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P Bass doesn't cut through live, pickups or tone pots??


lobematt
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I've got a Mexican P that I picked up here a little while ago. It has a SD Basslines pup in it and I installed a wiring harness I picked up from a very nice chap on these forums. I love the sound, nice and fat and warm but I always have to have the tone rolled pretty far back or it gets a bit clicky. The problem is though that if I use it live it can be fairly muddy and struggle to cut through the mix. Should I be looking at the pick up or something else?

I should probably say the bass was fitted with a varitone when I got it which I swapped straight to the new wiring harness. I do have a set of Fender pots to try in it but as I'm a lemon with a soldering iron I've been putting it off!

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What amp/cab are you using?

Could simply be that it's the amp settings rather than the bass.

Also - have you asked someone with a decent ear to listen to you out front in the audience? What you're hearing on stage will be quite different to what your audience is hearing.

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Does another bass sound good through the same rig?
Does it sound muddy ALL the time or only when live?

If you've put in a new harness, or re-wired it, is it possible you've connected something wrongly?

If the answer is "yes" to all of the above, could you please post a pic of the wiring to the pots and the capacitor.

Edited by Grangur
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Through the same rig I regularly use Fender Jazz, Warwick Corvette Jazzman, Warwick Fortress Fretless. All sound good!

My rig is Markbass Jeff Berlin 15" combo, usually have the EQ flat, slight mid bump if I need it. This is usually ran through a Sansamp with settings from barely on at all on jazz gigs to blend all the way up for a gritty rock tone on rock gigs. And also ran through BBE optostomp compressor.

Strings currently on the bass are DR Sunbeams which did seem to help a little, but not really... Have also tried Nicel and Steel D'Addario's and Rotosound.

Thanks!

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That appears to be reasonably OK, as far as we can see.

To cut down the possibilities, can you disconnect the pups from the circuit and connect them straight to the jack?

If that sounds much better and as it really should be, then I'd suggest there may be a problem with the capacitor or its connection. In which case, reconnect the pups through the circuit and remove the capacitor and see what it sounds like.

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Hi Matt,

Those CTS pots are the same that Fender use in their USA range basses so no point in changing them - assuming those you have are the same value - 250Kohms.

That cap is a 0.1 Sprague which will certainly give you the fat dark tone when the tone pot is rolled back, shouldn't make it muddy though, you could do far more with your amp EQ settings than changing anything in your bass, although of course different pick up have different frequency outputs.

Cheerz, John

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[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1401791001' post='2466805']
That appears to be reasonably OK, as far as we can see.

To cut down the possibilities, can you disconnect the pups from the circuit and connect them straight to the jack?

If that sounds much better and as it really should be, then I'd suggest there may be a problem with the capacitor or its connection. In which case, reconnect the pups through the circuit and remove the capacitor and see what it sounds like.
[/quote]

Thanks for the replies, the Fender pots I have are 250K as well, so no point putting them in then! How would I go about bypassing the pots and connecting the pups straight to the jack? Thanks for the help, I'm pretty clueless with electronics!

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