Blend pot or pickup selector pot/switch?

[TomRichards]

Hey four string friends!

For most of my life my basses have had pickup selector switches, or at best the annoying VVT. I find using VVT takes some of the tone away from the bass because of how it effects overall volume levels.

I recently have been using a ton of basses with blend pots. I'm finding them very interesting and useful, especailly on my new Brubakers.

So, I'll ask you, what is your preferred or current bass, and what is the pickup selection configuration?

VVT?
selector Switch/toggle?
Blend pot?

Also, how do you use them effectively?

Thanks my brothers from the other side of the pond!

[NancyJohnson]

Call me a philistine, but VVT every time (and all ramped up 100%).
P

[WalMan]

The Wal & Tanglewater ClassicJ are both blends. For the former I normally have the blend towards the bass side. For the ClassicJ, which is the new toy & the first fully passive bass I have had since Pete converted the Wal in '96, I have been tending towards the bass / P style pup, though I was experimenting with rolling that back a bit last night, however that was for the Country/Americana stuff where the P was working nicely.

The L2500's are all switches and tend to be forward (or sometimes middle) on the pup selector, Series, and Active or active + top boost for a bit of extra clank.

[Doctor J]

Some blends are more useful than others. The Bacchus 24 I picked up recently has got the most effective blend I've ever played. Even slight movements result in a very noticable change in sound where I've played ones which are almost like a switch, you need to make big adjustments to get any kind of significant change.

[TomRichards]

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1336419425' post='1645424']
Call me a philistine, but VVT every time (and all ramped up 100%).
P
[/quote]

I'll let Glen Matlock call you "Philistine". But thanks for the input!

[FlatEric]

For me, I get on OK, with V V T but live, it's a bit of a pain when you are "on the hoof!"

So, because of that, once I have set everything on a soundcheck, I very rarely "fiddle"
with the controls.

On the basses I have with a blend, I am happy to lift the volume (guitarist pointing to
his ear and the ceiling! ) or rein it in a bit (guitarist with finger in ear!) without altering
the tone that I have set up/am happy with.

On the basses with a selector switch, I never use them - just leave them in the middle.

But that's just me!

[RandomBass]

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1336419425' post='1645424']
Call me a philistine, but VVT every time (and all ramped up 100%).
P
[/quote]

Ditto, with everything on 11

Cheers

Geoff

[fretmeister]

Blend. I don't like VVT or selectors, or even worse a selector with VVT like a bloody Les Paul.

[Fat Rich]

I have blends on the Status basses and I generally keep the blend near the middle for a slightly scooped sound, and push it slightly towards the bridge for a bit more brightness, or slightly towards the neck for a less scooped sound. Fully neck does a fair impression of a P bass, fully bridge with some added bass EQ does a fair impression of the Jaco sound.

V V T on the Jazzes, again usually start with everything wide open and back off one volume or the other to vary the sound slightly.

A switch just wouldn't give me most of the sounds that I use, I find volume and blend are more convenient but it doesn't take long to get used to V V T.

[xgsjx]

I prefer blend.
It gives me a better control over the volume without changing the tone & it allows me to quickly switch from Neck to Bridge easily if the next song requires.
I usually have it blending a small amount of Bridge into the Neck.

[neepheid]

Switches all the way. I hate blend pots - I use 'em like switches anyway (full on in one direction or the other). Same goes for VVT - one volume up, one off and vice versa. I either want a neck pickup or a bridge pickup, and usually a neck one. To my ears anything in between makes a barely perceptible change when listening to the bass on its own never mind in a band context. Furthermore in my experience two pickups together equally is the tamest sounding setting on any 2 pickup bass I've played, the two don't complement each other, they fight and you get this middle ground which contains neither of the qualities of either pickup, just a homogenised flat sound.

This is just my opinion, if you love blend and that 20/80 blend of bridge and neck makes a difference to you then fill your boots. But I say bleh to blend!

Oh you asked which basses are which.

Gibson Victory Artist - selector switch with master volume
Gibson RD Artist - selector switch with separate volumes (very important if you use the compression - got to back off that neck pickup or your soundman will get a surprise! - and yes, there are numbers on the knobs so you can be pretty accurate about it)
Gibson IV - VVT
Guild B402-A - selector switch with separate volumes
G&L Tribute L-2000 - selector switch with master volume

and the odd one out

Yamaha BB614 - blend with master volume - and I'm considering changing it for a switch.

[NancyJohnson]

[quote name='TomRichards' timestamp='1336429195' post='1645611']
I'll let Glen Matlock call you "Philistine". But thanks for the input!
[/quote]

Aah, what an album. His backing band for that was the late 3 Colours Red. Gotta love the Glen.
P