U.S. Peavey Club

[58kites]

SF soap is no problem. I'm guessing you are looking for the double J style soap bar I see in the foundation.
White or Black is available in 96mm

View attachment 5279513

The VFL housings used in the later generation Foundation basses are arched instead of flat across the top surface.
They are single coil pickups with a blade and not pole pieces.
I don't know if they have Super Ferrite magnets in them.
Anybody know what to accurately call them?

 

[Matt Kustom]

The VFL housings used in the later generation Foundation basses are arched instead of flat across the top surface.
They are single coil pickups with a blade and not pole pieces.
I don't know if they have Super Ferrite magnets in them.
Anybody know what to accurately call them?

View attachment 5280098 View attachment 5280099 View attachment 5280100

Has anyone opened one of these up? Is this a triple repurpose of parts... Peavey got a great deal on what looks like a double J covers and put 8k SF coils in there from the never ending supply of those plastic bobbins...

Honestly I doubt it's the same coil. No way is 8k of #42 awg fitting on a SF bobbin without some hangover.

What lurks under the VFL cover.....

 

[Lamrith]

Yes, in Texas.
Measured in thousands of an inch.
For the action...no capo, just measure the space from fretboard to the bottom of each of your strings between the 16th and 17th fret.
For the relief, I do capo at 1 and then hold down the string at 17, 18, 19 or 20.
Then I slide a .009 feeler gauge between the string and the sixth fret.
Some people prefer neck relief at .010 or .012

Go to Youtube and search: John Carruthers Bass Setup

Go to Youtube and search: Dave's World of Fun Stuff
He has lots of great videos on all things guitar and bass for setup and repair.


Links to the tools:
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https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Dire...rds=guitar+set+up+tools&qid=1702249613&sr=8-6

Thanks again! pulled the feeler gauges out of tool box for now.

Got relief down as well as action. Ran into an odd situation. When I goofing around I fretted the A string up to 19/20 fret and it skipped note and jumped tone bigtime at that point. The string was resting on all the higher frets. I still need to go back and confirm relief and action on that string again, but could the previous owner have possibly messed up the neck angle?

Do I need to back off the neck adjustment screw hair and then snug the neck screws back up? (raise the headstock up from body and drop the heel of the neck into body pocket a hair)? That would mean going thru setup again, but rather have it right vs just raising the action to counteract it. I only noticed it on A, but have not had a chance to check D or G.

 

[58kites]

Thanks again! pulled the feeler gauges out of tool box for now.

Got relief down as well as action. Ran into an odd situation. When I goofing around I fretted the A string up to 19/20 fret and it skipped note and jumped tone bigtime at that point. The string was resting on all the higher frets. I still need to go back and confirm relief and action on that string again, but could the previous owner have possibly messed up the neck angle?

Do I need to back off the neck adjustment screw hair and then snug the neck screws back up? (raise the headstock up from body and drop the heel of the neck into body pocket a hair)? That would mean going thru setup again, but rather have it right vs just raising the action to counteract it. I only noticed it on A, but have not had a chance to check D or G.

F@ck that neck adjustment screw, don't use it, back that thing out until it is not doing anything to tilt your neck, then check the tightness of your four neck screws.
Try to set up your bass again, if you can't get things as low as you would like, then take the neck off and put a shim in the neck pocket and do the set up again.
Ask questions now if there is any confusion and we will get you going in the right direction before you go back at it.

 

[58kites]

Has anyone opened one of these up? Is this a triple repurpose of parts... Peavey got a great deal on what looks like a double J covers and put 8k SF coils in there from the never ending supply of those plastic bobbins...

Honestly I doubt it's the same coil. No way is 8k of #42 awg fitting on a SF bobbin without some hangover.

What lurks under the VFL cover.....

Don't let all of those pics fool you, the white loaded Foundation body without neck is mine, I bought if from Peavey a couple months ago.
I put a neck on it and it sounds good, they are single coil passive pickups with a bar like the Super Ferrites have.
The next two pics came off the internet, just to show the arched covers Peavey used for the VFL's and also used for these single coil later Foundation basses.
Those 8k readings are not from my pickups.

When I posted that list of readings I got from all my basses here, the Peavey pickups in that white Foundation body were reading 7.53K front pickup, 7.67K back pickup and 3.91 with both pickup volumes up all the way together.

