Rewiring a 5 knob bass from active to passive?

[allighatt0r]

I think i'm going to rewire my active Yamaha BB614 to be passive.

I've used a soldering iron before, i don't have ninja skills with one but i can use one just fine. What i want to know is, if it was your bass, how would you wire it?

It currently has two large knobs (Volume and pickup blend) and three small knobs (3 band eq) I'm not sure if i'll need to buy new pots and have some strange 5 knob configuration, whether i will just wire it to the two large knobs and just forget about the small three (but leave them on there for show, it would look daft with three little holes in it) or another option.

Any and all suggestions welcome!

Thanks!

[hubrad]

You may find that the blend pot is part of the active circuit.. if so you might need a replacement blend pot.
Personally I'd go for Vol, Blend and 3 dummies, or else get an active/passive switch in there if it's possible so you have the best of both worlds.

[BOD2]

The sensible passive options are probably ( P1 = pickup 1, P2 - pickup 2)

P1 Volume, P2 Volume, P1 Tone, P2 Tone, dummy

P1 Volume, P2 Volume, Master Tone, dummy, dummy

Master Volume, Blend, Master Tone, dummy, dummy


Once you decide what you want someone can probably post a diagram.

Passive pickups usually use 250K or 500K pots. Active circuits often use 25K or 50K pots so you may need to change these.

[allighatt0r]

Where is the best place to pick up some pots from? I guess I'll need some caps if I'm having tone knobs too right?

I think i like the idea of having two volumes and two tones at the moment. I had a look in the cavity the other day and didn't really know where to start. I think i will take the pots out with most of the wires attached rather than try to disassemble it one wire at a time in the cavity...

Thanks for the help so far! As you can tell I'm quite a novice at this!

[Protium]

Vol, vol, tone, tone, kill switch?

[allighatt0r]

[quote name='Protium' post='513654' date='Jun 14 2009, 10:35 PM']Vol, vol, tone, tone, kill switch?[/quote]

I'm not sure about a killswitch... Because whenever I flick it on, I will feel compelled to say "Killswitch..... ENGAGE!"

[BOD2]

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='513521' date='Jun 14 2009, 07:37 PM']Where is the best place to pick up some pots from? I guess I'll need some caps if I'm having tone knobs too right?

I think i like the idea of having two volumes and two tones at the moment. I had a look in the cavity the other day and didn't really know where to start. I think i will take the pots out with most of the wires attached rather than try to disassemble it one wire at a time in the cavity...

Thanks for the help so far! As you can tell I'm quite a novice at this![/quote]


Pots and other electronics

[url="http://www.axesrus.com/axeknobs.htm#CTS"]http://www.axesrus.com/axeknobs.htm#CTS[/url]

Wiring diagrams

[url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/[/url]

The actual configuration you want will not be listed as you don't get "standard" basses with 4 controls (i.e. basses that Seymour Duncan sell pickups for) so you'll need to combine the information from different diagrams. Here's a good starting point -

[url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=std_p_j_bass"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wirin...ic=std_p_j_bass[/url]