Dark Star wiring

[drbassman]

I've got 2 DS pups and no wiring diagram.  I wrote to Fred Hammon for info, but he takes awhile to answer.  What pots would I use?

[jmcgliss]

The Bayou Cables site may spec components for the DS wiring harnesses he makes.

[drbassman]

The Bayou Cables site may spec components for the DS wiring harnesses he makes.

Thanks, I see he's using 500k pots, so I'll try that too.  Or maybe not!  I'm not sure now.

[Chris P.]

I ordered a wiring harnes at Bayou years ago and I never used it. I traded my wider DS for a narrower one with a Dutch guy, some weeks ago, who made a great Tractor Bass and a all black P with chrome hardware and a DS. To our surprise the pots were 250K, but in the end the DS is a singlecoil.

[drbassman]

Well, that's my dilemma.  The DS pups are single coil, but Fred Hammon says on his site that you can take your old Guild bass pups out and put the DS pups right in without changing any of the harness.  That means you'd be using single coils with 500k pots (I assume since I don't have an old Guild harness to see).  I don't mind doing that if the sound is good out of that arrangement.

What do you pups/pots experts think?  My experience has been moving up to high impedance pots de-emphasizes low and I want all the lows I can get out of my basses.  Am I correct?

I remember being shocked when I repaired a 72 Tele bass and found 1meg pots in there because the big humbucker was such a muddy woofer!

[drbassman]

I ordered a wiring harnes at Bayou years ago and I never used it. I traded my wider DS for a narrower one with a Dutch guy, some weeks ago, who made a great Tractor Bass and a all black P with chrome hardware and a DS. To our surprise the pots were 250K, but in the end the DS is a singlecoil.

So, how did it sound with 250k pots?

[chromium]

you can take your old Guild bass pups out and put the DS pups right in without changing any of the harness.  That means you'd be using single coils with 500k pots (I assume since I don't have an old Guild harness to see).  I don't mind doing that if the sound is good out of that arrangement.

That's all I did.  The original wiring in my JS-II was really clean, so I took the lazy route and just swapped the pickups.  I didn't notice any detriment to the sound from doing this- the pickups sound great!  I've never made any comparisons using them with different value pots, though.

[drbassman]

That's all I did.  The original wiring in my JS-II was really clean, so I took the lazy route and just swapped the pickups.  I didn't notice any detriment to the sound from doing this- the pickups sound great!  I've never made any comparisons using them with different value pots, though.

Thanks for the feedback.  I'm leaning toward the 250's just because I want this bass to be thumpy.  At least with the control panel on the back, the pots are easier to change than in a darn hollow body!!!  Crap, that reminds me, I have to make a control panel for it!   

[jmcgliss]

I have the 500K pots in a mahogany DS P-bass and it has more mids than thump, which was intentional. What I really mean is the bass has good even volume across all 4 strings rather than the E and A overwhelming the D and G strings (partly a function of the DS pickup itself I think).

[Chris P.]

I haven't heard the 250K P unfortunately.

[drbassman]

Got a nice answer from Fred regarding the DS wiring.  Here's what he said:

The M-85 wiring is basically the same as a Starfire II wiring harness but a little more compact except for the pickup selector switch which is located a bit farther away.
Anyway, it's the same in principal
Not shown is the usless "baritone" or "bass boost" which is are actually a bass cut circuit.
I'd leave it out. Put a dummy switch there instead or take the time to learn about series/parallel switch wiring.
Just don't ask me - I've never done it and in fact I'm having a luthier put one in one of my Starfires as I write.
The pots are 500K and the caps are .047uf.

...and please tell the folks at LBO that the higher the pot value the brighter the sound.
Do a Google search on "500K vs 250K pots" and see what you come up with. That's what I did once.
It's easy to get this wrong since it seems counter-intuitive. I certainly wasn't born knowing it.
Understanding this, it will seem quite logical to mate a 1meg pot with a bass-heavy pickup.

I was checking out your progress the other night. Very impressive!
I know it's been a long hard road but I think you're going to end up with a really great bass.
Please let me know if you have more questions.

....and free to post this.

Fred

[Freuds_Cat]

Thanks for posting this Doc. Freds explanation is (as usual) no BS and clearly stated.

[ramone57]

excuse my ignorance, but what is the point of the master volume?   

[Dave W]

excuse my ignorance, but what is the point of the master volume?  

I asked myself the same question when I had my JS-II. It's overkill, but it does allow you to control overall volume after setting the relative volume between the two pickups.

[Dave W]

Re Fred's message, I thought we all understood that higher pot value bleeds off fewer highs and makes for a brighter sound.