StevieD_FenderP2009 Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Hey guys As i'll be installing Seymour Duncan Livewire Classic II humbuckers in my Thunderbird bass when I can afford them, I went to find a "2 volume 1 tone" wiring diagram but they only show one for 2 volume, 1 tone + 3 way switch and I don't want a switch in mine as that would mean drilling another hole in the bass. Not my idea of fun. So yeah, here's the diagram I found. Can someone edit the diagram so that it doesn't have the switch in there but so it's still 1 volume for each pick up and a master tone controlling both pickups please? Cheers guys Stevie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdwardHimself Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 (edited) You need to ignore the ground wire (the one from the top of the switch) and the wires hooked up to the bottom 3 terminals of the switch can simply be wired together. Edited August 27, 2011 by EdwardHimself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 [quote name='StevieD_FenderP2009' post='1353647' date='Aug 27 2011, 03:57 PM']Hey guys As i'll be installing Seymour Duncan Livewire Classic II humbuckers in my Thunderbird bass when I can afford them, I went to find a "2 volume 1 tone" wiring diagram but they only show one for 2 volume, 1 tone + 3 way switch and I don't want a switch in mine as that would mean drilling another hole in the bass. Not my idea of fun. So yeah, here's the diagram I found. Can someone edit the diagram so that it doesn't have the switch in there but so it's still 1 volume for each pick up and a master tone controlling both pickups please? Cheers guys Stevie[/quote] The grounding is all the same, as are connections to the pickups. But connect the wipers (centre pins) of the two volume controls together, and this to the tip of the output jack. Or, what Edward said. If you turn either pickup completely off, it'll mute the whole guitar. But this was also the case with the original drawing. Passive basses swap the wiper and top (the pins on the left of the pots in this drawing) to get over this, but this means the pickups are shorted when vol is at minimum and I don't know whether the active electronics would like this. Also, I wonder why the pots are shown as 100k? They could be a lot lower (EMG suggest 25k iirc) to take advantage of the low output impedance of the active pickups and reduce cable losses...you could then put resistors in series with the wipers to reduce the muting effect. Personally I'd replace the pots with lower values and add resistors, pm me if you decide to do this and I'll see what I can sort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevieD_FenderP2009 Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 Well I need it so that I can turn 1 pick up off and keep the other one on so what would you suggest? Also, you say about lowering the pot values, I thought that would be the case to be honest but I want the bass to produce as much high end treble as possible. What do you guys suggest I do? I'll PM you Bremen but cheers to both of you for your answers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 [quote name='StevieD_FenderP2009' post='1353669' date='Aug 27 2011, 04:20 PM']Well I need it so that I can turn 1 pick up off and keep the other one on so what would you suggest? Also, you say about lowering the pot values, I thought that would be the case to be honest but I want the bass to produce as much high end treble as possible. What do you guys suggest I do? I'll PM you Bremen but cheers to both of you for your answers[/quote] Lowering the pot values is definitely the way to go to keep the high end, so that the capacitance of the cable has less effect. I'd check SD and see what the minimum recommended load for the pickups is. I really don't see why it should be as high as 100k - maybe try 22k. Then I'd connect the hot wire of each pickup to the top of the pots, then take a 10k resistor between the wiper of each pot and the tip of the jack. These should reduce the interaction between the pots; if turning one right down affects the other too much, try increasing the resistors. PM me if you'd like a selection of resistors to try. The lower the value these resistors, the less treble loss you'll suffer, but a 22k pot and 22k resistors will still be better than a 100k pot turned down below 7. good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mart Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 [quote name='StevieD_FenderP2009' post='1353647' date='Aug 27 2011, 03:57 PM']... I went to find a "2 volume 1 tone" wiring diagram ... Can someone edit the diagram so that it doesn't have the switch in there but so it's still 1 volume for each pick up and a master tone controlling both pickups please? ...[/quote] You just want this one, but with the single battery replaced by two joined together exactly in the diagram you had above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 [quote name='mart' post='1356240' date='Aug 30 2011, 01:23 PM']You just want this one, but with the single battery replaced by two joined together exactly in the diagram you had above. [/quote] That's what I was referring to in my first reply, only I wasn't sure the active pickups would enjoy driving into a dead short (which is what happens when the pot is set to minimum). Assuming the pups in this circuit are similar to the ones Stevie has, that implies they'd also be ok with lower value pots. All good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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