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Wiring Gurus Help!

Snakeman1066

Snakeman1066

Sep 17, 2007
6,330
6,357
Central Valley
#1
ok wiring gurus....

converting a P to a PJ

pulled the trigger on a set of Bill Lawrence (P-46 and J-45)

i have decided that by going with a stacked CTS 500k concentric pots I can eliminate the need to relocate the output jack to the side of the bass and save me some hassle? So I want to do volume/tone...volume/tone


what value capacitors would you suggest.? .022uf or .047uf? 0r something else? and maybe a .001uf between the hot terminals of the volume pot for a treble boost/bleed at lower volume?
 
#2
"Most guitars and basses with passive pickups use between .01 and .1MFD (Microfarad) tone capacitors with .02 (or .022) and .05 (or .047) being the most common choices. The capacitor and tone pot are wired together to provide a variable low pass filter. This means when the filter is engaged (tone pot is turned) only the low frequencies pass to the output jack and the high frequencies are grounded out (cut) In this application, the capacitor value determines the "cutoff frequency" of the filter and the position of the tone pot determines how much the highs (everything above the cutoff frequency) will be reduced. So the rule is: Larger capacitors will have lower cutoff frequency and sound darker in the bass setting because a wider range of frequencies is being reduced. Smaller capacitors will have a higher cutoff frequency and sound brighter in the bass setting because only the ultra high frequencies are cut...."

so if i understand the above paragraph correctly for brighter sounding pups in the bass seting of the tone knob... i want to use the .022uf? and for darker sounding pups i want to use the .047 uf?
 
#3
so after looking at multiple examples of wiring diagrams the .047uf seems to be fairly standard in most bass guitar applications...

are there any advantages to using the .022uf? disadvantages? .033 maybe?

anybody?

Maybe i should mix and match?....lol
 
#6
I did a Multi Tone that has a Range of 200pF-100nF i think
I do find it hard to hear a difference between 47nF and 33nF
Feel that feeling for bass is more 100nF, 47nF and 10nF
more of a jump between roll offs

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#7
Snakeman1066 said:
so after looking at multiple examples of wiring diagrams the .047uf seems to be fairly standard in most bass guitar applications...

are there any advantages to using the .022uf? disadvantages? .033 maybe?

anybody?

Maybe i should mix and match?....lol
Click to expand...

.047 is pretty standard for basses. My favorite circuit is an on-off-on mini switch that lets you choose .047 (original), .015 (leaves more mids) and off (none...as bright as the bass goes).

I usually sort let things in off or bright position (note that since even when tone is max there is still some resistance in the tone circuit, the "off" switch give a tone slightly brighter than even with tone maxed)

After playing around for a while, for me, I finally came to settle on .015 mfd as a tone cap that I like as an alternative to the standard .047 mfd. one. YMMV Just try a few values and see what YOU like.
 
#10
would not a Blend Pot be better than TWO Volume and 2 Resisters

or a blend pot and a Master Volume, that too would cut out the 2 Resisters
RBX375subdude67V-T-V-T-iso.png
 
#13
trying not to relocate the input jack to the side...the route is rather small at the end of the PG anyway and i would have to use a mini pot...

so after thinking about it and finally finding a CTS 500K balance/blend pot, i think i have decided to go as follows:

Master Volume/Tone CTS 500K stacked pot with a .033uf orange drop cap (split the difference between .047uf and .022 uf)

CTS 500k blanace/blend pot

switchcraft gold jack...

still trying to decide if i want to do the treble bleed mod but in the event i do it will be with a .001 cap combined with a 150k ohm 1/2 watt resistor
 

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