Taming the Beast, Squier VM TeleBass(Mudbucker).

[Darkstrike]

Mudbuckers, they do one thing, and they do it really well, mud.......
I like mud, I really do, but it's not always useful.
Hence, I needed to tame the beast.

A quick look under the guard, and we see a pickup with four conducters, and a ground..........

Coil tap?
Hell, why not, three way series/single/parallel!

Success! Now I gots all the mud I can handle, and some more regular bass tones. Its wired so that single coil mode is the bridge coil(lol, bridge coil).
Soundclips are, Series - single -parallel.
Fingers.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?eyrx5nwcqho
Pick.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jwmtnejm1li

 

[Bobster]

Darkstrike,

Can you diagram that out?

Thanks

Bob

 

[Darkstrike]

Darkstrike,

Can you diagram that out?

Thanks

Bob

I will, tomorrow.

Its not complicated in the least.

 

[thedude77md]

Subscribed! I was wondering if there was a way to do this w/ my Tele!

 

[rustynuts]

Its not complicated in the least.

It's really not. My '82 Ovation P bass has a series/parallel switch on it and I'm seriously thinking about adding one to at least one of my Fenders. A flick of the switch and you can go from dark and moody to a much brighter tone.

 

[Darkstrike]

Its a three way on/on/on switch.

Thats it, the + goes to the middle lug of your vol pot.*
The - goes to the pot casing.
The ground lead, which is the fifth, uncoloured lead from the pickup, also goes to the pot case.

Grey in the diagram is actually white on the pickup, of course.


Any questions, I'm here to help.


*EDIT:The undelined above is wrong, its not the middle lug the hot(+) lead goes to but this one.

 

[GlennW]

Did you take an ohm reading while you were at it; if so, what it is?

 

[Darkstrike]

It's really not. My '82 Ovation P bass has a series/parallel switch on it and I'm seriously thinking about adding one to at least one of my Fenders. A flick of the switch and you can go from dark and moody to a much brighter tone.

How do you like that, everyone complained about Fender doing it with the S1 P's, but I always thought it seemed like a good idea.

 

[Darkstrike]

Did you take an ohm reading while you were at it; if so, what it is?

I did not(no ohm meter), but these mudbuckers generally are about 30/32k ohms.

So even in single coil, there is quite a punch.

 

[rustynuts]

How do you like that, everyone complained about Fender doing it with the S1 P's, but I always thought it seemed like a good idea.

Fender's idea was good, but their execution sucked. I'm going to go with a mini toggle myself.

 

[Darkstrike]

Fender's idea was good, but their execution sucked. I'm going to go with a mini toggle myself.

And the Ovation has the toggle, no?

 

[GlennW]

I did not(no ohm meter), but these mudbuckers generally are about 30/32k ohms.

So even in single coil, there is quite a punch.

Thanks, about like a Gibson HB.

 

[rustynuts]

And the Ovation has the toggle, no?

Right there where the jack would be on a Fender.

 

[Darkstrike]

Thanks, about like a Gibson HB.

Exactly! When Fender first brought them out, it was to compete with Gibsons mudbuckers.

 

[rustynuts]

A friend of mine is over for a visit....He's a self described "music lover" but when I played the above clips a couple of times through he said he couldn't hear any difference at all. One comment he made was, "It sounds like a bass guitar."

I guess it's true....People really don't "hear" the bass unless it isn't there.

 

[Darkstrike]

A friend of mine is over for a visit....He's a self described "music lover" but when I played the above clips a couple of times through he said he couldn't hear any difference at all. One comment he made was, "It sounds like a bass guitar."

I guess it's true....People really don't "hear" the bass unless it isn't there.

Hahahaha! In fairness, the single coil, and parallel were very close.
But its like any time I ask a guitarist which bass they want me to bring to a jam, the answer is whichever, bass is bass.

 

[poppinsmac]

Might seem like a silly question, but I don't know much about electronics.
Before mods are the coils in series or parallel?

 

[Darkstrike]

Might seem like a silly question, but I don't know much about electronics.
Before mods are the coils in series or parallel?

Not a silly question at all dude.

The coils are in series stock.

 

[ccrnnr9]

Well I'm gonna chime in with my own silly question. I found this through a search as I am doing my first bass build at the moment. I bought the wood and have either ordered or found where I am going to order all the hardware and parts. This is a budget build mind you. I am doing a tele bass build as I already have a standard p-bass.

I have always been a big Jack Bruce kind of guy so I am looking to have a gibson style 'bucker in the bass. Is the use of a single humbucker pickup going to limit me in terms of tone? I have heard this from a lot of people but I am skeptical. I want to be able to have a tone like his coming from my pickup but it would be nice to have a tame tone if the time calls for it.

I found this pickup on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=120389248140

I notice that it only has one wire running from it. Is there any way to still do the mod you have presented here? If so, how? Also anyone have any feedback on this pickup model?
~Nick

 

[milothefultz]

Raaaaad, I see wat you did there.

I'm going to have to do this with my crap Bronco bass now and install a 4-lead Hot Rails. That's gotta sound at least okay, right?

Great work and I am very surprised that they shipped the humbucker with 4 leads; is that standard?