These videos are super useful for beginners to modding like me. Thank you for making them, I'll check your other videos and you've gained a subscriber as well.
Cool. Useful. Still wish you could try out the 500k pots with a blade humbucker (even a cheap one from China), as the biggest downside of the blade seemed to be a bit of mushiness in the high end. Would be interesting to see if the 500k pots helped to offset that at all. If it did, the cheap blade and pot swap might end up being the best bang for the buck upgrade, especially if noise is a concern.
Thanks for watching! OK, you've convinced me. I'll order one in! And I think you're right - an inexpensive amazon rail p/u with a quality pot probably is the most economical way to spruce up a bronco to be gig-able.
I haven't yet have my bass done this upgrade/sidegrade/downgrade, but my Fast Track 1 with two 500k pots and new jack are still waiting new in box to be installed. My goal is exactly that, to counteract the blades tendency to be less open sounding with 500k pots, though I believe Dimarzio recommends 250k for guitar. I doubt it will be too bright for me at 500k, and I have switched the strings recently from DR Hi Beams to Group 1 Ernie Ball stainless steel flats (which would be too thick for Mr. Wong, but they feel nice in my hands because of making up for some tightness lost going from long to short scale-these strings are great, IMHO, and are not the cobalts.) I have a p bass style bass with a vintage Delano P bass pickup wired without tone, and it is indeed bright! Love the sound, but the body itself needs some work, and I haven't used it in a while. I understand why many would not remove tone altogether, but it doesn't bother me much-that said, I am happy with 250 pots on most of the other basses, as the tonal option remains, even if I myself rarely use it. Fun to see the differences side by side, especially the no-tone option.
Direct to jack wiring makes your tone more dependant on the first pedal, or amp you plug into. It’s input impedance will affect your pick ups resonant peak more through loading (that normally takes place at the passive volume pot/pots).
Very interesting! I did not know that so many changes on an instrument are possible to modify the sound. For sure, I am not that experimental, but I highly appriciate your work, to do it for me! 8-) thx
Thanks for watching! Every component on the instrument contributes and subtracts from the overall sound and tone. Nut material, weight of the tuners, thickness of the paint...etc.....and the dreaded tone wood argument! The better question to ask is = how much of a difference does it make? Like the tone wood debate.....yes it matters....but by how much? And more importantly, do you care? Best bang for your buck, in terms of hearing a more dramatic sonic difference, is strings and pickups. All the other stuff matters to varying smaller degrees (to really nerdy people like me!), but the changes are much more subtle, and in the context of playing in an ensemble, may not always matter. What I know for sure....the audience doesn't care what pots you have in there. They just want to hear good music!
@@jonathanwong458music You are absolutely to the point! The result counts. As long as we and -much more important - the audience is happy. Oh, and yes, nerdy you are! 😀
Another great video. I have to agree 100% with you, I love tinkering with basses and guitars and I find that bypassing both pots, opens up the sound, not always for the best. I wonder how it would sound removing the tone pot and just using the volume pot and working the volume and amp alone to get the desired tone? Personally, what I like about the P bass is that "creamy" darker sound and bypassing the pots, though it opened up the sound, I'm not sure is what I would like. Thank you for posting this!
Thanks so much for watching! Yeah! That 'creamy' P bass sound and a lot of my desired tones are pretty Fender bass inspired. So I've stuck with 250k pots and 47 caps, even on my custom instruments. Bright and 'zingy' is not really my sound. Lots of options if you are willing to use outboard (or amp) tone shaping devices - sky's the limit! Personally, I like things to be as simple as possible, especially for live work. So over the years, I've stripped everything down, including on-board preamps and batteries. 80% of the time I don't even use a bass amp! Less for the FOH to get angry with!
There's a lot of potential in the sonic P too! Squier has come such a long way in the past decade in terms of producing affordable gig-gable instruments. A good setup, however, is key. Thanks for watching!
