mart

Those look quite different bits of kit. I have no direct experience of either, but the Fender looks like a practical tool, whereas the Ampeg just looks cute. I'm a sucker for cute little amps, but the reviews I've seen of it basically say "given that it's toy-sized, the sound is not bad", which I read as saying it's crap, but not as crap as you might expect. And if you compare the new RRP of the Fender and the Ampeg, that'll give you some idea of their relative merits. A lot of people on here would strongly recommend buying 2nd hand as that'll be much better value. Of course, it depends who the seller is, how trustworthy etc, and how likely the amp is to be in good shape and reliable.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1347977970' post='1807537'] Thanks guys, this is why i love basschat!, just been having a scan of those links, not as scarce as I first thought then, although still rare obviously, as they all are! Problem now, is that will a normal slash hole 4005 be good enough!! D'oh! [/quote] Couldn't you take a slash hole and then carve it into an f-hole? Or would that change the sound ...

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1348063290' post='1808715'] Hmmmm ... that's not my experience at all. If I find myself bidding against someone who has placed a MAX bid of[b][color=#0000ff] £100 [/color][/b]but their bid [i][b]currently [/b][/i]stands at [b][color=#0000ff]£50 [/color][/b]then my new bid of [color=#ff0000][b]£55 [/b][/color]will appear in the bidding history while his apparent [color=#0000ff][b]£50 [/b][/color]bid will have become [color=#0000ff][b]£60[/b][/color]. If I then place a new bid of [color=#ff0000][b]£65 [/b][/color]then that will also appear in the bidding history (so everyone can now see that I have placed two bids) while his apparent [color=#0000ff][b]£60 [/b][/color]bid will have become[color=#0000ff][b] £70 [/b][/color](so everyone can see that he has only placed one bid). Sounds to me like there's something odd, either with your end of this bidding, or with eBay. [/quote] Yeah, actually, that rings a bell, because you can get bidding histories where the "latest" bids actually have earlier dates, because they were higher. So, ok, I was confuddled. What was the question by the way?

And sometimes you can get screwed. I put a large bid in (actually the maximum I was prepared to pay) on something where I wasn't going to be around near the end of the auction, and didn't know about sniping tools. And some charming person put a lot of bids on until they'd reached my maximum. They then won the auction and told the seller that they bid by mistake (about 15 times!?!?), so he offered it to me at my maximum bid, even though the bidding was several hundred quid less before this other bidder came along. I suppose I should have haggled, but I'm like Monty Python's Brian when it comes to haggling ....

Oh hang on, isn't this what would happen if someone has already put a huge bid on the item? So the current maximum bid shown is much less than the value of their bid, and each time you bid less than their maximum, ebay automatically raises their [i]shown[/i] bid to something higher than yours. So each time, your bid [i]wasn't[/i] the highest bid, so doesn't show up; it just serves to raise the current price shown. Or am I just getting confuddled in my old age?

I was intrigued by the Lightwave basses, but seriously put off at how difficult it would be to adjust the set-up. Maybe it's just a learning curve, but it looked like even simply adjusting the action (e.g. following a change of strings) would be a serious job.

Presumably if someone else placed a (higher) bid just a split second before yours, then this would happen. But I can't see that happening very often, and certainly not twice on one item.

There was some talk on the Warwick forum about rattling JANs, and that this was the reason for developing the JAN2, but most people seemed to agree that you could sort the rattling with a bit of superglue or nail varnish. Certainly a lot of people considered the JAN1 as a worthwhile mod for basses that cam with the later JANs, at least until the brass JAN3 came out. Rattling Jans would be a great band name, wouldn't it?

You're welcome; it's all part of the community deal - so many people have helped me on here, that I'm glad to give something back. Besides, the more I help you, next time someone else asks, you'll be able to answer them, and I won't have to.

Warwick do a few Rockbags for "hollowbody basses", which should fit; one of them says the internal dimensions are 16.5"(W), 46.5"(H), 3.4"(D). You can see their catalogue here: [url="http://www.warwick.de/catalog/en_GB/"]http://www.warwick.de/catalog/en_GB/[/url] (flick through to the relevant pages for dimension info) and you can buy them here: [url="http://shop.warwick.de/?&c=35352310012&lang=en&modul=shop&site=shop_overview_2"]http://shop.warwick.de/?&c=35352310012&lang=en&modul=shop&site=shop_overview_2[/url] But if you get the catalogue number you should be able to get them cheaper from other suppliers (e.g. Thomann).

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1347828874' post='1805607'] or just ring their phone number? [/quote] You're not really entering into the spirit of this game, are you Luke.

No, I'm afraid wiring two volumes in parallel won't at all do what you want. You'll see that when you think through the scenarios you've described: Scenario 1: you roll off the 250k pot. Then the hot output on that pot is connected directly to earth. So you'll get 0 output, no matter what the 500k pot is doing. Scenario 2: you have both fully open. Then between the hot and the earth you've now got 2 resistors in parallel, giving an overall resistance of 166K, i.e., less than either of the two resistors on their own. You could get round this by having a switch to select between the two volume controls, but I'd recommend just buying a single 500k and a single 250k, wiring one in and seeing how you like it, and then swapping for the other, seeing how you like that, and then choosing one. There's a reason why you never see stock basses with 2 master volumes on - it's just not worth it!

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1347826797' post='1805570']... (you won't see cheap basses with string-through bridges)..... [/quote] Except for the £60 basses sold by Sue Ryder.

I'm pretty sure that sort of TRC came in in the second half of the 90s before the JAN2; the Fortress I bought in 98 certainly had the JAN1 and I think it had that type of TRC. So I think it could be all original from around then. I'd even dare suggest the serial number ends 96, but can't someone drop it into photoshop, up the contrast and read the number clearly?

