Pre Amp wiring for a Cort Artisan C4 Plus Bass

[METAL Rulez 4ever]

Hi All, Hope all is well with you.

May i please get some assistance with a Pre Amp Wiring Harness i have to connect to two Humbuckers to be installed in a Cort Artisan C4 Plus Bass.

The wiring harness has 2 x A20K, A10K, MN500K Balancer and a Volume B500K pots.

From the Pick Ups, do i connect the Red and White or Green wire to the middle lug of the balancer pot?

And

From the Pick Ups, do i connect the black or exposed wire to the side of the balancer or the back of the volume pot ?

And what to i do with the two extra wires from each pup please ?

With the three other pots, how do i figure out (besides from hearing it after its all hooked up) out of the 2 x A20K and A10K pots, which is Bass, Treble and Mids ? So i know which order to have them on the bass.

Sorry for the 20 questions.

I have attached pics to hopefully help.

Regards,
Naim.

[Simon Barden]

So they appear to be Artec WCNB pickups. The Artec wiring system has black for ground, so the black and the bare screen wire go to the pot casing. Green is the signal wire, so that goes to one of the outer lugs on the balance pot. The ends of the white and red wires should be twisted together, soldered together, and then ideally covered in some heat-shrink insulation (though wrapping in insulation tape will do the job, though not as neatly). Look on Page 2 of the Artec wiring guide, where they show single coil and humbucker wiring (it's the same for guitar and bass pickups) http://artecsound.com/wiring/wiring_book01.pdf

I'm not sure you'll know which pot is treble, middle and bass until you put it all together. Just leave the pots loose in the cavity until you've got some strings on and get the harness in and wired. You'll soon find out and can then pop them in the right holes and do the nuts up.

It looks like you've got a spare small hole on the top of the bass once the five pots are fitted. I presume the input jack location is on the edge of the bass? Any plans what to do with that hole? You could fit a switch to tap either one of the pickups, or else both pickups at the same time, for a single coil option.

And don't forget to wire up the tailpiece ground wire to the back of a pot.

[METAL Rulez 4ever]

So they appear to be Artec WCNB pickups. The Artec wiring system has black for ground, so the black and the bare screen wire go to the pot casing. Green is the signal wire, so that goes to one of the outer lugs on the balance pot. The ends of the white and red wires should be twisted together, soldered together, and then ideally covered in some heat-shrink insulation (though wrapping in insulation tape will do the job, though not as neatly). Look on Page 2 of the Artec wiring guide, where they show single coil and humbucker wiring (it's the same for guitar and bass pickups) http://artecsound.com/wiring/wiring_book01.pdf

I'm not sure you'll know which pot is treble, middle and bass until you put it all together. Just leave the pots loose in the cavity until you've got some strings on and get the harness in and wired. You'll soon find out and can then pop them in the right holes and do the nuts up.

It looks like you've got a spare small hole on the top of the bass once the five pots are fitted. I presume the input jack location is on the edge of the bass? Any plans what to do with that hole? You could fit a switch to tap either one of the pickups, or else both pickups at the same time, for a single coil option.

And don't forget to wire up the tailpiece ground wire to the back of a pot.

Thank you Simon for your info and advice, very much appreciated.

I finished the bass, in the spare small hole i just installed a dummy switch. I already have a pick up selector knob, so no need for having a switch that does the same function. Would you or anybody know how i could hook it up to switch from passive to active please ?

[WeirdBits]

Switching between active and passive can be tricky, depending on your particular components/configuration and if the pickups themselves are passive. The smaller value active circuit pots are generally not suitable for passive, but with your configuration it may be viable.

It looks like you have 500K volume and balance pots, and I'm assuming your pickups connect to the balance pot, right? The balance then links to the volume pot, and that then connects to the preamp. If that's the case, then passive switching may be possible as you could still use the volume and balance pots. You would need a multi-pole switch (probably a 4PDT) that would disconnect the preamp from the volume and jack (and the power to save battery) a instead link the volume directly to the jack. The only thing missing would be a passive tone control, but if you could add aother pot or maybe a concentric for the volume then you could include a tone control as well.

A restriction would be you'd never ever want to switch from passive to active while amplified as you'd get a very large thump through your amp.

[METAL Rulez 4ever]

Switching between active and passive can be tricky, depending on your particular components/configuration and if the pickups themselves are passive. The smaller value active circuit pots are generally not suitable for passive, but with your configuration it may be viable.

It looks like you have 500K volume and balance pots, and I'm assuming your pickups connect to the balance pot, right? The balance then links to the volume pot, and that then connects to the preamp. If that's the case, then passive switching may be possible as you could still use the volume and balance pots. You would need a multi-pole switch (probably a 4PDT) that would disconnect the preamp from the volume and jack (and the power to save battery) a instead link the volume directly to the jack. The only thing missing would be a passive tone control, but if you could add aother pot or maybe a concentric for the volume then you could include a tone control as well.

A restriction would be you'd never ever want to switch from passive to active while amplified as you'd get a very large thump through your amp.

Thank you WeirdBits for you info. Very helpful and much appreciated. Yes, both pick ups are connected to the (double lugged) balance pot.