LeftyBassist.com

Anybody have any ideas regarding changing the wiring in a 3 band MEC preamp on a Warwick bass? My treble control is seized so what I'm thinking would be cool and useful would be to replace it with a stacked pot which consists of an always on passive tone control (especially useful when you use the push/pull pot to defeat the preamp) and the original treble control.

Ideas? Thoughts? Full wiring diagrams?

Thanks,

Mark

active control pots are typically 50K or 25K ohm, and passive tone pots are typically 500K or 250K ohm. finding a 50K/250K pot could be challenging, and then you'll make it even more difficult to find by it needing to be a lefty (reverse taper) pot

I believe I've seen ads in Bass Player for custom MEC pots ... but these can't be cheap. the source I used to use for custom pots closed shop last year

all the best,

R

To amend Rodent here...I've worked on a number of Warwick basses with preamp difficulties. I had to order a special three function stacked pot, with a discreet harness connector, and multiple terminals, for an FNA 'Jazzman' 5 string bass. The service people were very helpful, but they sent the wrong pot- as specs changed from year to year. The pots- MY cost were in the 50 dollar range- the client paid, and we eventually did get the right pot. The bass still did not work like it did originally. I followed their wiring diagrams carefully. In my opinion, the Warwick preamps I've seen are a failure waiting to happen. They are TOO complex. Yeah, all the concentric-plus on/off capability on one pot is trick and cool, but if it fails, then what? It took several WEEKS to get the part, and it still didn't work.
We ended up putting in an Aguilar OBP-3... and he's happy now.

Geez, I really need to spend more time following up when I ask questions.

Thank you Rodent and LHBASSIST for the replies. I actually took it to a guitar tech friend of mine in Vancouver, I told him what I had done, he then took a soldering iron and applied a little heat to the shaft of the pot and it melted the old oil, freeing the pot so that it now works. Not perfect as it's still a bit stiff but it will do for now.

Long run I'm thinking of upgrading my Warwick to the Victor Wooten package of EMG pickups and Mike Pope Flex Core pre. Anybody else have any experience with that?