1969 Dan Armstrong Bass wiring. Advice needed

[Mayuiers]

I have a 1969 Dan Armstrong Ampeg bass that I love, but I'm not entirely happy with the tone control. I need some wiring help from the experts that lurk within the forum.

The pickup on these basses is unique. There are, in effect, two pickups stacked upon one another within the same pickup enclosure. One of the pickups is designed to be more "bassy" while the other pickup is designed to be more "trebly". According to the original Dan Armstrong owners manual the tone pot acts as a blend pot as it also changes the tone.,

The problem I'm encountering is a lack of difference in tone. I get a reasonable amount of bass, but when I turn the tone pot to the treble side, the overall sound doesn't change much, but the volume reduces.

I've attached a diagram of the original wiring. I'm open to a different way to wire the bass, but I don't want to chop up my pickguard to add another pot or a switch.

So basically, my need is this....

A dual pickup arrangement using a single volume pot and a single tone pot that gives me a reasonable amount of tonal sweep without losing volume.

 

[Artie]

This is a variation of the Duncan spin-a-split. But the spin-a-split sacrifices the tone control for the variable split. Peavey did this same thing on their T-40 and T-60 guitars, (where they kept split and tone), and it worked reasonably well. You can duplicate the Peavey method by only moving a couple wires. Maybe worth a try.

 

[Mayuiers]

Thanks Artie!!

As soon as I hit the send button on this message I’m going to give your suggestion a try.

Also, nice work editing my image!!

 

[Artie]

Thanks. It's what I do. :bigthumb:

And let us know if that's not effective. We'll try plan B.

 

[Mayuiers]

I tried Artie's suggestion and everything worked out well. Much better response from my tone control.

But.... that got me to thinking. The difference was so dramatic that there must have been something more to the issue. Just for curiosity sake I returned to the factory configuration and found that the tone was equally as good as Artie's. My guess is that I had a cold solder joint that was allowing only half of the pickup to get through the signal path.

Whatever the case, my bass is now working as good as new and I could not be happier.

Thank you once again for the assist!!

 

[Artie]

Whatever the case, my bass is now working as good as new and I could not be happier.

Sweet! And welcome to the art of troubleshooting. :beerchug: