jhenkins

Thanks, that is a great idea. I'll look into it, since unless I'm mistaken it's considerably cheaper.

Hello All, I'm currently toying with the idea of upgrading my current Cort T34 bass electronics and pups with something a bit more upmarket. It's currently fitted with Cort's standard in-house PDX-4 pair of active pickups, which isn't half bad (if they were, I would not have bought the bass in the first place), however they do miss a bit of "sparkle". I test-drove another Cort (Curbow 5-stringer) which sports a Bartolini pickup, which just highlighted that lack of "something" even further. This is of course a highly subjective thing, not based on proper X versus Y tests. Other than the lack of sparkle, I really like my Cort. It's got a cool shape, fast and accurate neck, and I find it extremely comfortable to play. Based on my recent experience in pimping my Squire (passive) Precision P-J bass with SD Bass Lines pickups, I saw that it doesn't neccessarily need to be a majorly expensive exercise either, provided of course you don't go completely overboard. Some of the more promising things I found was the EMG 35 range of pickups (see [url="http://www.emgpickups.com/products/category/27/2"]http://www.emgpickup...s/category/27/2[/url] for more). They make a number of different coil configurations, all housed within a soap-bar style enclosure that looks like an almost perfect size-fit on the T34. But this pickup also comes with it's own tone circuit that does not allow for two pickups. Confusing! How do I wire two of these into a circuit? Hmmm... Does anybody know how I could coax two of these into a working configuration? I've had the pleasure of trying out EMG pickups on a Warwick and a (sob) Fodera bass in the past, and they sound absolutely awesome. A bit pricey, but not hugely so. And then I also found some active tone circuits on the Seymore Duncan website (see [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/bass/pickups-for-jaz/electronics/stc2_stc32_3ban"]http://www.seymourdu...stc2_stc32_3ban[/url]/ for more) which seem to have the dual/triple EQ bits I am used to. They also have soapbar style pickups that seems to be compatible with the above circuits (see [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/bass/soapbars/4string/45_string_black/"]http://www.seymourdu...5_string_black/[/url] for the "Blackouts for Bass" pup). This looks more like something that somebody with my (low) levels of electronic skills could master! My soldering-fu is reasonable, but I'm definitely a Homer Simpson when it comes to electronic theory. So the question here is not whether it is daft going down this route or not (I already know that it is completely cuckcoo and I probably should leave it well alone...), but whether somebody here has had any experience with the Seymore Duncan active pups. Are they any good for a project like this? Do you know of any alternatives? Any ideas would be gratefully received. Regards, Jan Henkins

Hello all, Firstly an apology - I really should make it a habit to check in here every day after I have made a posting... sorry for letting it lie for so long! neepheid - thanks for the kind offer, I did get it fixed in the end! dinsz - the knobs like yours are only really used on the more premium Cort models like the C, GB and Artist ranges. The T series like mine is entry-level, which means they use the lower quality split-pole pots (see http://www.cortguitars.com/en/product/t34 if you are interested in the specs of the T34). Still not really "bad" quality, but you can instantly tell the difference between the other surviving 100k pot and the new pro-audio grade replacement pot. It just feels more "expensive". iiipopes - Yes, I thought that 100k was an oddity, but since this is an active bass I suppose the usual things doesn't quite apply. OK, it was a fascinating couple of weeks trying to get a replacement pot. I managed to find a number of possible sources for one, most of them in the US and Korea. This brought to mind some of the interesting import duty experiences I have had to contend with in the recent past, so in the end I caved in and arranged with one of my local music shops to fix it for me. An awesome job they did too, so if you are in the east of Surrey, pop in to Newtons Music in Merstham (close to Redhill, Reigate, Crawley, Croydon, Caterham, etc.). Their website: http://guitar.newtonsmusic.co.uk/

Hello All, A bit earlier tonight I did some "maintenance" (quotes intended) on my Cort T34 bass, mainly to fasten the slightly loosened nuts on the control pots. Well, there I went and pulled off the bass pot knob like a true Neanderthal, and the pot shaft came out with it. To be fair, this was probably a tragedy waiting to happen, since the shaft is well and truly jammed into the knurled knob. I still need to devise a way to get the shaft out of the knob without ruining it, but that is another day's worries. Does anybody know where I can get a replacement B100K mini pot, preferably of a better quality Cort's factory in Indonesia insist on using? TIA! Regards, Jan Henkins