Overview

This was a small electronics project focused on improving the sound and control layout of one of my bass guitars. I liked the pickups, but I was not happy with the factory preamp, so I redesigned the wiring around passive controls, coil splitting, and pickup blending.

Project Goals

The goal was to get as much tonal variety as possible while keeping the controls intuitive. I wanted to keep the original four-coil sound, add useful P-Bass and J-Bass style options, and make it easy to change sounds during a set without switching instruments.

Wiring Layout

What I ended up doing was adding tone control and coil splits for both pickups. This gives me the tone control that I wanted, as well as the J-Bass sound with both pickups in single-coil mode. On the neck pickup, I added a toggle switch to the coil split circuit, very similar to a P-90 emulator. The plan with that was to get closer to a P-Bass sound, and it has worked very well.

I also added a blend pot. I chose to do this instead of using two volume knobs like some other guitars because I found the blend control to be more intuitive and easier for getting the sounds I wanted. Lastly, I have the volume knob with a linearly dependent treble bleed attached. Additionally, it is a push-pull pot, and I used that switch to swap the polarity of the bridge pickup. This gives a very unique funky sound that complements slap-style playing. It is one of my favorite modes on the guitar.