Members mosshowl Posted April 9, 2011 Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 Hope someone can provide some insight on this... I've got a 2003 American jazz bass and the tone knob may as well be a switch. There's no perceptible difference until the knob is 4/5ths of the way up. Then there's a distinct shift in tone. Pretty much A/B. Is this normal? (I have not had the opportunity to play other basses like mine to compare.) Either way, is it a pot issue? A pickup issue? It's kinda lame, I would like to have a more gradual range of tone options. How would I go about correcting this, if possible? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reverend179 Posted April 9, 2011 Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 Is there a detent or a 'click' in the knob? If so, you may have a 'no load' tone pot. If not, it sounds like you may be best served swapping the pot with a linear-taper pot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ctrlaltdelete Posted April 9, 2011 Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 If this is an American Standard (passive), I would say that it is most likely a bad pot. When using the pickup volume pots, do they work in a linear way or suffer from the same problem? If this has active electronics, I think Rev is on the right track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mosshowl Posted April 9, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 Ah ok, thanks for the info guys. They are passive pu's. There's no 'click' in the knob as far as I can tell. So it seems that even though it's not a no-load pot issue, a pot replacement is in order. I looked into linear-tapered pots, and like the sound of what they do. Will try one of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members engage757 Posted April 9, 2011 Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 I guess I am confused. Is it an S-1 switch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mosshowl Posted April 9, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 I guess I am confused. Is it an S-1 switch? OK, now I'm confused as well. Bear with me, normally I'm a guitarist and I'm still sort of learning my way around this bass, so I went back to it to confirm what's going on with it to answer the above question. The bass does have the S-1 system. When it's in series mode, everything works properly (depressed S-1 knob is volume, middle knob is bypassed, and small knob is tone, with a nice gradual range). Correct, right? But, when the bass is in parallel mode, both of the larger knobs have the issue described (neither of which I now think is even meant to be a tone control, they are just f'ed up in some way), and the small knob is the actual tone control, with a nice gradual tonal range. So, in series mode, there is NO volume control! I never even noticed, as I tend to play with the volume full-on and turn the amp down when I want to set the bass down or whatever. So it's definitely faulty, and in a weirder and more involved way than I thought it was before, even though I now realize that both modes have a perfectly fine tone control.. (I bought it used). Has anyone ever seen this? Sounds like a wiring issue, no? Or... I dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sunburstbasser Posted April 9, 2011 Members Share Posted April 9, 2011 It does sound like faulty wiring, but even with the S-1 switch Jazz bass wiring is pretty simple. The FAQ has a nice diagram courtesy of Jazz Ad: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?250926-Parallel-series-switch-mod-for-Jazz-Bass&daysprune=-1 You could completely replace everything if you so desired. For the S-1, you can use a push/pull pot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mosshowl Posted April 12, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 12, 2011 Cool, thanks for the link. Makes me wonder why anyone was ever in there in the first place messing with the wiring. I guess it could be a bad repair job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J the D Posted April 12, 2011 Members Share Posted April 12, 2011 The S-1 circuit is loading the pickups up in parallel making the transition point more narrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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