Washburn Status 1000 pickups

[loboboy]

Hey! 

Anyone have a Washburn Status bass? I recentley bought an old one and the pickups have been swapped out and it seems the active tone circuit is gone. Works fine but I would like to find some of the original kit to put back in so I can look and sound like every other Mark King fan in my bedroom mirror whilst happily slapping away to Love Games.

Tally ho! Cheers, J

[itu]

Those pickups were some sort of double coils, as they only worked together. Probably the magnets were reversed for the other half of the coil. I had one years back and when I tried an ordinary J pickup in the bridge, the other half (G+D or A+E) was always out of phase. So do not mix as they do not match.

The electronics were not fancy at all, I would seriously consider something else. An active two band tone capsule might be far more flexible than that simple Washburn preamp. I could not see that lame PCB in any original Status bass.

[loboboy]

what would you reccomend as an alternative set and active tone that would work?

J

[Cato]

I've had one since I was 18.

I don't know about the pickups. The ones on mine have the Status logo embossed on them but I don't know if they were actually made by Status or manufactured under license by Washburn.

The active circuit is not your usual 2 or 3 band  EQ

The controls on the bass are volume, pan and a single tone control.

The tone control works pretty much like a passive one except I think there's some sort of treble boost so that when it's on full the bass is almost painfully treblely.

It's the only bass on which my standard setting is to turn the tone control down.

Edited April 3, 2019 by Cato

[Rich]

To avoid drilling holes, I'd suggest a stacked bass/treb eq (e.g. EMG BTC Control) plus a set of nice pickups of your choice/taste.

[police squad]

Talk to Rob Green at Status. I'm sure he'll be able to help

[itu]

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/339780-bartolini-9j1-set-3-months-old/

[garyt]

I had a Washburn Status back in 1989 and swapped the original pick-ups for a set of EMGs.  The original pick-ups were pretty poor from recollection, which may be why yours have been swapped.  Have you got a photo of the bass?  

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

I still have my Washburn status from 1988. Apologies for the long ramble :

It had a very bright ,twangy modern sound which I loved. 

When I was playing in a blues band back in the mid '90s the band members preferred the sound of my Hohner cricket bat bass. 

I played in various bands and used the Washburn status as my main bass. 

However, getting a bit carried away at 1 band rehearsal I banged the bass enthusiastically damaging the active circuitry . 

I had it looked at a few times, before a guitar tech in Denmark st

gave me a choice of replacing the active circuitry . Or ( if the pickups were powerful enough to work without 9v battery ) , just remove the circuitry and the volume and tone pedals are redundant .

i went for the latter . Playing in my last 2 bands ( classic rock covers ) the band members preferred the less bright sound . 

The guitar tech did say that in the '80s there was a trend to make active basses as a fashion and some were better without the active circuitry .

While I think that the Washburn sounds very similar to my Steinberger , the band members hated the twangy tone .

They are great and very versatile basses . I think it would be best to keep it and get the active circuitry put back in . 

Hope this helps .