Retro-fit Vintage Tone Switch?

[johnallg]

Okay, I added a little corner inset with a drawing of the new style pot/switch. The wiring is the same as before but clearer for those not used to schematics. Apologies for the quality of the drawing, I only have Paint to draw with. If you viewed the drawing previously, you may need to hit reload if it looks the same with this link.

http://files.rickresource.com/tech/RIC-Bass-Cap-Mod.jpg

[BigJohnAZ]

John, thanks again. The reason I was confused was that I was looking at pictures of each of the harnesses you can purchase from the RIC site ( the one with the new vintage switch and the one without it)and trying to compare them with your original drawing to see how the bypass was wired in. I guess I just didn't look at it correctly. I appreciate your assistance. I think I will install it this week or next and see if I like the non-vintage sound. At the very least, it will give me more avenues of tone. I am thinking of getting that bridge pickup bezel from http://www.tubeampology.com, too. Will wait to do the tone mod when I get the bezel.

[rickendelic]

Just wanna throw a thanks out there, I put mine in the other night, works great, thanks again!

[johnallg]

Quickly, with the new pot/switch, all you do is solder the two tabs on the lower volume pot (has 3 lugs) to the body of the pot (compare lugs on the existing volume pot to know which two to solder). Now remove the old pot from the pickguard and put the new pot/switch in, orientating it the same as the old one was. Pull the red wire from the old volume pot, solder it to one lug of the new upper switch. Solder the .0047uF cap (insulate the leads) to where the other end of the red wire you just moved is over on the pickup switch, then the other end of the cap to the unused lug on the new volume pot. Now use a new red wire and solder it from the other upper switch lug to the volume pot lug you just soldered the cap to. Done.

[ken_j]

I just finished adding a vintage tone switch to a V63. The owner supplied the cap and pot. The pot was purchased through RIC. Since this did noe already have the cap installed I ran a new wire from the selector switch to the switch portion of the pot and a wire from the switch/pot to the volume pot. I just placed the cap across the switch for ease of installation and a clean look. Note I would have perfered a polyprop or styrene cap be he had ppurchased a ceramic cap.

When trying this out after installation I found that it was most useful with both front and rear pickups engaged, at least to my ears. With just the rear pickup engaged it did get a good treble clank to it. This bass had its original round wound strings still installed.