Andy 40's JBA-4

[wazkelly]

Great, I just bought two Treble Bleeds for mine.
Oh well, hopefully there's a Strat on the Horizon that can use one of them.....

G'day Hobie, what I discovered was that when one volume was turned all the way off no sound came out of the one left on 10 and vice versa.

Was playing the JB earlier today after cleaning it up from doing the DB Bone nut installation and yes Andy, it does make a big difference with no more dull or dead notes and plenty of ring or sustain on open notes. The action is a bit high at 1st fret and will work on that during the week.

Was also playing around with the volume knobs and by leaving both on 10 and backing one off slightly that is all you need to do to select which one is more in the mix rather than back it off a long way, hence why treble bleeds are not as important however I do recall some weird funky stuff that caused me to question that upgrade and decide to remove them both and probably in that build thread somewhere.

When stringing it up again today the damn D string tuner kept slipping and the cheap Chinese mystery metal feels like it is under fatigue and about to fail so later tonight or tomorrow I will order the $48 set from Real Parts. All up the only original hardware bits left will be the neck plate, scratch plate & control plate. Out of curiosity I will dig up all the receipts and add up how much it owes me. I am guessing about $500 including rectangular hard case but worth every cent.

[Simon Barden]

Waz, that one volume off problem is probably down to the wiring method, and not the treble bleed circuit. It's exactly the same as the modern 2-pup/4-pot Gibson both pups-on situation, where turning the volume on one pickup all the way down mutes the sound completely.

If you wire the pickup hot wire to the wiper of the pot, wire one end of the pot to ground and the other as the pot's output, then you can turn one pot completely off without affecting the other pickup's output.

You've got the pickup output wired to one end of the pot, the other end to ground, and the output coming from the central wiper connection. When you turn one pot right down, the output is connected directly to ground. But as that output is also connected to the output of the other volume pot, then both pickup's outputs are connected to ground - so no sound!

By simply swapping over the pickup hot and output wires on the two volume pots, so that the pickup output goes to the wiper, you can get a full single pickup only sound. This should be how the pre-wired PBG control plate is wired - it's shown that way on the current PBG wiring diagram for it. It sounds like on your bass, it's wired the other way round.

The treble bleed cap+ resistor should work whatever way the pots are wired, as long as its simply connected between the input and output connections. It will affect the volume control knob response a bit, as you now have the high frequencies passing through the cap, and a low level of full-range sound passing through the bleed resistor - which is in parallel with the part of the potentiometer resistance between the input and output connections, so that bit of resistance is less than it would be otherwise, resulting in a slower volume turn-down than without the bleed circuit.

[Hobastard]

Cheers guys, looks like I'll be using them after all, one on each Pot. Got some Black Hardware on the way and I will wire it all up on some shiny new CTS Pots and Orange Caps when it all gets here.....

[Andy40]

When stringing it up again today the damn D string tuner kept slipping and the cheap Chinese mystery metal feels like it is under fatigue and about to fail so later tonight or tomorrow I will order the $48 set from Real Parts.

Sounds like i should order some decent tuners then eh.

[wazkelly]

@ Simon - had the stock controls already pre-wired and used them as the visual aid for wiring up the bourns and also referenced back to the wiring diagram that came with kit plus one on PBG site and others found on the web. J Bass wiring was pretty standard across everything I looked at and was also the same setup in the EX-5 where both guitars had 2 x vol & 1 x tone. Treble bleed didn't work in either Bass and modified EX-5 to 3 way switch and 1 vol & 1 tone, and reintroduced the treble bleed with no issues now on that axe. In the J configuration everything is 'on' all the time therefore when backing off say neck PUP just a small amount it has mostly dropped out and been overpowered by the bridge PUP that is still on 10 with no loss of tone or treble, due mainly to still having one of the PUP's fully flowing. Dial up the neck and back off bridge and same result. Not sure treble bleeds will make much difference when used this way and happier without them as I cannot tell the difference whereas on the modified EX-5 setup it was noticeable.

@ Andy - you know me, I have used the cheap generic tuners on a few 6 stringers and find them ok but these Bass ones have not felt right from the first day it was strung up. From personal experience they would be a higher priority than doing a bridge upgrade. My Real Parts order should hopefully arrive tomorrow but next RDO is now Friday and will let you know how they go.

[Simon Barden]

Weird, Waz. It was behaving just as the reversed input/output wiring would. Maybe that combination requires different component values?

[wazkelly]

Nothing a 3 way switch can't fix but for those who want to stick with traditional J Bass setup what I described is how these things work. Cannot be bothered re-wiring to end up with probably the same outcome as it works fine, sounds good and that is all that really matters.

[Andy40]

Dont forget to let me know how those tuners are Waz and which ones you got.

[Hobastard]

Spend Alert!!!!!
I've just been trolling Stewmac and picked up a Mighty Mite Bridge for $20. They also have EMG passives for J Bass for $42. Half price. Clearence Sale.....

[Andy40]

Isn't postage a killer?