P/J Blend

[Myke]

Hello,

I'm going to put a J pickup in a P bass so I can get a PJ (obviously ) but the way I would like the controls is with a Volume, Tone and Blend. The blend would be front - P pickup Middle - Both, Back - J. Is there anyway of doing this?

Oh and it's a passive bass.

Cheers

Mike

[BassBod]

I think you can do it passively, but the results depend on how well matched the pickups are - it may work fine, but more likely the P will over power the J and you may also get some loss of midrange from frequency cancellation in the combined ranges. I'd be tempted to go VVT in a passive set up, or even concentric VT for each pickup (like a stacknob J).

The best I've used was a Sadowsky PJ. Although it was active, I don't think the blending was part of the circuit. But it did use custom DiMarzio humbuckers for both pickups, so I guess they were well matched to work together.

[Myke]

Damn! If only it was as simple as I thought.

These pickups are just going to be odd ones. So I guess it'll have to be VVT

[DolganoFF]

Technically, a balance pot (if you use the one that puts both pickups to 100% in the middle) is equivalent to two separate volumes. So if the pickups have different outputs, you'll have the same issues, balance pot or not...

Edited November 22, 2013 by DolganoFF

[Myke]

How do people do it then?

Sorry, I suck with electronics

[DolganoFF]

People accept that PJs may have their quirks...
Yes, often the P pickup overpowers the J pickup, so what

[DolganoFF]

The wiring by the way:

[gjones]

I used to have a P/J with just a toggle switch. It sounded great but I would have much preferred a blend knob for more control over the blend. Recently I bought a master volume, blend, master tone loom from Ki0gon (John) on basschat, for my Jazz. I much prefer it to VVT as it's much easier to adjust live. Ki0gon's looms have screw terminals to attach the wires from your pickups, are pre soldered and take 10 mins to install.

[Myke]

Ah I thank you!

[Myke]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1385162987' post='2285326']
I used to have a P/J with just a toggle switch. It sounded great but I would have much preferred a blend knob for more control over the blend. Recently I bought a master volume, blend, master tone loom from Ki0gon (John) on basschat, for my Jazz. I much prefer it to VVT as it's much easier to adjust live. Ki0gon's looms have screw terminals to attach the wires from your pickups, are pre soldered and take 10 mins to install.
[/quote]

Yeah I have one of his P bass looms, it's good

Actually he's just PM'd me so I'm thinking that's where I'm heading

[Dave_the_bass]

Seems your sorted, but if not, pm me and I'll sketch the details from my passive yamaha PJ which is wired exactly as you're wanting.

[brensabre79]

It's the same principle as a blend on a J, it's just the centre detent is redundant as you'll get a better balance further round (isn't that the point of a blend knob anyway?) You could put a pre-set resistor on the P pickup, just to attenuate it slightly to balance the output if you like the centre detent to be 50/50. - same if you're using a switch.

[Myke]

[quote name='Dave_the_bass' timestamp='1385491337' post='2288940']
Seems your sorted, but if not, pm me and I'll sketch the details from my passive yamaha PJ which is wired exactly as you're wanting.
[/quote]

Yeah all sorted now but thank you for the offer

[Myke]

I never had a J bass but I have a blend on my TRB which has two humbuckers. Would the principle still be the same there? It is active though, not sure if that makes a difference?