 

[kodiakblair]

Is this a triple repurpose of parts..

I doubt it.

Mike Powers came up with the VFL design and the 'Rotowinder' to wind them Mass production was handled by G&B in Korea. It's likely G&B also handled the 'VFL' shell single coils used in the later Foundation, many believe those models involved imported pre-finished/pre-loaded bodies and hardware.

I've attached the VFL sales blurb but so far I've failed to find the PDF for the later BXP basses. All I recall was C-5 given as the magnet type.

If you intend on offering SFs but in VFL shells, those are readily available from eBay and Ali-Ex for around $2.

 

[Matt Kustom]

I doubt it.

Mike Powers came up with the VFL design and the 'Rotowinder' to wind them Mass production was handled by G&B in Korea. It's likely G&B also handled the 'VFL' shell single coils used in the later Foundation, many believe those models involved imported pre-finished/pre-loaded bodies and hardware.

I've attached the VFL sales blurb but so far I've failed to find the PDF for the later BXP basses. All I recall was C-5 given as the magnet type.

If you intend on offering SFs but in VFL shells, those are readily available from eBay and Ali-Ex for around $2.

Thank you for the info. I agree with the part about inductance. The VFL with magnet in-between two coils is very rare. Usually the magnet touches the poles or blade. Honestly I have never tried this design. Would like to hear these in person. Do they sound much different or act to tone control differently than standard duel coil blade/ ceramic ?

 

[Lamrith]

F@ck that neck adjustment screw, don't use it, back that thing out until it is not doing anything to tilt your neck, then check the tightness of your four neck screws.
Try to set up your bass again, if you can't get things as low as you would like, then take the neck off and put a shim in the neck pocket and do the set up again.
Ask questions now if there is any confusion and we will get you going in the right direction before you go back at it.

That all makes sense. I have heard good and bad about that adjustment screw in my surfing here and elsewhere for sure. All the way to people slitting their necks with it.

I had the action down in same specs as previously mentioned at least for the E string. I will go back thru and confirm each string's relief and action tonight before I change anything more and confirm what I ran into lastnight. It was getting late so I just put it away. I may have just not had action/saddle properly set

F@ck that neck adjustment screw, don't use it, back that thing out until it is not doing anything to tilt your neck, then check the tightness of your four neck screws.
Try to set up your bass again, if you can't get things as low as you would like, then take the neck off and put a shim in the neck pocket and do the set up again.
Ask questions now if there is any confusion and we will get you going in the right direction before you go back at it.

Makes sense. I plan to go back thru all measurements tonight before I do anything. It was late when working on it lastnight and I just put it away when stumbled on the issue.

 

[58kites]

That all makes sense. I have heard good and bad about that adjustment screw in my surfing here and elsewhere for sure. All the way to people slitting their necks with it.

I had the action down in same specs as previously mentioned at least for the E string. I will go back thru and confirm each string's relief and action tonight before I change anything more and confirm what I ran into lastnight. It was getting late so I just put it away. I may have just not had action/saddle properly set

Makes sense. I plan to go back thru all measurements tonight before I do anything. It was late when working on it lastnight and I just put it away when stumbled on the issue.

I'm just saying that a set screw with a point on it is a crappy way to tilt a neck up, especially on a 30 year old bass.
Can't understand how that idea ever got to production at Fenderr or G&L or anywhere.
If the body, neck and bridge are made right as three pieces that go together to make a system, there should be no need for a shim and definitely no need to be messing with extra moving parts needed to create a micro-tilt system. If anything needs to be done, a business card/plastic library card or a piece of veneer will work fine as a shim for getting things dialed in correctly again.
Micro-tilt is like heated seats and a sunroof in Texas.

