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Is my bass broken?


ubit
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15 hours ago, ubit said:

I think that is normal for Gibson wiring. Effectively the two volume controls are wired side by side with both pickups selected, so if one is turned right down it mutes both pickups

Thanks for that mate. That explains a lot. obviously I am used to "normal" tones and volumes on my other basses and guitars where turning down one doesn't affect the other pick up. I guess I never really understood the toggle switch. 

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2 hours ago, ubit said:

Yeah, it's a pretty shoddy money saver from Gibson having the same badge as the guitars. For all it would cost to have a separate one for the bass, or even better generalise them all to neck and bridge.

Think back to the 60s  when there was no accepted distinction for such things and Gibson had a pile of rings with 'rhythm/treble' on...

Fast forward to today when a conservative approach with as much 'vintage' flavour as possible is expected of a 'heritage' brand whose mission is to be 'authentic'...

And why 'treble' anyway? Rhythm, OK rhythm guitar is an accepted thing but 'treble guitar'?

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51 minutes ago, ubit said:

Thanks for that mate. That explains a lot. obviously I am used to "normal" tones and volumes on my other basses and guitars where turning down one doesn't affect the other pick up. I guess I never really understood the toggle switch. 

As previous answer, I suspect these things were not really thought through with ease of use in mind, but simply to provide a range of distinct as many sounds as possible to impress buyers (Jaguar I'm looking at you...)

These things then get embedded in the 'heritage' of the product*.

 

 *Like detents on potentiometers to simulate the previous use of multipole switches and lose the benefit of having a continually adjustable control...

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35 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

As previous answer, I suspect these things were not really thought through with ease of use in mind, but simply to provide a range of distinct as many sounds as possible to impress buyers (Jaguar I'm looking at you...)

These things then get embedded in the 'heritage' of the product*.

 

 *Like detents on potentiometers to simulate the previous use of multipole switches and lose the benefit of having a continually adjustable control...

Apologies for quoting from my answer rather than yours mate. 

Yes it does seem strange the way they label the ring with rhythm and treble. Someone was on something when they came up with that and they have kept it up. I do know the difference and rhythm refers to neck pick up etc. It's just I never knew that when on both, both volumes completely cut the sound. I assumed there was a problem.Thanks for all the help on this topic.

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17 hours ago, inthedoghouse said:

Tone controls on Gibson basses aren't always that great in my fairly limited experience.  I remember the first time I played an EB3 in the 70s thinking it might not have been working properly 🙂

Yeah, I am beginning to think this is the case here. On ALL my other guitars and basses the sweep from full bass to full treble is very noticeable but on the Les Paul bass I cannot hear any massive difference.

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