Some bassists don’t use tone. Joe Dart and Mike D’Antonio (Killswitch Engage) come to mind.
2 Likes
Oooh lalala!
Turns out that my very good looking neighbour has a drill bit that fits. She helped me out so often with tools that I start to worry if she’s FSB on some kind of mission to “turn” me. I am willing and prepared - take me comrad 
So, I installed everything loosely (position 1), and it is … GREAT!
It’s still very precise in terms of tone, but it has some kind of a darker bottom end now, hard to explain … it adds another low end dimension to it all.
It leaves me wishing for a liiitllleee more, but this already sounds very fascinating and I really don’t want to give up the precision of it all.
It’s not the double bass experience I hoped for, but more like a black mass to conjure something dark and powerful.
Love it!
So I’ll leave it (for now).
Funny thing: the bridge PU always had a lower volume than the one closer to the neck. I didn’t care as I just use it to add to the tone. But one of the park bass players noted it too.
Now I went systematically through all PUs/volume positions … and the (new) neck and middle PU both sound loud … and the bridge still has a notably lower volume.
Is this cause of the position? Or is something wrong?
I might exchange volume pots and PUs to other positions to find out the culprit, but maybe it’s supposed to be like that?
I’ve noticed that bridge pups often have lower volume. In a conversation with Lindy Fralin he recommended 5% overwound on the bridge pup to bring it in line with the neck pup.
This is all anecdotal, but I have noticed the same thing.
There are some basses with a hotter bridge pickup, that’s a horse of a different color. Like the Sire Z7 where you have to be like 85% neck to hear it. (they are fixing the issue with new basses going out with a new neck pickup but it was an issue with the gen 1)
1 Like
Understood.
But I use the EMG 35TWX on all positions with exactly the same type of volume pot.
So that means that the bridge position alone is responsible for such a volume drop? Subjectively it’s 50% lower volume, maybe even lower…
Is this cause of the lower possible amplitude?
2 Likes
All I see there is space for strat ceramic single coils.
Just sayin’
1 Like
Hahaha. Never 
You know you want to…
1 Like
At least I want an Australian Wagon Wheel now!
Maybe my good looking Russian neighbour has one for me? Is there a Soviet version of this???
Perhaps but is made of asbestos and cardboard according to State Plan.
Factory manager famous for being strong like tractor, smart like wood.
2 Likes
Don’t forget: traces of Chernobyl after 1986, which also had a healthy cleansing effect
I must go down to my neighbour and find out. “Going down”, in the sense of: she lives two floors below me
Fun fact: the east German cars (Trabant) were made of cardboard.
1 Like
Hence the fun joke in Berlin 50+ years ago, when wheelbarrows were scarce in the East.
If you need a wheelbarrow, place broomsticks in the exhausts of a broken down Trabbie (which was most of them) and there you go. 
1 Like
My gf and her family is east German: they still have nostalgia for those cars.
When a Trabbi comes around the corner (you can smell it coming long before), they get all whoozy (possibly from the exhaust fumes) and tell glorious tales from the DDR past.
Yes, Trabbis break down often. But they can be easy to fix, McGyver style, with anything you have in the kitchen or in the trash
Also, a family of 4 could sleep in that car on holidays … this is how Tetris was invented
1 Like
Ok, exchanged pots and PUs. Bridge volume is still much lower.
So it really is the bridge position. Amazing, how much lower that volume can be! I learned something today.
By the way, the delta in volume between neck and middle PU is much lower. But that was expected, cause amplitude is similar.
I will use the temporary foam pickguard until I have decided if I keep using position 1 or try position 2. It has no impact on playing, and for the (now dirty, scratched and dented) park bass, it’s ok.
3 Likes
This is what I was partly referencing
1 Like
Ok, I am very happy with the tone (it was already great before), but I am not sure if I wired this config correctly.
Reason: with the bridge and middle pickup I hear a clear difference between single and dual coil. But the (new) neck pickup does not change the tone, neither push (dual coil) nor pull (single coil). It sounds like single coil mode ONLY to me … can’t get it to dual coil, or so it seems.
Can anybody think of a reason?
I have attached the PDF for the X-series volume pot (it’s complex), which alas only shows dual PU, not triple PU. I don’t use the VLPF/tone…
b136re_ppp_0230-0269ra.pdf (1.1 MB)
Template for humbuckers, with bridge as reference point:
Everything fits:
Use of template for actual PU positioning:
Used a nail to mark drill points:
Took away the favourite placemat of my nephew in order to use it as a temporary pickguard:
Fits ok-ish:
Not looking forward to customizing my old pickguard (above). But I’ll do it for the comments here … later
Installed the PUs:
Installed the temporary pickguard:
Now I need to buy an ice for my nephew, as he won’s stop crying. I think he will become a singer/guitar player when he grows up
3 Likes
Nooooooooooooooooooooo 
Holy crap on a cracker, what did you do to it? It looks as if it was run over by a truck. Is it bendy and rusty?
But no worries, the temporary pickguard looks perfect and will be an eye catcher at the park! No need for a new one. 
Now at least let him play the bass a little. But anyway, in some years, when he has grown up a little, there’s a real risk he will use your bass as a placemat.
1 Like
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet
I can tell you: I did not use any power tools. It’s kind of a running gag (at least for me) that I refuse to make a new pickguard.
I will modify this one until it crumbles to dust in my dying fingers … it is the very soul of this bass (and it even has a name: Barney!)
He did. Using Rocksmith 2014. To kill ninjas, cowboys and chickens. He is not a born bass player, unless his 4 year old sister.
She looks like a feisty princess and has the heart of a god-d@mn warrior. Does not take sh#t from anybody, especially me.
I love her dearly!
When I make my way to Walhalla one day, she will get my basses and Katanas and rule the world with them! If it pleases her
1 Like