 

[Runnerman]

It's difficult to explain quickly but I will try.
I wind around the magnet and format.
Certain winds for certain magnets within the type of pickup. This is important most with Humbucker guitar pickups. Some neck pickups are muddy , because they are actually overwound for that position. One thing I do for some Humbucker models is wind to a PAF reading , but with #43 wire. Les turns , same ohm reading. Beautiful sounding neck and the reading is what is stuck in a lot of people's head. My Archangel set for metal guys is like this. Neck is 8.6k , but wound with #43. Bridge is 16k , #44 with A5/C8 magnets. The neck does clean melodic intros perfectly with articulate well defined chords while keeping the highs. Great for fast playing and no mud. For the Bridge high gauss levels and both sides of each coil being charged really helps with big chords and also quick to respond to fast playing.
With single coils you get one shot. So it's about size of wire , number of turns and the pattern or crossover of each layer. Known as TPL or turns per layer. The TPL is kind of like capacitance. If the coil has a low TPL count it can handle chords. If wound like a garden hose or a doorbell the coil it can become brittle or shrill sounding depending on how it's used.
For bass pickups I always go with a LOW turn per layer count to make sure the lows are fat even and do not break up. With a Strat coil you have to find the sweet spot in one shot. Good lows while keeping the highs. If too many turns the pickup becomes darker. But again it depends on the magnet. A5 or ceramic can have a lot of highs , so these magnets are usually found in high wind applications. Then there is what's called the BH curve. This effects overall frequency. Builders that understand this usually try to have a metal free (except blade or Pole piece) pickup like the Bill Lawrence SF / Slant /Dimebag pickups. Also assemblers like DiMarzio will use ceramic magnets then use brass to pull down the BH curve and mimic a Alnico frequency (not saying they sound like Alnico). I do not care for the ceramic / brass thing but plenty of people like what it does and tons of albums have been recorded with this arrangement. Van Halen 1 and many metal albums to name a couple. At 916 when trying to maintain all the frequency. We cut vulcanex baseplates for Humbuckers and no covers. Some players figured this out not knowing exactly why , some on accident. Les Paul pulled his covers off. Somehow he knew , Jimmy page had his covered PAF neck and open T Top bridge in his LP#2 (We offer replicas).

With bass pickups , you want fat well defined bass. Gauss is very important. This is why you see a lot of large Ceramic in bass pickups. One of the reasons the SF stuff is so liked is the quick punch single coil backed with all the gauss that could be provided in that time period. Today , Neodymium is available and what I use whenever the customer allows. Way to many are shy about Neodymium and stick within the old box of A5 in coil , ceramic or a battery powered Operational Amplifier. Due to my HiFi background and understanding of op amps. Any op amp that can run on 9v is not going to be something great. (Sorry Active Players). My recommendation for getting away from batteries/op amps is Neodymium. Neo will punch your bass preamp in the face. Not one bass player that's ditched the battery for 916 neos has moved away from neos yet. As everyone here knows bass pickups can be as low as 4 ohms , but that requires big ceramic/gauss , all the way to Duncan 19k+ Alnico 5 in coil trying to wind their way to more output. (Squeezing the preamp) . My theory regardless of designs is the less vs more wire , more magnet than less unless it's for vintage tones in guitar where magnets like Alnico 3 that barely have enough cohesion to stick to metal sound beautiful. A3 is one of my favorite P90 magnets and is also great in Humbucker. A3 is a perfect pairing with old Fender amp circuits / 6L6 , like A2 is great with Marshall circuits / EL34.

Sorry about rambling , but this is like trying to talk about engine cam shaft profiles. Huge can of worms. Any questions feel free to ask.

Very nice explanation. I'm throwing this out for your opinion. I have a Jackson KBX (I know....non-Peavey....may lightning strike me) with Duncan designed Reversed PJ set. I'm really, really underwhelmed with these PUPs. I was thinking of ordering some genuine Seymour Duncans but your post got me wondering what a set of 916 neos would do for this bass. Do you make a PJ set that would fit? Also, please let me know what else you might suggest that would wake this beast up.

 

[Matt Kustom]

Very nice explanation. I'm throwing this out for your opinion. I have a Jackson KBX (I know....non-Peavey....may lightning strike me) with Duncan designed Reversed PJ set. I'm really, really underwhelmed with these PUPs. I was thinking of ordering some genuine Seymour Duncans but your post got me wondering what a set of 916 neos would do for this bass. Do you make a PJ set that would fit? Also, please let me know what else you might suggest that would wake this beast up.
View attachment 5280315

Neo P/J is no problem. It's one of the most popular and highly commented on when players are touring with this set. One of the bass players I work with has ordered 4 sets of neo P/j and is currently touring with Nita Strauss and just finished a tour with Prong. He gets a lot of compliments on his tone and he is kind enough to explain it's his 916 Neo P/J sets.
4 string Neo P/J set is $210 shipped priority. Currently have the P made ready to go , can wind a J no problem. DM me if you want to get a set.

