NancyJohnson Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 I have an 80s Ibanez Roadster project. Twin pickup model (P/J); if you're familiar with the model you'll recall it originally carried an active circuit - which was long gone when I bought the bass - it currently looks like this: At present, each pickup is wired into a volume pot, then into a selector switch (predominantly so I could just isolate the P-pickup), but at some point I want to wire a tone pot into the circuit. I'm wondering whether I might get something different tonally if I wire each pickup to its own tone pot, then into the selector, then out to the output jack. More Rickenbacker stylee than Jazz bass. Opinions? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 (edited) Nice... 2 tone pots and maybe 2 cap values... Have a look at Rick v's Les Paul wiring... Maybe the Artec QTP 1, with a conventional tone, or 2? Edited November 10, 2023 by PaulThePlug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 14 hours ago, PaulThePlug said: Nice... 2 tone pots and maybe 2 cap values... Have a look at Rick v's Les Paul wiring... Maybe the Artec QTP 1, with a conventional tone, or 2? Because this is a bass that's not so important in the scheme of things, I don't mind throwing a little money/time at it in the spirit of exploration. Wiring it VT/VT > switch > output jack, should give me different tonal characteristics/properties than going the V/V/T route and applying a singular tone over both pickups. (I have five holes in the front of the bass so I figure I can just fill them up with knobs, why not?). I need to go through my box of spares. I know I have some .047 caps. Not sure whether I have any CTS 250K pots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftyJ Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 Les Paul wiring is known to "couple" the volume controls together, where they both affect eachother and the overall volume with the pickup selector set to the middle position. If you want true independent volume and tone controls, there is a workaround to it but it will affect the treble response of the bass: https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/mod-garage/les-paul-independent-volume-wiring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 Yup, standard Les Paul wiring, basically. That's what I have in my Les Paul bass, but with the addition of push/push on the tone pots for series/parallel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 54 minutes ago, LeftyJ said: Les Paul wiring is known to "couple" the volume controls together, where they both affect eachother and the overall volume with the pickup selector set to the middle position. If you want true independent volume and tone controls, there is a workaround to it but it will affect the treble response of the bass: https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/mod-garage/les-paul-independent-volume-wiring Oh yeah, if I ever used both pickups together, I would find this most frustrating, but my bridge pickup is pretty much there for show. Hence why my "poker chip" is labelled DO (neck) and DO NOT (bridge). Note that, as Yoda says "there is no try" (because I don't use the middle setting at all - I've yet to find a bass where the middle setting isn't the worst one, to my ears the two pickups fight and suck the life out of each other, resulting in a rather characterless, plain tone which I do not enjoy). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 1 hour ago, neepheid said: Oh yeah, if I ever used both pickups together, I would find this most frustrating, but my bridge pickup is pretty much there for show. Hence why my "poker chip" is labelled DO (neck) and DO NOT (bridge). Note that, as Yoda says "there is no try" (because I don't use the middle setting at all - I've yet to find a bass where the middle setting isn't the worst one, to my ears the two pickups fight and suck the life out of each other, resulting in a rather characterless, plain tone which I do not enjoy). I've always preferred the tonality of a twin-pickup bass; all my kit is set up to allow the ease of just playing with everything full-on or open tonally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoulderpet Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 Not much to add to this other than the few basses I have played that have had 2 tone controls, the tone control for one pickup always seemed to also turn down the tone for the other pickup, I'm sure there must be a workaround but worth knowing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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