Hey guys, I seem to be having some trouble with volume pots. After wiring up my passive bass, if you turn the voulume all the way up, it cuts back a little. If you roll back on the knob a little you get full volume. 2 pickups, 2 volume pots, 2 tone. Tone seems fine. This has happened on 2 different basses, so I suspect it's me, not cheap pots. HELP!
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volume pot wiring
- Thread starter Geezer79
- Start date
Means2nEnd
Supporting Member
Is it in a passive system? Active? Same question to as far as pickups and are you using 250K or 50K audio or linier? Maybe you choice of pot (no pun intended) isnt the right match?
I have had on occasion ran into a few bad pots but not often and not 2 in a row.
I have had on occasion ran into a few bad pots but not often and not 2 in a row.
Bass #1 is a Traben torrent, that had no electronics in it but tone pots that used to go to the active system,and 5 string active humbuckers. I put in a Les Paul set up from ebay. It has 500k pots and works ok except for the problem I mentioned. I plan on eventually putting an active system back in.
Bass #2 is a washburn Taurus t-14 when I bought it the volume pots didn't work right at all. A luthier friend of mine said that one of them was backward and just switch these two wires and it will be fine. I did and now I have the problem I mentioned. Better but not right. The friend has moved away,so I can't ask him. It's passive with factory pots, 500k each. 2 volume, one tone. 4 string P/J passive pickups.
Bass #2 is a washburn Taurus t-14 when I bought it the volume pots didn't work right at all. A luthier friend of mine said that one of them was backward and just switch these two wires and it will be fine. I did and now I have the problem I mentioned. Better but not right. The friend has moved away,so I can't ask him. It's passive with factory pots, 500k each. 2 volume, one tone. 4 string P/J passive pickups.
Totally normal for a passive 2-pickup system. The best sound on a Jazz is to roll the volume off slightly on one or the other pickup. (If the volume drop is DRASTIC then one of the pickups might be wired backwards.)
If that bugs you (I think it's pretty cool
), you might invest in an active preamp.
If that bugs you (I think it's pretty cool
), you might invest in an active preamp.
Another way to solve the issue is to put a .01 inline capacitor between the bridge pickup and its volume control. This cuts the extreme lows (which, being a bridge pickup, really aren't there, anyway) and cleans up the bottom end to get rid of impedance, phasing and comb filtering issues.
I've used this to great success since I figured out J-bass pickups do this decades ago.
I've used this to great success since I figured out J-bass pickups do this decades ago.
I've had passive basses with 2 volumes do this,IMO it's the nature of running two pickups in parallel. My guess would be impedence loading when both pots are full onis whats happening. +1 active electronics would help.
JJ cancels noise/hum when the two pickups are at full volume; this necessarily cancels some musical information as well. The loudest/most aggressive sound is achieved when the pickups are slightly unequal and the cancellation is reduced. That's the clearest explanation I can think of.
Thank you very much! That explains it very well. I'm going to sell the Washburn and wanted to fix any issues it had. I've never had a Fender or anything with that pickup arrangement so I just thought it was a quirk and put up with it. You guys have been most helpful.