Thanks

 

[kodiakblair]

but your post got me wondering what a set of 916 neos would do for this bass.

I'm making assumptions and guesses with regards to @Matt Kustom's Neo here, having never used his products I can only go by my experience using a similar set up.

The Peavey Zodiac Scorpio DE came with Duncan QPs as stock. I'd recorded a short clip in Audacity on mine, here's screenshot showing the levels.

Did the same with another Zodiac DE, only I'd swapped out the QPs for a Neodymium PJ set. Same strings, pickup heights, recording levels etc, it's Audacity screenshot tells a different story.

Now I'm posting these only to show the contrasting jump in output but I'm of the mindset it's far better and easier to tweak and turn down stronger signal than boost a weaker one

 

[Matt Kustom]

I'm making assumptions and guesses with regards to @Matt Kustom's Neo here, having never used his products I can only go by my experience using a similar set up.

The Peavey Zodiac Scorpio DE came with Duncan QPs as stock. I'd recorded a short clip in Audacity on mine, here's screenshot showing the levels.

View attachment 5280398

Did the same with another Zodiac DE, only I'd swapped out the QPs for a Neodymium PJ set. Same strings, pickup heights, recording levels etc, it's Audacity screenshot tells a different story.

View attachment 5280399

Now I'm posting these only to show the contrasting jump in output but I'm of the mindset it's far better and easier to tweak and turn down stronger signal than boost a weaker one

This is similar to some tracking done on Neo J vs Duncan Designed J that came from the bass that requested a wake up. Before tracking the first thing that happened was the gain on the Mark Bass amp needed to be turned down after the Neos were installed. Neos made the amp sound like it had more watts.

 

[Matt Kustom]

Very nice explanation. I'm throwing this out for your opinion. I have a Jackson KBX (I know....non-Peavey....may lightning strike me) with Duncan designed Reversed PJ set. I'm really, really underwhelmed with these PUPs. I was thinking of ordering some genuine Seymour Duncans but your post got me wondering what a set of 916 neos would do for this bass. Do you make a PJ set that would fit? Also, please let me know what else you might suggest that would wake this beast up.
View attachment 5280315

Another option since we are in the Peavey group would be a P/J set of 916 SF. Honestly I think what you're looking for is a set of Neos

 

[Bassinthemudd]

Has anyone opened one of these up? Is this a triple repurpose of parts... Peavey got a great deal on what looks like a double J covers and put 8k SF coils in there from the never ending supply of those plastic bobbins...

Honestly I doubt it's the same coil. No way is 8k of #42 awg fitting on a SF bobbin without some hangover.

What lurks under the VFL cover.....

I've got a dead one that I can send you.

 

[Bleecker]

Very nice explanation. I'm throwing this out for your opinion. I have a Jackson KBX (I know....non-Peavey....may lightning strike me) with Duncan designed Reversed PJ set. I'm really, really underwhelmed with these PUPs. I was thinking of ordering some genuine Seymour Duncans but your post got me wondering what a set of 916 neos would do for this bass. Do you make a PJ set that would fit? Also, please let me know what else you might suggest that would wake this beast up.
View attachment 5280315

I betcha this would wake it up and everything else in its vicinity! LOL!

 

[Bleecker]

Has anyone here built a bass with 2 slant pickups similar to the Elite precision? I'm thinking about it!

 

[ctmullins]

Has anyone here built a bass with 2 slant pickups similar to the fender Elite? I'm thinking about it!

Which Fender Elite?

If you’re talking about the double-P, I strongly urge you (or anyone) to reverse the slant. Otherwise you get boomy low strings and twangy high strings.

This has nothing to do with Peavey, but sounds amazing:

 

[Bleecker]

Which Fender Elite?

If you’re talking about the double-P, I strongly urge you (or anyone) to reverse the slant. Otherwise you get boomy low strings and twangy high strings.

This has nothing to do with Peavey, but sounds amazing:

Beauty! I was considering reversing the slant at the bridge...

Thanks!

 

[Bassinthemudd]

Beauty! I was considering reversing the slant at the bridge...

Thanks!

This is the way. This one has the Super Ferrite Ps that Matt Kustom made. Sounds great.