Using a hi-gain neck pickup in the bridge position

basshag · Post by **basshag** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:52 pm

I'm new to the forum and just bought my first 4004L (2004 model with the bridge humbucker closer to the bridge). I'd love to add an additional hi-gain single coil in the traditional 4003 bridge position (it looks like there's room) for the best of both worlds. My question: will a hi-gain neck pickup work in the bridge position (so I don't have to rout a larger hole to accommodate a bridge PU), or do the hi-gain neck and bridge pickups sound very different? I've owned a 4003 in the past and know the difference in sound, but always assumed that it came down to location. The other consideration would be the string spacing, but it seems like that should be pretty close.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 3:40 pm

I tried that ... the problem is the 4004 has 500k ohm pots and a light body ... and the 4003 neck pickup has a weaker magnet than the 4003 bridge pickup so the neck pickup has less balls than the 4003 bridge pickup ...

So I put a 4003 pickup into a 4004 but it was too bright with the 500k ohm pots ... so I put in a neck toaster as well and 250k ohm pots ... it sounded pretty good but it was too bright ... and with the stock pickups and pots it was too dark ...

I rewired the bass vol, vol, tone with 500k pots and put an hb1 pickup in the bridge and a toaster in the neck ... this sounded pretty good too ...

But finally I put the original pickups back in and put in 1000k ohm pots in the vol, vol, tone arrangement ... this give the 4004 a wide open sound ... a real treble bite, mid growl and full bottom ...

oh ya ... I also tried a toggle switch that switched the hb1 from single to parallel to series ... well the single and parallel settings sucked ... but the series setting sounded good ... but the hb1 pickups started out as series in the frist place ... so that was a dead end ...

david_schwab · Post by **david_schwab** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:16 am

"But finally I put the original pickups back in and put in 1000k ohm pots in the vol, vol, tone arrangement ... this give the 4004 a wide open sound ... a real treble bite, mid growl and full bottom ... "

I love 1 megohm pots for volume controls. You don't loose as much highs. And the more winding you have on a pickup, the more loading you get with 250 and 500k pots. Also having more than one pot in the circuit makes it worse!

That's why I put buffer preamps in my basses. Stops the pots (and your cable) from loading the pickups.

I think it's about time Ric replaces the pickup selector in the 4004 with a blend pot too, or at least two volumes and a tone.

jps · Post by **jps** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 2:59 pm

VVT is better than VPT as having essentially two volume controls in series for each pickup is not very good sounding with passive electronics.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:39 pm

I also wired my 2050-5 vol, vol tone with 1000k ohm pots ... with the hb2 pickups it is hotter than any other passive bass built!!! it is so hot that I usually don't open the controls up to 10 ...

Also one of the reasons the 4001/4003 basses have a treble bite is they use a 500k ohm tone control in conjunction with 250k ohm volume pots ...

but back to the original question ... I say go ahead and try the 4003 neck pickup in the 4004 and try a toaster as well these are totally reversable mods ... they sound good ... I just think my mods sound better ... remember with single coils you should use 250k ohms pots ...

basshag · Post by **basshag** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:51 pm

Thanks for all the info - sounds like I'll approach this one mod at a time. I'll start with the 1000 ohm VVT mod first, and go from there. My original idea was to rout the body for a single coil right in front of the bridge pickup (putting it in the traditional 4003 spot), but I'll leave that as my "nuclear option." Sounds like the 1000 ohm conversion might get me what I'm after, and I can always mess with a hi-gain and toaster like you stated. I've owned a 4003 before, and was never happy with the string-to-string consistency (the A string was godly and the E string sucked), and wasn't crazy about the hard edge/lack of contour. I'll let you guys know how it goes for me.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:06 pm

the 4003 high gain and toaster pickups have the same footprint as the hb1 pickups ... you don't have to route any wood to change the pickups ... you will need a couple of those $1 rubber pads ...

the hb1 pickups give the 4004 a clarity on the high notes that is outstanding ...