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my sg bass master volume & tone awesomerizer mod


herb nice

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i prefer having a master volume. pickups keep their ratio, and you can fade with one finger. i just like it better.

 

i've played my sg bass for years, and know i generally the neck pickup is set louder than the bridge- so i figured it must be easy to take the bridge pickup's volume output and send it to the neck pickup's volume input instead of the tone circuit.

 

which it is. crazy easy. also very easy to reverse if you don't like it.

 

just clip the wire (mine was brown) from the bridge volume pot at the tone control pot (cut the end of nearest the capacitor) and solder to the signal wire from the neck pickup (NOT ground) where it meets the neck volume wiper (should be center pin of neck volume pot).

 

instead of both volumes feeding into the tone circuit in parallel, the bridge volume output now feeds into the neck volume input (along with the neck pickup signal). tone is applied at output as normal.

 

the neck volume becomes the master volume, which is sweet. fades are a breeze. bridge knob controls ratio of bridge to neck, which is also sweet- tone doesn't change as i fade with the neck master volume.

 

there is a *HUGE* added bonus that this prevents my pickups battling each other when both volumes are wide open, or set similar. f'ing **HUGE!** i actually can turn my bridge pickup up all of the way up without volume loss and murk! they get along great together now, far more than before. the whole range of both knobs is usable in any combination.

 

it sounds great. better than it ever has. like a heavy blanket has been lifted off of it compared to parallel volumes before. still fat and wooly, especially with the tone rolled back, but more defined and punchy. night and day.

 

the single downside is that the bridge pickup will never be louder than the neck pickup. i consider that a feature.

 

this is seriously worth trying if you want more definition and clarity out of your sg bass, it was a striking difference for me.

 

i'm running sunbeams 105-45 on the old sg bass lately, with a bridge pickup wired parallel and everything shielded all to hell. it pretty much plays itself and sounds incredible now.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 months later...

This sounds like a nice solution.

I need more brightness, clarity, and punch out of my SG Bass.

So the neck volume becomes the master volume.

The bridge volume becomes the selector knob.

And the tone becomes a master tone.

Sounds great but I don't know what all those wires are and would need a step by step YouTube tutorial.

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  • 4 months later...

i know this is an old thread, but i had my beloved sg bass open today, and snapped a photo. here's what you need to do if you want master volume on your sg bass. takes all of 5 minutes.

 

post-34803-023637300 1463344509_thumb.jpg

 

Nicely done. Thank youmsp_thumbup.gif

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  • 2 weeks later...

I might try this on mine if it doesn't sell on CL anytime soon.

 

I have done everything except swap out the wood on it to try to get it to sound good and it still sounds bad after all these years.

 

Plays great and looks fantastic though! I will say Gibson can make a great playing and looking bass!

 

But still sounds like it has a chorus pedal on it. Always been that way regardless of pickup, bridge, strings, electronics swaps...not enough fundamental...just vague tone and the strings don't all sound with uniform timbre.

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I understand your pain, I've certainly put a lot of work into my faded SG bass to get it to where it's my go-to for playing out. I had to file the fret ends, make a shim (1/16" or so) for the neck pickup to get it a bit closer to the strings, get a new bridge pickup wound, make a mod bar for the bridge to get the intonation stable, shield it, wire it up the way i like, change the tone cap to what I like, make a mute for the bridge, and try bunch of different strings. And some glow-in-the-dark nail polish on the side markers. But the light weight, faded finish and neck just feels so good, I was compelled to see it through. I do enjoy working on guitars, though.

 

I have a lot of other great shortscale players in my quiver. All of them have also required a lot work to make them serious players, and many I would be afraid to gig. I had to completely refinish (and reshape) the neck on a hagstrom hiinb, sounds great with a schaller bassbucker in the neck position, but the body is crazy heavy and the neck is very narrow. Truss rod on my ancient kay 2b is maxed open, and it seems fragile- but it sounds like nothing else. My blond phase 3 hi flyer has a dead coil in the neck humbucker and the neck itself is a bit chunky- but it's still a work-in-progress. The defil baston is a complete turd, had to fix mechanical bits, fill wood bits, replace electrical bits, glue plastic bits, weld metal bits, has the worst neck profile possible- an example of what not to do in almost every way- it looks crazy and sounds great now, it sucks to play. My aria cardinal has a dimazio model one, and is my trusty backup- i love that the strings are parallel spaced, but it's medium scale. My favorite phase 2 hi flyer gives the sg bass a run for the money on tone and feel and sheer joy-to-play, but in some rooms the single coils remind me why humbuckers were invented. And the strings are unevenly spaced, but i kinda love that.

 

Of all of those, that faded sg bass is still the one I grab when I am heading for the door. The neck is more roomy than most of the other shortscales- the faded finish is nicer to play than anything glossy. The aria may sound more defined, the hag may have more punch, but the sg sounds big and fat and for sure does it's job of holding down the bottom end in the 8 piece band I am playing with.

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  • 1 month later...

It was a long wait to get one. One of the first after the flood, I think.

Then I spent alot of time and effort modding it to get it to sound good.

It played great and looked real nice, but still sounded not good at all.

In the end I was convinced it wasnt for me.

I really enjoyed the shortscale comfort though.

And only weighed 7 lbs.!!!!

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It was a long wait to get one. One of the first after the flood, I think.

Then I spent alot of time and effort modding it to get it to sound good.

It played great and looked real nice, but still sounded not good at all.

In the end I was convinced it wasnt for me.

I really enjoyed the shortscale comfort though.

And only weighed 7 lbs.!!!!

 

I think you and I had one about the same time.

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