Nice bass and welcome to the forum. The mini bucker shouldn't feed back and yeah the choke seriously takes a lot of juice from the neck pickup in position 4 and same with position 3. I took the choke out of the circuit in my bass for that reason but there are lots of people who like to leave everything stock. I have a hip shot 2 point on my bridge and like it but some folks think you can't get low enough action on those bridges. Jack used lighter gauge LaBella flats on his, I really like GHS short scale brite flats. Enjoy it and hope you get the feedback thing sorted out.
I'm actually pretty content with the stock bridge, it's intonated surprisingly well up the neck. I've seen the older schaller replacement bridges, if I ever see one of those for a decent price I might pick one up, but for now that's all well and good. It had LaBella strings on it when it arrived I believe, but I just couldn't get on with them. I put on some light gauge D'addario Nickel rounds, so they'll be a bit mellower than SS and don't really plan on changing them very often. I might try flats out again at some point, I'll give the GHS' a look if/when I do.
The bridge PUP should not be noisy, but it does have a low output. If you 'even out' the balace between neck/bridge and add gain/eq on the amp, well it will have some noise. Feedback can be avoided by re-potting, but then you might just have loose components within the pickup assembly. If the coil wiggles, etc..
It's fairly easy to bypass the coil, your bass will still be stock. It should not be necessary to remove the harness, just clean it.
Personally, I like a standard toggle or blend switch (I don't care much for the choke) and again - this can be done without drilling or messing up. Or you could get a CTS push/pull volume knob, and be able to put the choke in or out of cct.
And welcome:-) lovely bass!
Yeah, it's not a terrible squealing feedback all the time, as I said it's when the amp is really cranked and the pickup faces back towards the speakers, totally manageable at this point. I'm thinking I might go with a similar wiring set up eventually, as far as the toggle switch goes, and maybe a push/pull for the choke, and maybe one for a passive diode overdrive, just for sh!ts and gigs.
Nice score! I'd pay a grand for it!
Thanks Scott. I think I actually briefly messaged you a while back on TB about it, it's the one with the funny grain on the neck that looks a bit like a skunk stripe. In hand, it turns out it really is just a funk stripe in the grain, it sort of spirals up and to the treble side as it goes up the neck. I'm quite happy with the price as well, given I've seen some in far worse overall cosmetic shape for more $$$.