There is a sticky thread on this, albeit in a slightly odd location: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/21840-thru-body-stringing-vs-bridge-only/ You will, of course, find that I gave the definitive answer on that thread.

I reckon flyfisher's answer must rate as one of the most comprehensive (and correct ) answers that I've seen in basschat, and that includes some pretty stiff competition!

I always thought the pole pieces were magnets until I opened up a humbucker just a year or so back. And I've lost count of the number of people that I've had to explain that it's not the case that electricity comes from the wall socket into your guitar! But, now I'm at my limits. I think your magnets will need to both go on the right way round, both relative to each other and, I think, relative to your overall wiring. (If they're the wrong way round with respect to each other, you won't get a hum cancelling pickup, you'll get a hum-enhancing pickup, and if they're the wrong way round in relation to the coils wiring then you'll get an out-of-phase sound when you have both pickups on, which is an acquired taste). However, I don't know, and can't think, of any way of working out which way they need to go, except by trial and error. Maybe some of the other electrics gurus around here will be able to help on this - there are plenty who know a lot more than me.

It does look like an earth wire is missing; what is that stray wire in the middle of the pickup (at the top of the bottom pickup) ? Anyway, yes, I think you should earth that copper shielding. I think you'll find those magnets are fairly essential - they provide the magnetic field whose flux is dragged by the movement of the strings thereby inducing a current in the wires in the pickup, enabling your instrument to produce electricity which can then be amplified to a nice stadium filling thud.

[quote name='Solomon' timestamp='1347706057' post='1804160']....My question relates to Mart's answer previously when he mentioned shorting things out of the circuit...assuming that the switch gets wired onto the hot wire, if I've got a kill switch in the central "off" position wouldn't the hot signal simply terminate at the switch? Is this safe? Should I try and send it to earth somehow, if so how so?... [/quote] No, it's not a problem at all. In a two pickup instrument with a 3-way selector switch, if you solo one pickup, then often the other pickup is effectively just left dangling. The circuit (involving the unused pickup) is not completed, so there is nothing to worry about.

The diagram looks fine for what you want to do. The surest way to tell which coil is which in your pickup is to just connect one coil to your amp (e.g. by holding the wires to the end of a guitar lead) and tap the pole pieces on each of the coils in turn. You'll get a loud click when you tap the coil that is connected, and not when you tap the other. The way volume pots and tone pots are wired is effectively quite different. The tone pot only uses two of the tags because it simply needs a variable resistance. You could use the centre tag and either one of the others, but you'll find the pot works backwards one way round, and may have a strange taper too. On the volume pot all three tags are used because the hot signal is being split into two bits effectively, with only part getting sent to the output. With a single volume control it's logical to wire it the way you've done, but if you have two volume controls (for two pups) wired like this then you get very interlinked controls. In particular, if you turn one control to 0 then the other pickup is also earthed and you will get no overall sound - this is the traditional wiring for Les Paul's. But you can get round this by swapping the "input" and "output" hot tags, as is done in a Jazz bass. The resistances are then operating in a slightly different way, but they still do what you'd expect, but now more independently (and you can solo a pickup this way). Sadly I'm no expect on finding electronics parts, so I have no idea where you'd get the sort of 4-way switch you need.

[quote name='Solomon' timestamp='1347656274' post='1803785']... My question arises when I look at another when I look at another coil split solution that uses an on/off/on mini switch that allows you to choose which coil gets through whilst leaving the centre position for humbucking configuration, [url="http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WD1H10_03/Guitar-Wiring-Diagram-1-Humbucker1-VolumePull-for-South-Single-Coil.html"]here[/url]. I understand what happens in the central position. Also, in the bottom "on" position on this diagram I can tell that all of red/green/white are sent to earth (so far so good - we have an earth/earth coil and an earth/hot coil like the examples above). However in the up "on" position it looks to me that green is sent to earth but red,white and black are all sent to hot (forgive me if I'm not using quite the right terminology here). This means we have a hot/hot coil and an earth/hot coil. Am I right? So, if we do have this situation, is sending both ends of a coil to hot the effectively the same as sending both ends to earth? In other words, it's not that the coil needs both ends sending to earth to drop it out, rather it is the fact that there's no potential difference between the ends of the coil that drops it out - sending both ends to earth or hot doesn't matter? [/quote] Yes, that's exactly it - the coil is being shorted either way, so cannot contribute to the sound.

Is nobody going to suggest that you can go and post your experiences on the Ernie Ball forum?

Well, the $$ is a little bit more complicated because of the two three-way switches for series/parallel/split on each pup. But the rest of the circuit would be quite close to what you need. But hit the Warwick website and find the circuit diagram for one of their Jazzman models, and I think that'll be exactly what you need.

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1347538667' post='1802105']...You can put a blend pot in, these are usually stacked volume pots (i.e. one on top of the other operated by the same dial). They are wired just like a volume pot except that one is reversed so as one turns down the other turns up. There are pots specifically designed for this purpose and again, a good brand will get the best results. You might well need a stacked 250k / 500k for this bass though which are harder to find.... [/quote] Warwick put blend pots in all their basses, including ones with a single coil / humbucker pup config. I don't know what pots they use, but you could find out from their website, and if they do use 250 / 500 blends then you should be able to buy them from their web shop, or from Thomann. As for the wiring, yes, it's just like two volumes as long as you go for the Jazz vol/vol wiring, not the traditional Gibson wiring. Finally, yes, with a V/V/T/T setup you will find the controls all interact with each other, especially the tones. That's just the nature of treble need circuitry. Some people would see it as an advantage!