Do you always leave one pickup "full-on"?

Technique
1

As we all know you can dial in different tones by combining both pickups, say on a PJ bass.

Would you normally have one of the pickups on 100% and then dial in between 0 and 100% on the other one? Or could they both be on 50%?

The reason for asking is that I have PJ bass. I much prefer the sound of just the neck pickup.

It’s a Yamaha TRBX174 wich is Yamaha’s cheapest bass.

If I put the neck pickup at 100% I find the sound too “boomy” and “mushy”. If I dial it down to say just 80% I like the sound better.

For some reason I’ve been under the impression that you wouldn’t normally set the control to less than 100% if using just one pickup.

Am I right or wrong about this? :slight_smile:

5 Likes
2

Especially on a PJ bass, I use the J to control brightness. You need brightness in your tone to cut through the mix. Neck only tone may sound great when you practice at home but in the band and especially in live situation it gets lost in the mix quickly especially indoor, as most venues don’t have acoustic treatment and the bass frequencies get trapped in the corners of the wall and ceilings, mids and treble adjustment help reduces that effect a bit.

My G&L SB2 have no tone knob altogether same goes to my Joe Dart II both only have Vol/ Vol. so the jazz volume knob acts as a tone knob.

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4 Likes
3

On my Jazz bass the pickups are very hot and I frequently turn both down to 90%. Otherwise, set them however you like the sound. If that means setting the P pickup to 80%, definitely do that.

The main rule is that you do what it takes to get a sound you like.

1 Like
4

To answer the title of the thread, no.

Muscle memory and experience taught me to “max” my volume knob at 80% sometime you just need that little extra boost and the mix engineer can’t give it to you fast enough. I need both boost and cut. :joy:

1 Like