Very interesting video! And the explanation at the beginning, especialy the examples of the manufactors usual choices, helped me understand whats realy going on. Quick check on my daily bass, it got the 250k poti, which I love. That being said, in this comparison I preffered the 500k, sounded more open to me. The direct wiring, was unexpected. I could be fooling myself, but I think what realy came through on that example, was the poplar body(on the higher frets). Would be interesting to see such a wiring example on an ash, alder or mahagoni instrument. If only I had the skills...😅 anyways, this serries is grest and tought me a lot, much apreciated 👍
Thanks so much for watching! I believe the pickup manufacturers take into account the fact that most players are using volume and tone pots of some value. So the pickup design and winding is brighter (than the intended tone) to compensate. Wiring straight to the jack was likely never their design intention. If you wanted to get closer to the 'straight to the jack' sound but still want a volume pot, you could experiment with using a 1megOhm volume pot (1000k). Thanks for the encouragement!
@@jonathanwong458music true, if I remember correctly there was a company that had an acoustic bass with a direct wired piezo pickup, but I thik that was a custom made instrument, don't remember the name... as for the 1megOhm volume pot, interesting idea, but I'm probably going for the blue sensor with 500k pot. Just talked to a friend who is hunting his next pedal, we will probably visit a big store over the next 2 weeks, than I will compare maple and laurel fretboard broncos to find my match. 😁
Piezos are a whole other story. Most of those transducer pickups are much higher in impedance compared to a mag pickup. As such, most will benefit from a preamp (generally active) for impedance matching. Otherwise, they can sound quacky and lack bottom end/bass. Common sight to see preamps in acoustic basses, guitars and outboard preamps for upright basses with bridge piezos. Safe travels to the music store! So fun.
I have been reading and watching vids about 250k vs 500k pots. As you point out, it all depends on your preferences. I prefer 250k pots for the music I play. Thanks Jonathan
It really comes down to what you want to hear. I tend to keep my tone knob around 50% or slightly lower for most of what I do....so having a 500k pot (in the P position) doesn't yield a lot of difference - so I've just kept with the Fender formula. But it could be useful to brighten up a naturally dark bass. Alternatively, a 250k could soften/tame a naturally bright one. All comes down to taste! Thanks so much for watching!
@@jonathanwong458music Thank you very much I've got a 1981 Ibanez Blazer Bass and just changed its original pickups to DiMarzio Model-P pickups (DP122BK+G). I shielded all cavities and pickup guard same as you did in previous videos but I had concerns about pots value. I installed both of CTS 250KΩ and now you convinced me to change for a 500Ω volume pot. What's your opinion about the DiMarzio Model-P pickups?
I once had the model P and the split P in a MIJ Fender P. Granted it’s been 10+ years, but I had found both of those to be on the muddy side, especially the split P. They both had a more modern-leaning sound vs a 60s inspired P sound. In the end, I liked the more pronounced mids found in other pickups. I think it was they both sounded a bit ‘active’ if you will. But tonal desires are such a subjective thing. And our tastes evolve too.
I didn't know why my Jazz Bass had that hissy sound when trying to play high notes. 500k pots with distortion is just awful. I'll change those pots ASAP.
So now I got 2 broncos, a purple one manufactured by samick and a blue one manufactured by cort...the purple was fantastic right out the box; the blue had a few rough spots on the neck that I had to sand out and the nut slots were cut too low
dang....sorry to hear of the QC issues. Cort usually makes pretty quality stuff for companies....cranking out by the millions. How do you determine which factory these broncos come out of?
@@jonathanwong458music It's in the serial number...there is a fender serial number tracker website that will translate it for you...another weird difference, I was able to tint the neck of my purple one yellow like a proper fender with tan shoe polish, but the blue one wouldn't absorb the color, so they must use a different wood sealer...but in fairness the purple one looked almost bleached it was so pale at first and the blue one doesn't look that pale to begin with so I can live with it
Strange that it would be made in different factories. Seems inefficient! My Sonic bronco was pretty good out of the box. Nut was surprisingly perfect. Mine had a minor neck pocket blem though. And the neck is not perfectly aligned but you’d only notice if you really looked. Guess it’s always a bit of a dice roll. But it’s $289 CDN, so my expectations can only be so high.
