Tony Levin OLP Wiring

[groucho]

OK, been a long long story with my OLP TL Bass
Finally got the replacement from the "new" factory(?)
the build quality/fretwork is superior to the original...
But it doesn't sound near as good
I ran a signal generator through the preamp to confirm
the EQ and gain were something like normal - so it
appears the pickup is just really muddy on the new ones.
So I call OLP and get an "old" pickup sent. It was better,
but still way dark - like those early DiMarzio pickups...
Then I noticed the vol pot - which terminates the pickup
and then feeds the preamp was a 25K. WAY too low a value
for a passive pickup. So a 500k helped bring the sound
further outta the mud But...Now I am wondering if the
25k pot was correct, but miswired! Could it be the pickup
should go directly to the preamp and the pot after it?

Anyone else with a Tony Levin OLP who has had reason
to look into his wiring - help me out with a description
of how YOURS is wired

I am going to try adding a FET buffer before the preamp
next - as I am adding a second OLP pickup for
giggles, and will be rewiring anyway.

 

[groucho]

Hmmm, not much response - not many folks pulling
the pickguards off those TL OLP's~!

Here's what happened now - got a second pickup
with the intent of making it a two pickup model -
but decided instead to "experiment" on the second
pickup, popped it open and rewired it to have
separate outputs for both coils and set it up
wired parallel instead of series - MUCH spanky-er
sounding for my taste

The cover comes off and goes back on, if you are
careful not to muss up the paraffin inside.

 

[deaf pea]

...got a second pickup...popped it open and rewired it to have
separate outputs for both coils and set it up
wired parallel instead of series...

A MM-type pup HAS to be wired parallel to sound like a MM-type pup . . . and it should have been wired that way straight from the factory!

 

[groucho]

Well, in that case, OLP is missing the boat on that
detail

The original pickup and the second one, have a
DC resistance of 13.9K which is most certainly
series connected, as that would mean the coils
were 27k each wired in parallel! Not very likely...
Plus the one I took apart was series wired.

The original pickup as wired from OLP was so
"dark" running the treble control of the preamp
at both ends of it's range made no difference
in the sound - so little was the amount of "highs"
coming out of it.

Funny thing is the original bass with the bummer
neck sounded really sweet. But such is the lack
of consistency in your chinese knock-off bass

 

[groucho]

Gonna add the second pickup after all - I was able to get the cover off and
modify the other one to parallel wiring as well - I will post before and
after pics.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

I read where Levin said he was very choosy about the tone of the pickup, he wanted it to sound like his old peach colored MM.

You should wire the pickup in parallel, that will give you a brighter tone.

If you want a more modern sound, try a Basslines ceramic MM pickup. They are bright sounding, even in series.

 

[groucho]

Ummm...Quite a bit of the above is devoted to how
I took the pickups apart - and wired them in paralell

OLP string spacing is too narrow for official MM pickups
to be of use -

But thanks for the suggestions anyway

I do not think this has anything to do with tony Levin and his choices -
I think this is a screw up in the factory in China - the earlier ones
were probably wired in parallel(just a guess) Tony could spec one
thing - but they can build quite something else....

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Ummm...Quite a bit of the above is devoted to how
I took the pickups apart - and wired them in paralell

Yeah, I know, I was saying to rewire it in parallel if you already didn't.

OLP string spacing is too narrow for official MM pickups to be of use -

Oh yeah I see it's a five string with the old style pickup. I don't know what the string spacing is on the OLP, but the Basslines pickup is 2.645" from high to low, but it's the newer style pickup. The Carvin narrow 5 MM pickup are 2.63" and is the same style as the OLP.

But thanks for the suggestions anyway

I do not think this has anything to do with tony Levin and his choices -
I think this is a screw up in the factory in China - the earlier ones
were probably wired in parallel(just a guess) Tony could spec one
thing - but they can build quite something else....

I'm sure they out source the pickups, and it's possible the usual ones weren't available. For Tony to approve something, they had to make it in the first place. It's not a trivial thing to change designs in a factory setting. It would be cheaper to stick with what they had prototyped, unless they got a cheaper deal on similar pickups from elsewhere.

Who knows...

 

[boonerstreet]

Wait olp pickups aren't the same string spacing as normal mm pickups? Is this for all olp basses or just the tony levin's?

 

[groucho]

No, OLP MM 5 string basses have noticeably narrower
string spacing - making hardware swaps unworkable.
I have read this in many posts here and on Harmony-central.
I think the 4 string models may be the same as real MM?

That said, I never owned or rarely got a call to work on
(in my custom/repair shop dazes) MM basses - Lack
of repair and mods requests I think is a tribute to the quality
of their design and construction

Like Rickenbackers, I always wanted "just to have one"
I got a 4003 new this year, and settled for the knockoff
MM in the form of this TL OLP. I think about selling it
and just getting a real 5 string MM, but money's too
tight what with christmas and medical bills - but perhaps
NEXT year....

 

[ginospice]

Hey folks, Got a Tony Levin pup - two actually, and I want to wire them passive. Can anyone direct me to a correct diagram. These have two leads coming out and each has two wires - white and black. I have been looking for a thread on this and havent found one. I was hoping that I could set up a Volume/Pan/Tone config. I need to have one master volume as I do a lot of swells (these are going in a pair of fretless OLPs).