Rehearsed with the new-to-me red Foundation S earlier. It’s probably the lightest weight bass I own, around 8 pounds, and I was very impressed.... growly and responsive. It was very easy to coax any and all tones from it.
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U.S. Peavey Club
- Thread starter Soundchaser11460
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Are Foundations made from maple bodies? I had not heard that before. My natural one I had when I was 19 (back in 1990 YIKES) had to be ash.
The painted ones are maple or later they just said select hardwoods so possibly poplar was used.
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The 93 Foundation (surely poplar) I had was very light, 8 pounds, 1 ounce. Contrasted to the (presumably maple) black Foundations and Dyna:
84- 9 pounds, 11 ounces (balances perfectly, doesn't feel that heavy.
85- 8 pounds, 14 ounces
85 Dyna- 8 pounds, 12 ounces. Has Schaller bridge and tuners adding weight.
My 94 Forum Plus (poplar) is 9 pounds, 7 ounces. It does have a factory (slightly) high(er) mass bridge and currently 3 metal P knobs, which add an ounce each.
84- 9 pounds, 11 ounces (balances perfectly, doesn't feel that heavy.
85- 8 pounds, 14 ounces
85 Dyna- 8 pounds, 12 ounces. Has Schaller bridge and tuners adding weight.
My 94 Forum Plus (poplar) is 9 pounds, 7 ounces. It does have a factory (slightly) high(er) mass bridge and currently 3 metal P knobs, which add an ounce each.
If they were using maple on early Foundations my question is "Why ?"
We bass players hadn't really been infected by "tone wood" disease in the early/mid 80's so that can't be a factor.
Knowing the price of maple I just can't see the sense of using it. Maple's nearly twice the price of ash, a third more than alder or mahogany and four times the price of poplar.
HP is a man who likes to save a $ so it seems strange to up the build cost and bury it under paint/lacquer.
We bass players hadn't really been infected by "tone wood" disease in the early/mid 80's so that can't be a factor.
Knowing the price of maple I just can't see the sense of using it. Maple's nearly twice the price of ash, a third more than alder or mahogany and four times the price of poplar.
HP is a man who likes to save a $ so it seems strange to up the build cost and bury it under paint/lacquer.
Shawn
Still doesn't answer the question "Why". The old T40 "folks equate big sound with heavy basses" myth doesn't really work with 9.5lb basses,not when jazz basses were still hitting 10-11lb. I've P-basses heavier than any of my Foundations.
Still doesn't answer the question "Why". The old T40 "folks equate big sound with heavy basses" myth doesn't really work with 9.5lb basses,not when jazz basses were still hitting 10-11lb. I've P-basses heavier than any of my Foundations.
Who knows maybe Mech can shed some light on this. I have a MIK Squier Precision from 1989 which has a plywood body & it is the, heaviest bass I have hence why it's been in it's gig bag for years
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Makes no sense to me, either. Much too expensive for something that is painted and not really that much more toneful vs alder or ash. Maple bodies are for Rickenbacker and those old Kramer aluminum necked instruments, not Fender-esque variants.
I read in a Chip Todd interview that the intentionally made the T basses heavy as that was the style of the late 70s. He and Hartley knew better, but had to make what was selling.
We dont know WHAT strain of maple was used back then....i think its softer than other maple i have worked with in the past....pretty certain its a maple body on my mid 90's Foundation 5 as its really belt buckled and i can see the flame.....indentations all over the back.
Remember, Peavey was buying a LOT of maple for necks too, maybe the supplier made them a deal?
H
Hhhhmmm.... when on earth did the "heavier is better thing start? I thought the heavy wood simply had more mineral content?
Thats funny! I have this cheap Global Japan SG copy all plywood body and light as a feather as most SG are....very resonant too, its a great slide guitar.Who knows maybe Mech can shed some light on this. I have a MIK Squier Precision from 1989 which has a plywood body & it is the, heaviest bass I have hence why it's been in it's gig bag for years
It probably was ash, you'd know it by the grain. I've seen a few natural ash Foundations with cast metal knobs, early like ~ '83-'84.
There are some natural mahogany ones floating around, too. Easy to spot them with their redish-brown color.
Yeah, that was mine: ash w/ cast lightning P knobs. I hated the looks of that bass so much! It was way too vanilla for me, at that time.
I used this exact same pot on my Forum Plus for series/paralleling the split coil P pickup and series/paralleled my Foundation with another brand of pot. If I was adept at using a drawing program, I would make a Foundation/CTS P/P specific diagram. Since I'm not, I'll try to coach ya through it.
Firstly, I used this diagram:
View attachment 3114753
The trick/confusion with the Foundation is making note of which color is hot and ground on each pickup (since they reverse). Mech addressed this. On my 84 & 85 Foundtions, the black is hot and red goes to ground on the neck pickup, and red is hot and black is ground on the bridge pickup. The plain wires all go to ground, too. I assume that is the standard wiring for Super Ferrites. Given that, and by looking at the above diagram, just reverse the colors for the neck pickup on the diagram. (Double check on your Foundation by noting which color wire goes to the middle tab of it's respective volume pot.)
Now that the pickup wire colors are sorted, the trick with the CTS pot is that you have to translate the switch's wiring diagram to the row of solder through-holes just under the pot tabs. They are all labeled correctly, just refer to the actual switch terminals for reference and then solder the wire in the appropriate through-hole. For example, you would have to put a jumper across solder holes 1 & 3, neck ground (red wire) to C1, bridge hot (red wire) to C2, the continuation of the neck's (red) ground wire from 2 to a pot casing/ground and tab 4 is the continuation of the bridge hot (red wire) to the bridge volume pot.
It's kind of a pain to have to translate the wiring, but worth it. The push/pull CTS pot is really nice, and soldering to those through holes vs directly to the switch tabs is a little less dummy proof when it comes to ruining the switch from too much heat.
I played 2 of mine yesterday (the Dyna and the Forum Plus) and played my T45 tribute Ibanez the day before. Gotta say, the Super Ferrites nearly always win the day!
Those are part of the "don't lose high frequency as I turn it down" circuits.