@@jonathanwong458music At $209 US, I try to keep that perspective that "you get what you pay for"...that being said, I feel like the purple one really was a good value since all it needed was a better pickup, all the other upgrades were honestly just to appease my vanity...it came direct from fender though, while the blue was from guitar center and fender probably didn't mind leaving some qc hiccups for guitar center to sort out since no doubt they gave them a bulk discount
Re GC volume discount and QC. That’s an interesting perspective. Never considered that batches for certain locations would be influenced. But that’s why I’m so not a businessman!
There is absolutely no difference to me between any of the tree options. They all sound the same or atleast within margin or error for a human player. From my understanding of electronics i dont see why they should sound different at all. Maybe there is a smart electrical reason to choose on over the others but from a tone perspective i wouldn't have any preference
Thanks for watching and commenting! I’m far from an electrical expert, but here’s a link to Seymour Duncan’s explanation on the topic. Maybe you’ll find it helpful: www.seymourduncan.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/250k-pots-versus-500k-pots-going-deeper-into-the-subject
The difference is there-use headphones. Even on my tinny mobile phone speaker the added extra high end on the last sample is evident. Could be a great option for a darker humbucker if you want it as bright as possible. Cons and pros to it. No offense intended, to be sure. 👍
@@classicalthrasher Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts! It really depends on what one's tonal goals are. The right answer is the one that makes your ears smile.
Thanks after 4 months of searching for this exact type of video and finally poof here is one that showed exactly what I wanted to know
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Very cool to hear the difference, it is significant. Thanks!
Thank you for watching and commenting!
These videos are super useful for beginners to modding like me. Thank you for making them, I'll check your other videos and you've gained a subscriber as well.
Thanks so much for the support! Appreciate your viewership! Hope you have lots of fun modding your instrument!
Thanks for the Bronco mod videos! 🙂😎
Thanks for watching!
Cool. Useful. Still wish you could try out the 500k pots with a blade humbucker (even a cheap one from China), as the biggest downside of the blade seemed to be a bit of mushiness in the high end. Would be interesting to see if the 500k pots helped to offset that at all. If it did, the cheap blade and pot swap might end up being the best bang for the buck upgrade, especially if noise is a concern.
Thanks for watching! OK, you've convinced me. I'll order one in!
And I think you're right - an inexpensive amazon rail p/u with a quality pot probably is the most economical way to spruce up a bronco to be gig-able.
@@jonathanwong458music Awesome! I guess we'll see 🙂
Thx for the suggestion!
I haven't yet have my bass done this upgrade/sidegrade/downgrade, but my Fast Track 1 with two 500k pots and new jack are still waiting new in box to be installed. My goal is exactly that, to counteract the blades tendency to be less open sounding with 500k pots, though I believe Dimarzio recommends 250k for guitar. I doubt it will be too bright for me at 500k, and I have switched the strings recently from DR Hi Beams to Group 1 Ernie Ball stainless steel flats (which would be too thick for Mr. Wong, but they feel nice in my hands because of making up for some tightness lost going from long to short scale-these strings are great, IMHO, and are not the cobalts.)
I have a p bass style bass with a vintage Delano P bass pickup wired without tone, and it is indeed bright! Love the sound, but the body itself needs some work, and I haven't used it in a while. I understand why many would not remove tone altogether, but it doesn't bother me much-that said, I am happy with 250 pots on most of the other basses, as the tonal option remains, even if I myself rarely use it.
Fun to see the differences side by side, especially the no-tone option.
@@classicalthrasher thanks for sharing!
Direct to jack wiring makes your tone more dependant on the first pedal, or amp you plug into. It’s input impedance will affect your pick ups resonant peak more through loading (that normally takes place at the passive volume pot/pots).
Thanks for your input! And for watching!
I have 500k (vol is b, tone is a) pots with an orange drop cap and a mini humbucker in my bronco, it sounds incredible.
Mini humbucker! Nice! Thanks for watching!
Very interesting! I did not know that so many changes on an instrument are possible to modify the sound.
For sure, I am not that experimental, but I highly appriciate your work, to do it for me! 8-)
thx
Thanks for watching! Every component on the instrument contributes and subtracts from the overall sound and tone. Nut material, weight of the tuners, thickness of the paint...etc.....and the dreaded tone wood argument! The better question to ask is = how much of a difference does it make? Like the tone wood debate.....yes it matters....but by how much? And more importantly, do you care?
