Some Questions For Bass Players

[JaySwear]

i've decided to scrap my strat idea in favor of a bass. i like my new tele deluxe too much to really make another guitar a priority, and i have a squier '51 i'm working on at the moment anyway. so i've got a few questions for you bass players (and those with more bass knowledge than myself). plus i've had a neck sitting around for more than a year and feel like it should really be used soon or it wasn't worth the buy at all.

1. do basses use typical 500k and 250k pots like guitars? i'm putting together a p-bass and as far as i can tell would like to use 500k pots. i've heard they're very much like pots in a guitar (500k slightly brighter than 250k)

2. heard anything about the dimarzio split p? i'd like something hum canceling, but if there's something just plain better out there (passive) i'd love to hear some things about them. although i like hum canceling the most important thing is that it sounds decent.

3. black or white? i've already got a "relic" neck, and i was thinking a black body with b/w/b guard would match nicely. but after some more thinking i'm leaning more and more towards white with a w/b/w guard. it'll have a p-bass pickup cover and no bridge cover. however a heavily tinted neck might look strange with an arctic white body

4. when mounting the pickup cover i would just drill a hole through the pickguard and mount it directly to the wood underneath using pickguard screws? obviously it would take some lining up to make sure it's on there straight, but as far as i can tell this is how it's done.

5. any words of advice for me while i'm diving into basses? i haven't played bass in several years (switched to guitar pretty early on) and i'm excited to get back into it. especially knowing the quality i'll be getting out of a warmoth body.

 

[whyachi]

1.  P basses as well as most Fender products use 250k pots. Standard P bass wiring is Pickup - 250k vol - 250k tone - .47 cap - jack.

2. Split P's are pretty hot pickups and popular for droptuned rock.

3. Apples! No, oranges.. bananas?

4. Can't comment there.

5. Buy light weight tuners as Warmoth bass necks are HEAVY.

 

[drewfx]

1. Too much is made of the "proper" pot values IMHO. I prefer to always use 500k's. A 500k tone pot rolled off a little is identical to a 250k pot. And if a 500k volume makes things a little too bright and agressive, you can compensate by rolling off the tone a little.

2. All split P-bass PU's are hum cancelling.

3. I always like white guitars/basses. Except sometimes, when I prefer black...

4. P-bass PU's mount directly to the wood.
EDIT: I should clarify that the pickguard is routed for the mounting "ears" that the screws go through:

5. Don't use a pick. Learn to play fingerstyle so that you use a pick only when you want that sound, not because that's your only option.

 

[JaySwear]

5. Don't use a pick. Learn to play fingerstyle so that you use a pick only when you want that sound, not because that's your only option.

i will! when i started playing bass years ago i never even tried with a pick until after a couple weeks. loved playing with my fingers. i just felt like i had so much more control

anyway thank you both for the help. i sat up looking at colors on warmoth until about 3AM last night, then had a dream about a black p-bass with a brown tortoise shell pickguard haha i don't know if i'll call it fate, but i hadn't really considered it before. i guess i'll think about that as well now.

 

[Finch]

I've only built one bass, I got wild hair and tossed in a 1 meg volume pot and went with the new Basslines Blackout tone concentric bass/treble pre amped tone circuits. The pickup is a Basslines Alnico Music Man. That guitar is 100 percent pure funk.

 

[baskruit]

1. do basses use typical 500k and 250k pots like guitars? i'm putting together a p-bass and as far as i can tell would like to use 500k pots. i've heard they're very much like pots in a guitar (500k slightly brighter than 250k)

When I renewed the electronics in my bass I used 500k volume pots and... it works. As already stated I doubt it would matter much whether you get 500k or 250k pots.

 

[JaySwear]

the neck i've had forever. as you can see it's pretty heavily relic'd and pretty heavily tinted. i'm not a huge fan of the relicing, but i don't dislike it either. what i will say is that it's extremely comfortable. i've put a few extra dings in it with it sitting around, and put a bunch of finish cracks in it by leaving it too close to the air conditioning and heating vents :icon_biggrin: anyway i'm afraid most colors (alpine white) will look bad compared to the dark tint of the neck. i'll be ordering at the end of the summer or close to it, so i have a while to think. right now i think i'm leaning either black or sherwood green.

