when soloed, very muddy. No crisp funk tones here like I hear on the Youtube videos. It's almost as if they default to humbucker mode with almost all the tone rolled off. The only tone knob that does anything in the middle position is at the bridge, but I really can't hear the pickup roll over into anything sounding like a humbucker at the 7 mark... it just gets even muddier.
#4 With both volumes at zero the bass still has signal going to the amp, very little signal... but still there. It's very aggravating that there's no actual "mute" on the bass.
I have no idea if anything of those things are correlated, but that's the way it's acting at the moment. With such a complicated tone circuit I can only imagine what it does when you wire just one little thing wrong. It's a shame, it sure is a beautiful instrument but right now I can't use it live because of these issues. Sorry for such a long post, I've never really contributed to a forum of any kind so this is a first for me.
Hope that all made sense, any input is greatly appreciated, thanks!
The good: I'm recently the proud owner of a '78 red/rosewood Peavey T-40.
The bad: Modifications have been made to the tone circuit, I knew that about the bass before I bought it and was okay with that but didn't realize what I was getting myself into with how complicated all that can become. Sooo here goes...
#1 The tone knob to the neck pickup is not stock, and with the pickup switch in the up position the tone knob just lowers the volume of the neck pickup drastically, no actual tonal differences are audible. I can't even tell if the tone knob does anything with the pickup selector in the middle position... again, nothing majorly audible happens except for less volume to the neck pickup. Looking at pictures online, the capacitor connecting the pots to the neck pickup and the tone knob is not stock either. It looks more like what comes in an allparts kit or something, no idea if that makes a difference or not.
#2 With the pickup selector in the middle position the pickups sound waaay different than when soloed, very muddy. No crisp funk tones here like I hear on the Youtube videos. It's almost as if they default to humbucker mode with almost all the tone rolled off. The only tone knob that does anything in the middle position is at the bridge, but I really can't hear the pickup roll over into anything sounding like a humbucker at the 7 mark... it just gets even muddier.
#4 With both volumes at zero the bass still has signal going to the amp, very little signal... but still there. It's very aggravating that there's no actual "mute" on the bass.
I have no idea if anything of those things are correlated, but that's the way it's acting at the moment. With such a complicated tone circuit I can only imagine what it does when you wire just one little thing wrong. It's a shame, it sure is a beautiful instrument but right now I can't use it live because of these issues. Sorry for such a long post, I've never really contributed to a forum of any kind so this is a first for me.
Hope that all made sense, any input is greatly appreciated, thanks!
