Members BeeTL Posted July 18, 2007 Members Share Posted July 18, 2007 My EVO XM has two volumes and one tone pot, as does the P/J bass I'm looking at currently. Is there a reason these don't come wired as volume/blend/tone or with a selector switch instead? It annoys me to have to turn down two volume controls when I set the bass down, and I just don't hear the subtleties of the "in between" settings. Educate me on why a blend pot or three way Ric type switch isn't a better solution... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted July 18, 2007 Members Share Posted July 18, 2007 Cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BeeTL Posted July 18, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2007 Cost. Really?!!! Please elaborate... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted July 18, 2007 Members Share Posted July 18, 2007 Switches cost money to buy and install which is a no-no if you're a manufacturer trying to keep the price of the bass down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BeeTL Posted July 19, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 Switches cost money to buy and install which is a no-no if you're a manufacturer trying to keep the price of the bass down. OK, but I wouldn't imagine that a second volume pot would save money over a blend pot or a three way switch in its place. Also, the Jazz has been configured this way since it came out (in the 60's), but the Strat and Tele (and every clone) have always had pickup switching. I'm guessing there's a "bass-centric" answer, but I could be wrong... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members L-1329 Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 I ordered my P/J set up bass with a Vol/blend, and it works great. It's fantastic for setting the blend for a given tone, and having full volume control without changing the tone at all. A perfect setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BeeTL Posted July 19, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 I ordered my P/J set up bass with a Vol/blend, and it works great. It's fantastic for setting the blend for a given tone, and having full volume control without changing the tone at all. A perfect setup. To me, a blend pot is the ideal solution both musically and aesthetically. Is that the LeCompte you're talking about? I assume it's active, right? I'm wondering if there's an electronic reason that blending doesn't work with passive pickups... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members L-1329 Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 To me, a blend pot is the ideal solution both musically and aesthetically.Is that the LeCompte you're talking about?I assume it's active, right?I'm wondering if there's an electronic reason that blending doesn't work with passive pickups... That's the one, and it has passive pickups with an active Aguilar preamp. Mostly I run the pre dead flat, and I can't think that an all passive bass would be much different. It's a great way to have a bass set up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassman1956 Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 I used to prefer V-V, but am leaning more towards V-Blend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members L-1329 Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 I'm wondering if there's an electronic reason that blending doesn't work with passive pickups... One other thing, I have a Warmoth guitar, two passive humbuckers, that I had wired with a volume/blend set up two. It works incredibly well, and I can't believe it's not a standard way to wire guitars. I can get a huge range of tones with this, way more than just a selector could offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members justinbass Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 My ibanez is a P/J and it is wired V/B/T. I now can't stand V/V/T and I am going to rewire my jazz basses with Blend pots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thumper Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 I've played my MIA '62 Jazz reissue since 1987. It has stacked knobs (v/t) for each pup. I like being able to dial in each pup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xbassman Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 If you want different controls, Butch @ Bayou Cables can make a custom wiring harness for you. I got my series/parallel harness for my J from him. He could probably wire you a switch, stack pot (volume/blend) , tone pot harness then it would use the same holes already there. Shoot him an e-mail if you are interested.BTW- with mine, I just dropped it in and connected the pups with wire nuts (included). http://www.bayoucables.com/store/catalog/index.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BeeTL Posted July 19, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 My ibanez is a P/J and it is wired V/B/T. I now can't stand V/V/T and I am going to rewire my jazz basses with Blend pots. I'd like to see photos of that if you do it. I just pulled the cover plate off the back of the EVO XM, and there's TONS of room in the control cavity. I'm thinking this would be a fun DIY project. I guess I'd replace all three pots and the jack with top quality stuff. I wonder if Bayou Cables has a pre-wired V/B/T harness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassred Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 My Schecter is Vol-Vol, my Jazz 5 is Vol-pan... I don;t have a favorite or a lest favorite, I know what the knobs do and use them accordingly.. I've seen the Schecter with Vol-pan, don't know when they swtched to that..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xbassman Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 I wonder if Bayou Cables has a pre-wired V/B/T harness? Here's one he did for a customer with series/parallel V,B,T. http://www.bayoucables.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=96 Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I think you would want 500K pots with a P/J. Really though, he will do it how ever you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members basste Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 i way prefer V/V/T. i set the tone and then play with the two volumes when i want a more jaco's sound or a more P sound. I find it pretty useful and way better than look after a tone with only one pot. Cut two volumes instead of one to cut the bass isn't a pain for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spikemullings Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 I have a crappy Bass Collection PJ type thing that has V and Blend with centre detente. It also has tone for each pup I think (I say I think because wiring is all knackered and I don't know how to fix it ). Anyway I can't see any advantage to two Vs over V & B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members no-logic Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 I removed the active controls from my TBC JT-400JJ and made it passive. I used a vol-blend setup with controls from HAS Sound and it works fine. I prefer it over vol-vol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members liko Posted July 19, 2007 Members Share Posted July 19, 2007 Vol/vol/tone has been traditional ever since the Fender Jazz Bass was introduced (the very first models had a stacked volume pot, but Leo changed that a year or so after the bass, known then as the Deluxe Model, was first produced). Why? Well, the original reason is quite simply because it's cheaper. Leo was always looking for cheaper ways to build a good instrument, and a simple 250K audio taper pot is cheaper to obtain en masse than a stacked or center detente pot. That holds true today: your average volume pot can be bought for around $5, while stacked pots and balance pots are both $10 last I checked. As far as a switch, a mini 3-way switch actually still costs more than a standard volume pot, though not as much as a blend or stacked pot (an LP-type 3-way however would cost more than any other option). There are tonal disadvantages to each configuration. vol/vol/tone increases the number of pots, which in stock wiring increases the number of ground loops (multiple paths to ground; noisy), and the independent volume controls can be difficult to work with (you very quickly take the pickup out of the mix entirely). Vol/Blend/Tone actually compounds this problem; instead of two volume pots in parallel, now you have three volume pots (a master volume and a seperate one for each pickup stacked in the blend pot). You lose tone due to pickup loading (increasing the amount of resistance in the signal loop decreases the high frequencies). Vol/Tone/3-way is probably the most efficient design tone-wise (part of the reason a tele sounds so bright), but it is also the least versatile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BeeTL Posted July 20, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 20, 2007 That might not work for you. With dual pickups, usually the pickups cancel each other when the blend is centered. There is a significant drop in volume. Volume increases as the blend is rolled either way.That is why Fender has never had a blend pot on a jazz bass. The fix is to use a buffered preamp. The buffers balance the pickups.I quit offering vol/blend/tone harnesses for that reason. Everyone that bought one got back to me with complaints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BeeTL Posted July 20, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 20, 2007 Any thoughts, or is the vol/blend/tone option dead? Does it only work well with certain pickups (split coil/humbuckers)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scampi Posted July 20, 2007 Members Share Posted July 20, 2007 I always felt my older spector p/j's were perfect in this regard all emg pickups and circuit, 1 vol, 1 blend, 1 bass boost/cut, 1 treble boost/cut people see 'all emg' and might think it's all zing and no warmth, but it's actually a versatile circuit when the blend/eq are used wisely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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