Oops... I did it again. 2016 ES Les Paul Bass

[Dave W]

The Darkburst was sold, but CME now has the Goldtop back in stock on their website at $1295 with a Make Offer button.

[doombass]

They also have yet another Goldtop in used condition for 1245$. Maybe a customer return of one of the earlier floor models?

[Grog]

They also have yet another Goldtop in used condition for 1245$. Maybe a customer return of one of the earlier floor models?

That one is now sold, just one Goldtop left............

[Dave W]

That one is now sold, just one Goldtop left............

Except that there may be more than one. When I called them in September about a particular LP guitar floor model, they had one listed but actually had 6 in stock. Also, the "floor models" are still coming in, at least from Memphis if not Nashville. A guy on another forum just showed off the ES-330 floor model he just received (it was brand new), and he could see from the labels on the shipping box that CME had just received it on December 15th.

[the mojo hobo]

I was playing my ES Les Paul bass today and noticed a bit of weirdness. When I turn the volume down on either pickup when it gets down to about 2 both pickups go quiet. Why would this happen? Does it have something to do with the pickup selector switch, or is it something else?

[Grog]

Mine does it right at "1"................

[slinkp]

There are several ways to wire up two volume knobs.  Some of them have the volumes behaving more independently, some of them have the behavior you describe.  Some googling led me here - these are diagrams for les paul guitars with a 3-way selector.  Don't know how the ES LP bass is wired, but you might be able to figure out if your ES is wired similar to one of these ways and then see if you can rewire it for one of the independent volume options:
https://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?88796-Wiring-Library

[the mojo hobo]

Thanks for that link! What I found most useful is: "what does it mean independent volume controls? In simple terms, you have a series resistor, (aka rheostat ) limiting the current out of each pickup, instead of a potentiometer voltage divider." and "I truly love the independent volume controls, but I definitely lost some "Tone" or "bandwidth" as stated above. It lost "SOME"warmth and "les Paul" tone that I loved."

So, no, I am not going to change anything. They must wire it that way for a reason, I just thought it odd that of all the Rickenbacker basses that have passed through my hands I never experienced this. After looking up the Rickenbacker wiring diagram, it is completely different than a Les Paul. The pickups go to the pickup selector switch first then to the volume pot. The Les Paul is wired like the first picture in the linked post and the Rickenbacker is wired like the second picture.

[doombass]

That's typical Les Paul wiring for you. My 2005 LP Standard bass also had that type of wiring. Instead of attaching the pickup leads from the selector switch to the mid lugs of the volume controls they attach´them to one of the outer and the mid lugs go to the jack. What happens is when you run both pickups both volume controls in reality do the same thing. They run the mixed signal to ground so both volume controls act like master volume controls.

I did'nt particularly like this so I reversed the wires on both volume controls so they act like any regular Jazz Bass ie they always only control the volume of the pickup that is connected to it.

[the mojo hobo]

Did you notice any change in tone after reversing the wires?

[doombass]

I would'nt say it effected the overall tone, but to be able to roll off some bridge pickup volume sometimes is nice. I found the thread from when I got my LP and wondered what was up with those controls: http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=2259.15

The pics are unfortunately Photobucket so here's the same pic of the rewiring from Imgur instead: