P-Bass wiring confusion

[KoreanGuitarMan]

I have a Yamaha P-Bass copy that the previous owner upgraded to SD "Basslines" pickups. When digging around in the control cavity the wires would pop off the terminals with just a bit of wiggling so I figured I'd set up the soldering station and re-solder everything.

This is the stock wiring after I've desoldered the pickup leads.




I had quite a bit of noise when my hands were not on the strings, thinking that maybe something was wired improperly. So I looked up the stock P-Bass wiring diagram on the SD site and wired it thusly:



My bass is suddenly very dark. All the snap and snarl is gone. The low end is muddy and distorted. I can crank the treble control on my POD to the max and it doesn't have the usual pluckiness. The noise has been lessened but I'm pretty sure it only seems that way because the treble has been filtered out.

I checked all of my solder joints with a multimeter before plugging in and I can't pinpoint any errors there. Might the pots in this bass be a weird configuration or is this sort of wiring typically very dark? It has a .047 value cap in it.

Seems like I shouldn't have messed with the stock wiring! Wondering if anyone else has had the same experience with the SD diagram and can say why it works that way.

Is there a better way to wire this up or is the stock configuration just fine?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[HiFiRebel]

Re: P-Bass wiring confusion

Was the tone pot damaged during the install? Every stock Yamaha I have played had that plucky sound with the tone rolled up.

 

[KoreanGuitarMan]

Re: P-Bass wiring confusion

Was the tone pot damaged during the install? Every stock Yamaha I have played had that plucky sound with the tone rolled up.

The tone pot still has a full sweep to it but now the sound is very dark even when it's up all the way. Originally it was plucky when all the way up.

 

[HiFiRebel]

Re: P-Bass wiring confusion

That's weird. I will check the value on my Ibanez cap tomorrow and report back. But for it to change that drastically is bizzare.

 

[KoreanGuitarMan]

Re: P-Bass wiring confusion

That's weird. I will check the value on my Ibanez cap tomorrow and report back. But for it to change that drastically is bizzare.

I'm going to switch it back to stock to see if it reverts to normal. If I cooked a pot it's no big deal because I'm going to order new anyway.

 

[HiFiRebel]

Re: P-Bass wiring confusion

Mine has one if the saddest excuse for Chinese wiring that I have seen in a long time. I am of no help now. I need to redo the wiring on my Ibanez

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: P-Bass wiring confusion

Run the pickup directly to the jack first, bypassing the pots. If that sounds ok, add the volume pot (pickups to volume, volume to jack), if that sounds OK, add the tone pot. SOmewhere in there you'll find the problem.

Although it looks to me like the tone pot is for an active set? Looks like an EMG pot to me.