 

[Malta]

That neck looks freaking sweet! Are you opposed to a natural wood look? I have a walnut jazz body paired with a lightly reliced MIM pbass neck and I personally really dig the look. I'll post up some pics this week.

 

[JaySwear]

not at all! i'm actually falling in love with the transparent black warmoth has a few jazz basses in. thank god i'm not ordering this anytime soon, i think i've changed my mind on finishes about 3 times just today :icon_biggrin:

and i'd love to see yours! this one will probably turn out as a ridiculously relic'd neck and a flawless body since i don't think i'll have the heart to mark up the finish once i'm holding it!

here's the jazz bass in transparent black. although i think what really makes this finish what it is would be the natural binding. it's cool either way!

 

[JaySwear]

i know this is more a wiring question, but since i have a thread going... anybody know of a good way to switch between two pickups if i ended up making it a PJ bass? i'm worried i won't think the p-bass pickup has enough treble to it. but at the same time i don't want to sacrifice my tone control for a 3 way toggle. i never use a tone control on a guitar really, but i think it's definitely important on a bass

EDIT: and i would just give it a side jack and use the top jack hole for a toggle switch, but warmoth only offers the side jack on top routed P-basses. at least as far as i know. i could try to call tomorrow and see if they could.

 

[erogenousjones17]

not at all! i'm actually falling in love with the transparent black warmoth has a few jazz basses in. thank god i'm not ordering this anytime soon, i think i've changed my mind on finishes about 3 times just today :icon_biggrin:

and i'd love to see yours! this one will probably turn out as a ridiculously relic'd neck and a flawless body since i don't think i'll have the heart to mark up the finish once i'm holding it!

here's the jazz bass in transparent black. although i think what really makes this finish what it is would be the natural binding. it's cool either way!

^ This. So much win right there.

 

[tubby.twins]

here's the jazz bass in transparent black. although i think what really makes this finish what it is would be the natural binding. it's cool either way!

I'm not usually a fan of transparent black finishes, but wow, those bodies are beautiful.  Especially the one on the right.

 

[baskruit]

i know this is more a wiring question, but since i have a thread going... anybody know of a good way to switch between two pickups if i ended up making it a PJ bass? i'm worried i won't think the p-bass pickup has enough treble to it. but at the same time i don't want to sacrifice my tone control for a 3 way toggle. i never use a tone control on a guitar really, but i think it's definitely important on a bass

EDIT: and i would just give it a side jack and use the top jack hole for a toggle switch, but warmoth only offers the side jack on top routed P-basses. at least as far as i know. i could try to call tomorrow and see if they could.

What you could do is drill an extra hole in the control cavity cover plate between two pots and stick a (mini) toggle in there. I've seen that before and if you ever want to reverse that step, you only have to replace the cavity cover for a couple of bucks.

 

[JaySwear]

thanks for the help! would a on/on/on mini toggle work? i definitely wouldn't mind the look, but i'm no wiring expert so the more i add the better the chance i have trouble getting this thing up and running.

also, do you (or anybody else) know if warmoth offers nitro finishes on bodies? i thought i had heard something about them offering that, but i didn't see anything on their site. i may have just been looking in the wrong place.

 

[drewfx]

An on/on/on will work fine.

But there should be no problem getting them to do a side jack either. Just tell them what size.

 

[dNA]

i am voting for some kind of bursted body. the trans black is nice

 

[JaySwear]

anybody know if the dimarzio Model P and Model J are passive? i'd really like to keep the pickups passive, and a PJ-style pickup layout looks perfect for me. appreciate the help!

 

[drewfx]

Yes they are passive.

 

[Malta]

I first finished it with tung oil but wasn't really happy with how it turned out so I'm in the process of redoing it with Tru Oil. I'll post better pics once I have it all reassembled.

 

[line6man]

anybody know if the dimarzio Model P and Model J are passive? i'd really like to keep the pickups passive, and a PJ-style pickup layout looks perfect for me. appreciate the help!

There are very few active pickups on the market.
I would say 95% of all pickups are passive.

EMG, MEC and a few others do make actives though.