Playing around with my Epi Les Paul Bass. Dimebuckers and a Tone Stack circuit.

[Mykk]

Hey Guys,

I figured I'd post up my recent project, playing around with my Epiphone Les Paul bass.

A while back it needed new humbuckers, I decided to go against the grain and install a set of SH13 'Dimebuckers'... in my bass.



After playing with different wiring, I decided that running the pickups in series worked best. At first I ran the pickups straight to a jack. The output was so high that I would distort any amp and gain knobs would have to be just above zero to get rid of the majority of clipping. Eventually I added a 300k resistor inline and although it dropped output it was still hotter than any of my other basses. But it sounded so good.

This morning I decided what I wanted to do for the Volume & tone circuit. I decided to give myself a Volume, Bass, Mid & Treble control utilizing a passive amp tone stack type circuit. I knew I had enough output with this bass I could sacrifice some in the tone stack circuit.

After plugging the numbers into a tone stack calculator I came up with a config that gave me the most control. I wired/soldered up the circuit and dropped it in. Sounds decent, I'm still tweaking it some. Best of all it dropped the output of the bass to a perfect level that matches my other instruments.

I am on version two of my circuit, it looks like this:



Sounds like this:
(First, all pots on 10. Second, bass cut only. Third, mid cut only. Fourth, high cut only. Fifth, high & mid cut)

http://soundcloud.com/mykk-hannan/lespaultonestackii

What we're hearing is my line6 bassPODxt live with the amp & cab modeling on bypass and EQ turned off. USB into my laptop recording with Audacity.

Not done yet, as you heard in the clip. I need to shield the electronics cavity. I also need to reverse the lugs in the tone section pots because they are backwards rotation. I'd also like to add a bypass switch so I can get that crazy grungey sound it had with no electronics at all (with a resistor to reduce outut). Otherwise, I'm really pleased with the outcome.

Here is the bass with the Dimebuckers in series wide open throttle no pots or caps.

http://soundcloud.com/mykk-hannan/epi-les-paul-bass-w

Cheers ~Mykk

[TheLivingDead]

Sounds pretty good, man!

I love outside-the-box thinking.

[astrozombie]

very cool.

[idsnowdog]

I have a Lawrence XL-500 in my Mustang bass. It sounds good but it distorts on some notes.

[Mykk]

I have a Lawrence XL-500 in my Mustang bass. It sounds good but it distorts on some notes.

May need to consider installing a resistor in series with the jack output. I'd start around 5k to see if that rids it.