SInce you have two single coil pickups, you can expect some noise, that’s how life goes.
However, if your grounding and sheilding isn’t up to par, you will generate additional external noise - there are several threads here on this you can search for.
As for the pots, are you sure you bought 250k audio (taper) pot which are logrithmic and not linear? Even with audio taper pots you never really get 0-100% change over the range.
As far as wiring, I am puzzled why you just didn’t look up the correct wiring diagram for your setup, as they exist everywhere. If you have been mucking about a bit like you say, you might want to check your pots for proper resistance across the range to insure you have not fried the pot with soldering technique.
Hi John I did check all of that but I am still a novice with electronics and this is only the 2nd time I have played with bass wiring.
I did get the right pots, and I have looked at heaps of wiring diagrams, when I wired the blend pot the first time I thought I had it right but I had made a mistake.
I subsequently went over everything with a multimeter to double check all the values.
I have also shielded and earthed the cavity.
As per the 2nd post, I tried it on my better set up downstairs with the nearby laptop off (first time tonight I was next to a tower and using s dodgy guitar amp) and on the better set up it is pretty much perfect-very minimal to no noise and the tone works; in this case the equipment made the difference.
So all good now.
I’d been looking at 5ers for a bit, you know, just to have one. Something active, with humbuckers. I found a black 2004 Schecter Stilleto Deluxe 5 for like… $200 bucks. That’s from the pre-EMG era, but they claimed to have upgraded the internals to an EMG pre-amp.
I figured for $200 bucks, I mean… why not? So, I bought it.
When it arrived, cosmetically it was in way worse shape than described. Fretboard is good and the neck is straight, but the back of the neck has some dings and the body is way more scratched and dinged than indicated. It does appear to have the EMG pre-amp, but the pickups don’t even appear to be Schecter branded and kinda suck.
So, here’s what I’m doing:
I’ve ordered some bona-fide EMG pickups from the EMG Factory Direct Outlet on Reverb. Hopefully the EMG pre-amp is good and that will fix the bass’ tone.
I’m going to put my GOTOH tuners on it (I’ve ordered a matching 5th, the set I had was for 4), and I’m probably going to search out a 5 string GOTOH bridge in black.
I grabbed some Scotch Brite ultra fine pads, and I am converting the gloss black to a flat, matte black finish. The back is nearly done, and it looks super rad. There are a couple of deeper dings on the back that I’ll have to work on, but so far as I can tell, it’s getting rid of all the scratches.
First parts for my Stutter bass arrived today - P pickup, two pots (that will be volume pots eventually), and a router template that identifies as a scratch plate. Still to come are another P pickup and a jackplug to go on the end of the body as there will be no room on the scratch plate in the end. £10 (inc shipping) well spent, I think!
More parts arrived today. This is the basic idea behind the Stutter bass. Just got to choose a bridge that’s a bit heavier than the original one and I think that I have all the bits I need. Unfortunately I can’t start work on it right now as it’s my only instrument. I’m hoping that the birthday fairies will send me enough money that I can buy a Harley Benton B-550 QTB. At that point I can start work on it and it doesn’t matter if something turns into a bigger job than I thought as I’ll have my 5 string to play
I received some of the items for my Schecter. First off, I needed a single GOTOH tuner; I had a set of 4, needed the fifth. I ordered the same model, but it’s different:
I might be able to live with that, once it’s all strung up. What requires action, however, is that the EMG pickups are a little too big for the current routing:
They fit fine on the Y-axis, but as you can see the X-axis is just a little off. I’m not a woodworker, but… is that something I’d be able to clear out on my own with some sandpaper? Or would more advanced tools or a luthier be more what I need?
The “normal” way (at least in the guitar/bass world) would be to use a router, but it’s perfectly doable with a Dremel (and a straight wood or metal guide) or wood chisels. I don’t know about your skills with those tools, so it’s hard to say to do it yourself or not ! Maybe @Barney would know better
That looks like quite a bit of difference.
I think we were here once before with one of your bass projects, no?
And I think some of the more clever wood guys chimed in and said that you are going to see wood around the pickup and it will be very hard to get any matching finish.
My vote is use pickups that fit and leave it be.
Measure twice, buy once.
a thought - are you trying to fit an EMG 40 pickup in a Bartolini P2 size hole?
Soapbars come in two standard sizes, EMG and Bartolini. EMG 40 (5 string) are 1.52" wide. Bartolini P2 are 1.27" wide. You may just have the wrong pickup - the Schecter may be machined for Bartolini size. Have you measured the holes or original pups?
