De-activating a bass.

[copacetic]

I have a 2010 Fender Precision Special  (p/j) configuration that I like all aspects of: weight, balance, beuatiful thin all maple Jazz neck, black w/gold guard. Oh yeah and the sound but not the zing of the active circuitry. I do not want one of those switches that will give you the option of passive or active because they usually don't give you the full options in passive mode. Any one ever done this or has some ideas? Thanks.

[Aussie Mark]

Easy enough to do - remove the preamp and associated bits and pieces, and refit a good quality P/J pair and wire it all up.

[jumbodbassman]

+1

[Highlander]

The original pup may have a good sound - just bypass the lot and wire straight to the jack to check out what you get "raw"...

I junked all the circuitry on my RD Artist and run the existing pup passively - it has a great sound left in the "neck" slot - the other one still lives in my PC in the "bridge" slot - ditto on the sound output...

Can you check what the resistance value of the pup...?

[Pilgrim]

Fender puts plenty of wiring diagrams online - all you really need to do is remove the active electronics, then re-wire according to the diagram of your choice.

[exiledarchangel]

Probably your bass has passive pickups going to a preamp, you can try those in passive mode, you might like 'em. Also you will save money that way for not having to buy new pickups!

[Dave W]

All Fender pickups are passive, but if the particular pickups in this bass were designed to be used with a preamp, they may not sound like what he wants if he just removes the preamp.

... I do not want one of those switches that will give you the option of passive or active because they usually don't give you the full options in passive mode. ...

If you mean that you wouldn't have passive tone controls to work with in bypass mode, you're right. You'd have to wire separate controls. Otherwise, though, a correctly installed bypass switch should go completely around the preamp.