Washburn XB400 Preamp removal and Rewire to Passive

[Chenzman]

Hi all,

 

I have an old Washburn XB400 that plays great however can’t use as the volume pot is knackered (PCB mounted) and generally the electronics seem to be problematic. I have dismantled the pot and trying to put it back together have caused some damage to the PCB 😩

 

Finding an exact replacement pot also seems to be a pain, if found I can replace as I have the tools etc however worries the tracks on the PCB may be an issue now.

 

Has anyone removed/replaced the preamp, keeping the pickups and rewired making it a passive bass? If so, do you have any recommendations? 

 

Cheers

 

Vince 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Chenzman

[ead]

I have done this with a Sandberg Electra bass.  No real issues for me at any rate on that particular instrument.

[Chenzman]

12 minutes ago, ead said:

I have done this with a Sandberg Electra bass.  No real issues for me at any rate on that particular instrument.

Thanks for your response, can you advise what exactly you replaced them with, as I assume the pots need to go from existing 100k to 250k

[ead]

Yes you'll need different pots for sure (and depending on the quality of the item fitted a new jack socket is often in order.  You could do a lot worse than PM our very own Kiogon who makes very good quality passivel looms.

[Chenzman]

48 minutes ago, ead said:

Yes you'll need different pots for sure (and depending on the quality of the item fitted a new jack socket is often in order.  You could do a lot worse than PM our very own Kiogon who makes very good quality passivel looms.

Excellent, very much appreciated, I’ll drop him a message! 

[patrikmarky]

On 08/05/2022 at 13:05, Chenzman said:

Hi all,

 

I have an old Washburn XB400 that plays great however can’t use as the volume pot is knackered (PCB mounted) and generally the electronics seem to be problematic. I have dismantled the pot and trying to put it back together have caused some damage to the PCB 😩

 

Finding an exact replacement pot also seems to be a pain, if found I can replace as I have the tools etc however worries the tracks on the PCB may be an issue now.

 

Has anyone removed/replaced the preamp, keeping the pickups and rewired making it a passive bass? If so, do you have any recommendations? 

 

Cheers

 

Vince 

I had a 5 string version and the truss rod snapped and the neck was beyond repair..I used the Bart’s on a thunderbird style bass which a local guitar luthier sorted for me ..I have it set up passive vvt which suites the thunderbird sound I wanted obviously doesn’t have the range of eq as before..did sell the preamp on here with a job lot of tuners and bridges ..you want me to try and track the purchases ..

[Bleat]

I located and bought some new 100k pots for my Washburn B 200 pre-amp board a few months ago. De-soldered the old pots no problem and put the new ones on. The only issue with the replacements is that the threaded parts are a bit shorter than the originals so not enough length to poke through the body to secure with nuts. Basically I just plonked the knobs back on which holds them in place though they are a little "wobbly". I guess I could shave away some of wood in the cavity so that I can get them to poke through enough to get nuts back on. For now I'm just happy that I have good pots and the preamp still works.

[Chenzman]

On 28/05/2022 at 10:36, patrikmarky said:

I had a 5 string version and the truss rod snapped and the neck was beyond repair..I used the Bart’s on a thunderbird style bass which a local guitar luthier sorted for me ..I have it set up passive vvt which suites the thunderbird sound I wanted obviously doesn’t have the range of eq as before..did sell the preamp on here with a job lot of tuners and bridges ..you want me to try and track the purchases ..

Thanks for the offer dude, however thanks to @KiOgonI managed to get it converted to a passive bass using one of his kits  

[Chenzman]

On 28/05/2022 at 10:51, Bleat said:

I located and bought some new 100k pots for my Washburn B 200 pre-amp board a few months ago. De-soldered the old pots no problem and put the new ones on. The only issue with the replacements is that the threaded parts are a bit shorter than the originals so not enough length to poke through the body to secure with nuts. Basically I just plonked the knobs back on which holds them in place though they are a little "wobbly". I guess I could shave away some of wood in the cavity so that I can get them to poke through enough to get nuts back on. For now I'm just happy that I have good pots and the preamp still works.

I did see some on eBay however were too short and was worried they wouldn’t fit. Turns out I ended up damaging the board so thankfully was able to convert it