markdavid Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Hi guys and girls , I want to add a passive/active switch to my Ibanez SR900 as I would like to be able to use my bass without a battery and would also like to get a more old school passive tone sometimes , I want the switch so that when I switch to passive the active eq is completely bypassed but not the volume and pickup blend , I will be getting a local luthier to do this work for me , how difficult will this be to do ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spartacus Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 (edited) Heres a wiring diagram for the SR900 The pickups are buffered, the blend is after the buffers and 25k volume is after the preamp which makes it a bit more dificult to do if yiu want to keep existig preamp. the pot values are too low for the pickups to work properly in a passive setup. They might sound a lot quieter with no treble. Edited July 10, 2009 by Spartacus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdavid Posted July 10, 2009 Author Share Posted July 10, 2009 [quote name='Spartacus' post='537035' date='Jul 10 2009, 09:22 AM']Heres a wiring diagram for the SR900 The pickups are buffered, the blend is after the buffers and 25k volume is after the preamp which makes it a bit more dificult to do if yiu want to keep existig preamp. the pot values are too low for the pickups to work properly in a passive setup. They might sound a lot quieter with no treble.[/quote] Thanks for the help , obviously with what you have said regarding the pot values it may be better to add a switch that completely bypasses the tone and volume controls do you think this would be a difficult task? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spartacus Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 [quote name='markdavid' post='537191' date='Jul 10 2009, 01:16 PM']Thanks for the help , obviously with what you have said regarding the pot values it may be better to add a switch that completely bypasses the tone and volume controls do you think this would be a difficult task?[/quote] The sort of active/ passive switch youre looking at would bypass the tone controls anyway. it would be easy to add a switch that bypasses them but in passive setups the pickups need a decent resistance across them otherwise theyll have low volume and no presence. All of the pots seem post-gain so none are suited to connect directly to your pickups in a passive configuraton because their resistance is too low. One way to do it is to get your tech to rewire so the pups go straight into a 250k or 500k blend and THEN into the preamp buffer stage, remove the existibg blend pot, and install a SPDT switch to switch between output of the preamp and the output of the new blend pot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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