Best bang for your buck, in terms of hearing a more dramatic sonic difference, is strings and pickups. All the other stuff matters to varying smaller degrees (to really nerdy people like me!), but the changes are much more subtle, and in the context of playing in an ensemble, may not always matter. What I know for sure....the audience doesn't care what pots you have in there. They just want to hear good music!
@@jonathanwong458music You are absolutely to the point! The result counts. As long as we and -much more important - the audience is happy.
Oh, and yes, nerdy you are! 😀
haha. I am content and at peace with my nerdy-ness!
Another great video. I have to agree 100% with you, I love tinkering with basses and guitars and I find that bypassing both pots, opens up the sound, not always for the best. I wonder how it would sound removing the tone pot and just using the volume pot and working the volume and amp alone to get the desired tone? Personally, what I like about the P bass is that "creamy" darker sound and bypassing the pots, though it opened up the sound, I'm not sure is what I would like. Thank you for posting this!
Thanks so much for watching! Yeah! That 'creamy' P bass sound and a lot of my desired tones are pretty Fender bass inspired. So I've stuck with 250k pots and 47 caps, even on my custom instruments. Bright and 'zingy' is not really my sound.
Lots of options if you are willing to use outboard (or amp) tone shaping devices - sky's the limit! Personally, I like things to be as simple as possible, especially for live work. So over the years, I've stripped everything down, including on-board preamps and batteries. 80% of the time I don't even use a bass amp! Less for the FOH to get angry with!
I just got a Squire Sonic P but with each of these Bronco videos you do I get more tempted D:
There's a lot of potential in the sonic P too! Squier has come such a long way in the past decade in terms of producing affordable gig-gable instruments. A good setup, however, is key.
Thanks for watching!
Good info . . .
Thanks, as always, for watching and commenting!
Very interesting video! And the explanation at the beginning, especialy the examples of the manufactors usual choices, helped me understand whats realy going on. Quick check on my daily bass, it got the 250k poti, which I love. That being said, in this comparison I preffered the 500k, sounded more open to me. The direct wiring, was unexpected.
I could be fooling myself, but I think what realy came through on that example, was the poplar body(on the higher frets). Would be interesting to see such a wiring example on an ash, alder or mahagoni instrument. If only I had the skills...😅 anyways, this serries is grest and tought me a lot, much apreciated 👍
Thanks so much for watching! I believe the pickup manufacturers take into account the fact that most players are using volume and tone pots of some value. So the pickup design and winding is brighter (than the intended tone) to compensate. Wiring straight to the jack was likely never their design intention. If you wanted to get closer to the 'straight to the jack' sound but still want a volume pot, you could experiment with using a 1megOhm volume pot (1000k).
Thanks for the encouragement!
@@jonathanwong458music true, if I remember correctly there was a company that had an acoustic bass with a direct wired piezo pickup, but I thik that was a custom made instrument, don't remember the name... as for the 1megOhm volume pot, interesting idea, but I'm probably going for the blue sensor with 500k pot. Just talked to a friend who is hunting his next pedal, we will probably visit a big store over the next 2 weeks, than I will compare maple and laurel fretboard broncos to find my match. 😁
Piezos are a whole other story. Most of those transducer pickups are much higher in impedance compared to a mag pickup. As such, most will benefit from a preamp (generally active) for impedance matching. Otherwise, they can sound quacky and lack bottom end/bass. Common sight to see preamps in acoustic basses, guitars and outboard preamps for upright basses with bridge piezos.
Safe travels to the music store! So fun.
Great series - I'm learning a lot from them. Subscribing
Thanks so much for watching! A few more planned to come!
Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
I have been reading and watching vids about 250k vs 500k pots. As you point out, it all depends on your preferences. I prefer 250k pots for the music I play. Thanks Jonathan
It really comes down to what you want to hear. I tend to keep my tone knob around 50% or slightly lower for most of what I do....so having a 500k pot (in the P position) doesn't yield a lot of difference - so I've just kept with the Fender formula. But it could be useful to brighten up a naturally dark bass. Alternatively, a 250k could soften/tame a naturally bright one. All comes down to taste!
