I've finally arrived at my destination

[jglunt2112]

Three years ago, I bought a used USA SB-2 through Reverb. It was a deal I couldn't refuse, but it's turned out to be a project. The bass sounded great when I got it, but I was a little frustrated that every time I wanted a brighter or more mellow tone, the volume shifted. It seemed I was continually tweaking--adjust tone, adjust volume, adjust tone, adjust volume... And since I sing, it's often impossible for me to adjust volume at the amp. Add to that I just plain prefer a bass with a master volume, and I decided to try some things. I tried blend pots--an A250k, a B250k, an MN250k. All of them had issues. So I decided to try wiring the pickups to concentric A250k pots, then on to an A250k master volume. After doing this, I was still unhappy with the tone of the bass, but I decided to try to compromise and live with it. I recently decided I'd try one last thing and it gave me back the original "ballsy" tone of my SB-2 with the added benefit of a master volume. I swapped out the concentric A250k pickup volume pots for B250k concentric pots, and it worked. I had posted a wiring diagram of my original wiring with the A250k pots, but here is a new one--drawn as poorly as the first one--in case anybody wants to try this.

SB-2 Master Volume-small-30-23.jpg (83.68 KiB) Viewed 906 times

[bigtone23]

Very cool!
I like linear volumes on my bass, puts a much finer adjustment range where you want it: in the last quarter of it's rotation.

[jglunt2112]

This is my first attempt to use a linear taper pot on a bass. Leo, of course, was an audio taper guy, and when it comes to bass, mostly a 250k guy except for that crazy 1M reverse audio pot on the bass cut on an L series bass. It's nice to have some reinforcement for this, so thanks bigtone23. When I bought this bass, it had a huge yet articulate sound. I've wanted to get it to a single volume pot, though, but every mod I made seemed to castrate it. Why this linear pot change gave it back its voice I don't know, but now I have an SB-2 that sounds like it's supposed to and has a master volume. And it still has no tone control. That feature is important to me.

I have my eye on a used Tribute Kiloton online. Since I have a USA Kiloton, this Tribute would be for modding. I'm thinking of dropping a single coil MFD into a jazz bass neck position on it. Then I'd have to decide how to set up the controls, but I believe I'll set the volumes up with linears and leave the tone as an audio taper if I keep the tone at all. I might wire it up the same way I have my SB-2 except for keeping the switch on the humbucker, of course. I could get the tone of an MFD equipped jazz bass by popping the humbucker into single coil mode, but it could also do so much more. Just a fantasy at this point.

[bigtone23]

This is my first attempt to use a linear taper pot on a bass. Leo, of course, was an audio taper guy, and when it comes to bass, mostly a 250k guy except for that crazy 1M reverse audio pot on the bass cut on an L series bass. It's nice to have some reinforcement for this, so thanks bigtone23. When I bought this bass, it had a huge yet articulate sound. I've wanted to get it to a single volume pot, though, but every mod I made seemed to castrate it. Why this linear pot change gave it back its voice I don't know, but now I have an SB-2 that sounds like it's supposed to and has a master volume. And it still has no tone control. That feature is important to me.

I have my eye on a used Tribute Kiloton online. Since I have a USA Kiloton, this Tribute would be for modding. I'm thinking of dropping a single coil MFD into a jazz bass neck position on it. Then I'd have to decide how to set up the controls, but I believe I'll set the volumes up with linears and leave the tone as an audio taper if I keep the tone at all. I might wire it up the same way I have my SB-2 except for keeping the switch on the humbucker, of course. I could get the tone of an MFD equipped jazz bass by popping the humbucker into single coil mode, but it could also do so much more. Just a fantasy at this point.

Yeah, I think a big reason Leo used 250K audio most everywhere was to keep the parts count down/simple. He just had to order a lot of 250KA splined and solid shaft pots for most any instrument. Easy Peasy.
Linear volumes are the best if you play on the cleaner side of things. Audio volumes excel if you need to clean up a crunchy tone by turning down the volume pot. That said, I tend to have linear volumes on my basses and audio volumes on my guitars.
Audio taper is the only way with a tone control, as it lends a pretty smooth sweep throughout the pot's range. Linear tends to squish almost all of the usable sweep to 0-2. It may as well be a tone switch at that point.
Another thing I like to do is use higher value pots on the tone control. It gives a little more range to the control, especially in the highs. The higher value also keeps the circuit from loading down too much, giving more air to the tone. 500KA has become my starting point with a tone control, sometimes 1MA. This is similar to what happens with a no load tone control.

[jglunt2112]

That's all wonderful information to have, Bigtone23. I've had my eye on a used Tribute Irish Ale Kiloton for a couple weeks now. I've always loved that color, but I have a USA Kiloton, so in my mind I could never justify buying a second one. However, I'm thinking of buying it and adding a neck pickup similarly (though not exactly) to the way Paul Gagon did in his thread a year or so ago. I plan to use concentric pots for my volumes, but I'm still debating whether to run them into a tone control or just remove the tone control and run into a master volume like I wired my SB-2. That info about trying a 500kA pot for tone sounds great. Thanks for sharing!