Who decided this was a good idea? (w/ poll!)

[dbsfgyd1]

‘Dang typos from auto corrects are going to kill me.. use the neck pickup for the dub..

 

[Fuzzbass]

All I know is that I really dislike V/V/T*. I would rather adjust pickup balance with one knob.


*Exception: back in the early 80's I had my FrankenFender PJ wired as Master volume, J pickup volume, tone. This is because I wanted P pickup volume full at all times, and the ability to dial in J volume to taste. (This might not work well with a weak J pickup, but my PJ sets were balanced).

Pickup toggle isn't ideal, but doesn't bother me much.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

The pictured bass is some weird Mustang/P/J to begin with! . I prefer blend as a general rule. I tend to turn it slightly to the neck pickup for a bit of warmth, a bit to the bridge pickup for a little bite. That's my go-to approach but sometimes I fiddle with the other knobs and switches as well.

The Bar Band Bassman

 

[Shoreline Gold]

There are legitimate advantages to each approach in my experience. So...I vote carrots.

 

[ELG60]

Carrots.

I have basses with many knobs/switches and some with two knobs only. It's totally situational and contingent upon the instrument.

 

[JRA]

It's like one big, luscious, plump, meaty and juicy butterball turkey of a pickup pear that punches and growls for days............

gawd that sounds delicious!

I then just re spaced the extra control knob onto my control panel template for the PG I designed.

nice job! that's looks so cool!

I can't think of a time when I'm ever up 50-50 on both pickups on my J-Bass, why would Fender lock me into just this?

i can't answer your question, but i'm with you on your use of controls: i've almost always preferred a blend control to find a setting i like so i can forget it. i don't "hate" toggles (used one for a couple of decades), but definitely not my favorite way to roll.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

With the exception of the rare active blend, I really don't hear those subtleties that people say they prefer, like 90% neck, 10% bridge on passive instruments. I prefer something like the rotary selector on Dingwall basses.

 

[fishdude101101]

Depends on the bass. I really like the switch setups on the G&L L2000/L2500 and Fender Roscoe Beck basses. Granted both of those basses are super versatile, so quickly dialing in tones from the wide range of what is available becomes more important IMO. They also offer more than just pickup selector switching (though pickup selector is a switch on both).

If I could change one thing on my l2500 then it would be the pickup selector switch. Would love to have a blend

 

[Hounddog409]

BBJBG - it would help if you fully describe EXACTLY what the switch does. OK, so it's 50-50 in one position, what about the other position(s)?

I was assuming it was bridge, neck, both?
If so, im all for it.

 

[ThudThudThud]

Configs I've had:
V/V/T (JJ and HH)
V/T + V/T + 3-way Switch (PJ)
V(push/pull for series/parallel)/V/T (JJ)
V/T + V/T (HH)
V/T(stack) + V/T (stack) + master volume/blend (stack) (JJ)
V/T + on/off for pickups, on/off for series/parallel + on/off for active/passive + active bass/active treble (Jaguar PJ)
V/T (P)

I play the bass, not the controls.

 

[sotua]

View attachment 5253096

This has been really really bugging me. I'm going to fix it on my own bass I got recently from Fender that has this configuration but I can't think of a time when I'm ever up 50-50 on both pickups on my J-Bass, why would Fender lock me into just this?

I'm always on 100% or 0% for pickups on the JBass, so I eventually changed vvt to vt+rotary switch for neck/neck+bridge series/neck+bridge parallel/bridge only. YMMV.

 

[HHudson]

I can live with either S/V[+V]/T[+T] or V/V/T[+T], but much prefer a Master V/B[lend]/Tone on all passive two pickup instruments (not just bass). KIS, flexible and just as fast as a switch with a bit of time. I have converted all of my passive 2 PU basses (except the quirky Hofner) to V/B/T, active bass circuits normally already have a blend. I voted "hate switches" though I don't really "hate" them, just do not prefer them or V/V/T.

Not an issue with one PU.

I'm not a big fan of 3 PU instruments...

Look away now if knobs and switches keep you up at night.

Not mine (random pics from web), just for switch [Neck-Middle-Bridge-All] + overabundant-knob [V-V-V/T-T-T] amusement purposes....

Beautiful sounding, but not the fastest draw in the west and a nightmare for people who do not like switches & knobs.

So you want Bridge + Neck? Switch to All and turn off the volume for the middle pickup, adjust vol & tone for each of those other two PUs accordingly .

A 1956 Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster:

On the bass side, something questionable inside me forced me to save this picture (also not mine) when I saw it. It certainly does have switches, no knobs though (I assume the owner of it would have chosen, "Love Switches"). Fascinating and dangerous looking at the same time:

 

[porterbass]

Stack knob VTVT is better than VVT

There, I said it...come at me.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I can't say I "hate" switches, but I've been building my last few basses with Master Volume/Blend/Master Tone, which seems more adjustable for nuance than a switch. On my latest build, a Ric Lemmy 4004LK clone, with three pups, and using a "freeway" stick-shift style switch, which gives me more pup combinations than I'm ever likely to need. I have a Strat with a traditional 5-way switch, with a micro-switch added for "neck on" in any combination, so.... yeah, don't really "hate" switches. 2V and 2T is annoying to me. Any change in volume also changes blend, gets on my nerves.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

The switch cuts out the other pickup from the circuit, though. With it, you can get a true soloed P or J pickup.

 

[MrB64]

I have both, so....

 

[pcake]

neither poll response applies to me. i don't mind the switch there - i neither love it nor hate it.

and no TB poll is complete without a carrots option like "I prefer a carrot switch" or "Who cares? I'm gonna go eat some carrots" or simply the classic, "Carrots".

 

[andruca]

I'm more partial to traditional VVT, but it's not even a question of choice, I'm really used to Jazzes. Have owned lots of other configs, both active and passive. I happen to have a MIK Warwick Star Bass that came wired VVTT+3 position switch. That's probably the only control layout I don't like (didn't even like it nor found useful in a Peavey T40 I owned for some time). So I modded it to be a VVT+3 position switch. I'll switch MANY times as the tones I use the most are either both pickups or just the neck. I used the 4th knob hole (unused in VVT) to put a 5-pos rotary switch (+ chicken head knob) for selecting tone cap values between 20 and 57 nF. Best passive control layout I own.
So, I'm fine with VVT, but not by a wide margin nor as strictly as the poll option would imply.

 

[HHudson]

I can't say I "hate" switches, but I've been building my last few basses with Master Volume/Blend/Master Tone, which seems more adjustable for nuance than a switch. On my latest build, a Ric Lemmy 4004LK clone, with three pups, and using a "freeway" stick-shift style switch, which gives me more pup combinations than I'm ever likely to need. I have a Strat with a traditional 5-way switch, with a micro-switch added for "neck on" in any combination, so.... yeah, don't really "hate" switches. 2V and 2T is annoying to me. Any change in volume also changes blend, gets on my nerves.

=> "freeway" stick-shift style switch

Those Freeway switches do look interesting (you may have suggested it to me here on TB in the recent past).

I have a much more modest Epiphone Zephyr Blues Deluxe, same PU layout as the ES-5 above, but with V+V+V+T controls and have been considering trying a "freeway" (toggle version) together with a MV/MT layout.

 

[BobKos]

On a PJ or Jazz Bass then NO. On humbucker basses a switch is nice because if set up right a 5-way switch can net inner & outer coil selections as well as neck-both-bridge.