Thanks so much for watching!
Great video. 👍 great info
Thanks so much for watching and for the encouragement!
Nice, great video.
Thanks so much for watching and for the encouragement!
Extraordinary video.
What about the tone pot value?
Thanks so much for watching! In this video, I was using the stock tone pot, which should be a 250k.
@@jonathanwong458music
Thank you very much
I've got a 1981 Ibanez Blazer Bass and just changed its original pickups to DiMarzio Model-P pickups (DP122BK+G).
I shielded all cavities and pickup guard same as you did in previous videos but I had concerns about pots value. I installed both of CTS 250KΩ and now you convinced me to change for a 500Ω volume pot.
What's your opinion about the DiMarzio Model-P pickups?
I once had the model P and the split P in a MIJ Fender P. Granted it’s been 10+ years, but I had found both of those to be on the muddy side, especially the split P. They both had a more modern-leaning sound vs a 60s inspired P sound. In the end, I liked the more pronounced mids found in other pickups. I think it was they both sounded a bit ‘active’ if you will.
But tonal desires are such a subjective thing. And our tastes evolve too.
I didn't know why my Jazz Bass had that hissy sound when trying to play high notes. 500k pots with distortion is just awful. I'll change those pots ASAP.
Hope the swap works to your liking! Thanks for watching!
So now I got 2 broncos, a purple one manufactured by samick and a blue one manufactured by cort...the purple was fantastic right out the box; the blue had a few rough spots on the neck that I had to sand out and the nut slots were cut too low
dang....sorry to hear of the QC issues. Cort usually makes pretty quality stuff for companies....cranking out by the millions. How do you determine which factory these broncos come out of?
@@jonathanwong458music It's in the serial number...there is a fender serial number tracker website that will translate it for you...another weird difference, I was able to tint the neck of my purple one yellow like a proper fender with tan shoe polish, but the blue one wouldn't absorb the color, so they must use a different wood sealer...but in fairness the purple one looked almost bleached it was so pale at first and the blue one doesn't look that pale to begin with so I can live with it
Strange that it would be made in different factories. Seems inefficient! My Sonic bronco was pretty good out of the box. Nut was surprisingly perfect. Mine had a minor neck pocket blem though. And the neck is not perfectly aligned but you’d only notice if you really looked. Guess it’s always a bit of a dice roll. But it’s $289 CDN, so my expectations can only be so high.
@@jonathanwong458music At $209 US, I try to keep that perspective that "you get what you pay for"...that being said, I feel like the purple one really was a good value since all it needed was a better pickup, all the other upgrades were honestly just to appease my vanity...it came direct from fender though, while the blue was from guitar center and fender probably didn't mind leaving some qc hiccups for guitar center to sort out since no doubt they gave them a bulk discount
Re GC volume discount and QC. That’s an interesting perspective. Never considered that batches for certain locations would be influenced. But that’s why I’m so not a businessman!
I replaced the 250k pots for 500k ones in my Epiphone Embassy bass last week and it sounds much better now. Muddiness is gone.
Thanks for watching and sharing! I can totally see how 500k pots would brighten up those humbuckers!
There is absolutely no difference to me between any of the tree options. They all sound the same or atleast within margin or error for a human player.
From my understanding of electronics i dont see why they should sound different at all. Maybe there is a smart electrical reason to choose on over the others but from a tone perspective i wouldn't have any preference
Thanks for watching and commenting! I’m far from an electrical expert, but here’s a link to Seymour Duncan’s explanation on the topic. Maybe you’ll find it helpful:
www.seymourduncan.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/250k-pots-versus-500k-pots-going-deeper-into-the-subject
The difference is there-use headphones. Even on my tinny mobile phone speaker the added extra high end on the last sample is evident. Could be a great option for a darker humbucker if you want it as bright as possible. Cons and pros to it.
No offense intended, to be sure. 👍
@@classicalthrasher Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts! It really depends on what one's tonal goals are. The right answer is the one that makes your ears smile.