rewiring my bass is this possible?

[0175westwood29]

hi guys,

mods feel free to move if this isnt the right place

ive noticed recently that i only ever use my bass with all pickups on full or the neck pickup off, so rather than be able to set them as the pots need replacing im thinking of taking a page from the jaguar basses and changing the pot to an on of switch! and also adding a direct to jack switch aswell so the signal goes straight out of the bass ( yeh i know this might not be a massive difference but want to try it)

does anyone out there know how to do this and what i would need to grab

andy

[HowieBass]

I think removing the volume and tone pots (if you do the straight to jack mod) will change the tone and it'll become much brighter. With conventional wiring the pickups see a load from the pots and that contributes to what you hear. Of course this might be just what you want but I'm pretty sure it won't sound the same as it does now.

[dannybuoy]

Yeah, I tried adding a switch to my P bass once to send the pickup directly to the output jack, made it sound much brighter, I wasn't a fan! You could probably remedy that by wiring in a fixed resistor if you still wanted to present a load to the pickups.

[flyfisher]

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1407309518' post='2519262']
Yeah, I tried adding a switch to my P bass once to send the pickup directly to the output jack, made it sound much brighter, I wasn't a fan! [b]You could probably remedy that by wiring in a fixed resistor if you still wanted to present a load to the pickups.[/b]
[/quote]

Yes - if the preferred tone is right at one 'end' of the pot, or by using two resistors to more precisely replicate the tone from a mid-way pot position.

Not particularly difficult if you have a decent ohm meter and are ok with soldering.

[HowieBass]

It's at this point, wiring resistors into the circuit to replicate the impedance of the control pots, that I start to wonder if it wouldn't make more sense to keep the traditional arrangement and just wind the volume knob all the way back for those times you don't need the neck pickup...

[brensabre79]

Andy, I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do but I convert most of my two pickup basses to a rotary switch where the 2nd volume/blend normally is. I'm perhaps a bit more conventional than you in that the rotary switch is basically a pre-set for varying amounts of each pickup (i.e. 1. Neck only, 2. Neck + 50% bridge, 3. 50/50, 4. Bridge + 50% Neck, 5. Bridge only) I also add a push/pull Series / parallel switch to the volume control and a Ricky style vintage tone mod push/pull on the tone control.

Needless to say, anything is possible.
You could put a pre-set variable resistor inside the direct to jack circuit - then you can adjust to set up the right tone and then seal it up. personally i'd always want a volume control in there somewhere.

For what you're saying, assuming its a Jazz bass layout, you could easily have a 3 position switch where the second volume contriol is 1. Neck only, 2. Both, 3. Bridge only. then you could get a push/pull volume control to go direct to the jack when you pull it up, or through the volume / tone control when you push it down...


Edit: here's the diagram for my Decade bass (which has humbucker / single coil option instead of series parallel) but you get the idea with the pickup switch..

Edited August 6, 2014 by brensabre79

[brensabre79]

Here's one I knocked together quickly for you, 3 position pickup selector, and a direct to jack switch DPDT

it's a bit sketchy (no values etc.) so let me know if you want more details etc.

[Ghost_Bass]

Why not a simple wiring like the one found on the Yammy's BB basses. Master Volume, Master Tone and 3-Way selector for pickup (neck, both, bridge). Would do what you want and is a simple wiring.

I don't like the VVT setup, for me either it has to be a Vol/Balance and active EQ or a Vol/Tone for each pickup (dependes on the type of bass) config.

[0175westwood29]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1407322154' post='2519391']
Here's one I knocked together quickly for you, 3 position pickup selector, and a direct to jack switch DPDT

it's a bit sketchy (no values etc.) so let me know if you want more details etc.


[/quote]

yeh its a jazz, that idea looks spot on, and putting a adjustable resistor inline with the straight to the jack output to help take the brightness out of the signal, if i dnt like it.

ill have a look a get the values of the current pots, but im not to bad with a soldering iron so i might give this a try if i can get the parts before the weekend!

andy

[brensabre79]

Cool. You'll probably want 250k pots for a Jazz with Single coil pickups.

The volume pot (log) with the switch is [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/pot-push-pull-250k-wdpdt-switch-1266-p.asp"]here[/url]

for the tone you'll want 250k linear taper.

[0175westwood29]

Awesome, thanks man