Awesome info BT. Thank you so much. I will be referencing this post and may pick your brain on wiring....which is not my strong suit....just sayin'. I have just made a Peavey purchase - picking up later this afternoon. May be too nice to gut this one, we shall see. Stay tuned.... need to keep some suspense in this thread.As long as you can get that P pickup soloed, it will do a solid P tone. My Forum Plus is loaded with Wildes (P46 and J45L). It's a perfect match. I did do the ungrounded blend control (big thread about that here on TB). Despite the P46 being wound for more clarity, and my use of a 500K tone pot for more air, a little roll back on the tone control gets it right in that classic, solid P tone.
When I was converting a Foundation into a T-42.5, the best sounding pickup combo was a SF in the neck, a Toaster in the bridge. As per my goal, it eventually had two Toasters. To me, the SF sounded better in the neck position vs the Toaster but what was missed in tonality was made up for aesthetically, it certainly looked cooler with both Toasters!
That said, If I was doing a P/J mod, the P/Toaster pickup compliment would be my choice. It's a more unique combo, and certainly more Peavey, which is what we like around here. haha
I would also try to have the switchable option of putting the P in parallel and for sure the ability of splitting the Toaster to the neck side coil (placing the Toaster with the bridge side coil in the former J rout). That way you can get some settings with more clarity and the soloed single coil of the Toaster would have a little more oomph at that location.
Peavey's choice of putting the bridge single coils centered at 32" from the nut is rather thin, harmonically. It's great for slap, though. I almost never solo my Foundation or Forum Plus bridge pickups, just too bright.
A 60s J bass has that pickup at 31.4" and a 70s J has it at 31.75". With the above mentioned Toaster location, the neck side coil is at 31". It sounds pretty darn good soloed and single coil there!
FWIW, I find the MM pickup in the bridge is also a nice combo with the P pickup. They tend to match up well, sometimes even better if the MM pickup is traditionally wound (two 4K coils) but wired in series. Same goes for a dual J pickup, it just works better with a split coil P pickup, both in tone and volume. My '00 US DLX P 5er has that combo.
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U.S. Peavey Club
- Thread starter Soundchaser11460
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Foundation S in blue with rosewood board and black hardware. Dates to 1989 by the serial. It's in remarkably good shape but does have bumps and bruises mostly on the edges but I think it still looks good for it's age. The hardware is clean and even the speed knobs have the rubber rings intact. It's going to need a good cleaning and setup to meet my tastes. Hoping the truss rod isn't stuck too badly. Looks like the truss cover has never been off.
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Quarter turn on the truss and some very minor adjustments and it plays like a dream. As I always say with any "new" Peavey bass of this era, I'm amazed at the quality of construction and playability. It blows me away every time.
Very cool bass!
If you do decide to futz with the wiring, let me know, happy to help!
Yes, correct. it does have the adjustable pole pieces also which I haven't monkey'd with yet. Volume seems pretty even and I'll probably adjust pickup height as a first approach
I own a Dyna-Bass which someone decided should have a balanced out added to the active circuit. This is not something I need or want and it seems like their hacking has made the preamp work in a weird way. The mid seems inoperative, the bass seems most bassy at the midpoint and then decreases bass dramatically exactly as you cross the mid turning it clockwise - yes the bass increases then drops while turning it up. The treble seems to sort of behave correctly but was also seems to have been hit sharply on something so that the knob is slightly bent.
I don't have any great hope of restoring the preamp. I'm curious if people have tried Aguilar or the newish Darkglass preamps in these basses.
I don't have any great hope of restoring the preamp. I'm curious if people have tried Aguilar or the newish Darkglass preamps in these basses.
- Apr 18, 2008
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I would go full filter preamp (ACG, JTEX, Underhill, Lusithand, etc.). But they're not for everybody....
I opened the control cavity just to have a look. Seems like the jack was changed at some point maybe? You can see the slot where the battery would go in an active version and i assume the pre-amp board is shaped like the cut out in the cavity.
Well, I got that music-go-round peavey all spiffed up...badass ii bridge, yosemite splitcoil I took out of my fender pbass, new wiring harness including a tbx tone control, and a tort pickguard and cream plastics
That is some odd preamp activity. Do you have any pics of the board?
When I got my 1st Gen Dyna 5 basket case project, the preamp worked, but a couple of the pots were not working well at all and two were pretty much dead, as was the switch. After a few weeks of unsuccessful searching for those specific spider pots, and almost never seeing a working preamp for sale from anytime before (and after) that pot search, I gave up the hunt.
I do like how the preamp sounds, as my Dyna 4 as the same preamp and it's cool. It eats batteries a little faster than most preamps, but oh well. In a last hurrah to keep it stock, I decided to try a fix before going to an aftermarket preamp. I removed the pots from the board, took them all apart, cleaned and lubed them well and reinstalled them. Well, it was a success! This is cool bonus of the CTS pots from this era, they are serviceable.
if I were to replace the preamp, I was looking at the Audere classic stuff. You can get a preamp that fills all the holes and does the same functions and they are a great deal. I'm not sure I'd do the 3-band with bypass switch or 4 band and drill out the switch hole for the extra pot.
I can't say for sure the jack has been changed. It's quite possible it's been resoldered. Over 30-40 years, the jacks do tend to get loose, spin and break connections.
Other typical misalignments and such from the last few decades. All easily cleaned up.
--The bridge volume control is positioned about 90 degrees off (they usually have the volume pot tabs facing each other or both towards the tone pot tabs.
--A poorly wrapped piece of non-factory electrical tape on the bridge pickup ground wire. There is also a solder iron burn on the wire. Plus, it's solder joint looks redone. Pretty sure that pot was loose, spun and broke off.
--There are bent and misaligned wires here and there.
Yep, the preamp board fills the cavity perfectly.
I'll keep that in mind. I didn't know you had an SF styled P pup. That does sound rather interesting. I'm finding the stock pups surprisingly good sounding and will probably keep them around for a while.
Exposed blades / Black top also available. SF available im majority of popular cover sizes
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Will those sound significantly different than the NEO PJ set I bought from you a while ago? And if so can you characterize them vs the NEO's. Thx
The SF designs are focused to sound like the factory pickups as much as possible. The P bass were made after @XsoGol confirmed his custom split SF sounds very close to the single coil. The SF has the quick ceramic punch where your Neos have a lot more winds and a lot more gauss than SF. The Neos are going to be a lot fatter / deeper and probably louder than the SF. We also make Super Neos which are SF winds ( 5k range ) with Neodymium magnets to offer a modernized version of the SF. The best person to answer this question would be @XsoGol
