I owned one of these years ago. Pretty incredible tonal versatility from a passive instrument! For those wondering about the control functionality: The volume controls are totally independent circuits for each pickup, but that is about it. However, it is the TONE controls that contain the real voodoo. Rotating the tone control of either pickup fully to "10" splits the pickup and makes it function as a SINGLE COIL! Roll it down from there to 7 or so, and the second coil engages and it becomes a HUMBUCKER! From 7 down to 0 it functions as a normal tone control on a full-range humbucker. The phase switch reverses the coil polarity on the bridge pickup only … so it will only really effect the tone with the pickup selector in the bridge or middle position. and the tone control for that pickup set for humbucking mode. It is a little odd, and no other instrument to my knowledge ever used these tricks, but it does offer some VERY cool tones!
The volumes are not totally independent as such. As far as progressively isolating one or the other pickup from the circuit is correct, however there is the issue of the treble bleed capacitor on each volume pot.The bleed cap will indeed retain highs as the volume is reduced what happens as the pot hits zero is interesting. The pickup is shunted to ground and is out of the circuit, however the cap is also shunted to ground.This means nothing until there is another pickup in parallel with the first (when both pickups are selected). Then the treble bleed cap shunted to ground parallel to a pickup suddenly becomes a tone cap (one that only shunts the very highs of the remaining pickup) this "high only" shunt plays a trick on the ear and seems to accent the mids (as there is nothing you can hear above it). That is how the T-40 is able to mimic the precision sound to a degree (and the vintage MM bass). It is in fact the only way to get a tone control on the single coil settings on the T-40. Roll one volume off totally and then play with the pickup selector the two remaining tones are indeed quite different...
TheEmac70 Interesting … I never picked up on that when I had it. I do remember that I could get a pretty damn convincing Jazz Bass bridge pickup tone for finger style funk. Especially with a fresh set of Rotosounds.
I picked up my t-40 two days ago. After fiddling with it for a day I've gotten what I can only describe as a 1980s geddy lee style wal sound. It's not as bright as it could be due to the fact that line is rosewood and not ebony, but it is really close. These instruments are amazing.
No way you're the same guy who had the long hair in part 1 ! What a transformation... Still a killer bass and wonderful video. That Hofner sound is spot on to me.
Absolutely remarkable how you nailed that Hofner thump at about 2:38. You must have spent untold hours with this bass because in both of your "'T-40 secret sounds' videos, brother, you nail these sounds. I'm amazed at your ear and ability to dial in these sounds at will. Recently picked up a black '81 T-40 and I cannot wait to work with these crazy controls. Thanks for a great post man!
The volumes pots have a .01 treeble bleed capacitor fitted to retain clarity when the volume is reduced on the 250kohm pot. But if both pickups are selected and one volume is rolled off, not only does it shunt the pickup to ground but the .01 cap gets shunted as well which becomes a psedo tone cap for the pickup that has its volume fully up. I'm sure Peavey never intended this to work this way but it does add so much variation to the sound options...
Thanks for posting, very interesting vids on an iconic bass! I once read that Journey bassist Ross Valory achieved his distinctive haunting midrange heavy 80's tone with a T-40, tunes like Who's Crying Now, Don't Stop Believing and other hits from that era.
Two sounds which I was able to get out of my T-40s (I had three of them during the 1980s) were a sound which had some of the characteristics of an acoustic upright (let's just say the resonance) and a sound which, played hard with a touch of overdrive sounded pretty much like a tuba!
Thanks for the videos.. I just picked up one of these a few weeks ago.. needed a new pickup & a setup... should have it back in a week.. I can't wait to play it
sdw1106 I just traded two bases for a T 20, I couldn’t be more excited... after years of owning vintage instruments (1960 Jazz, 65 P-bass) I am in love with this thing!
E...had seen your first vid awhile ago, spoke with Jeff Scott on TalkBass, reminded me of the video, came back and found your second video. I'm been restoring two T-40s forever, a video on explaing the controls and how they work together would be great. Please keep them coming! Btw, the short hair looks much more distinguished :)
Hey Emac, good thing this second video! One question: Can you explain how the volumes and the capacitors work and what do they do? Untderstood everything about the tone knobs, but I thought the volume controls were just that: volume controls.
Great video man! I have a t40 too, but someone in the past change the 2-way phase switch to a 3-way switch with a unknow characteristics. I was trying to figure out the different combinations to get different tones and I notice something... this is like a safebox haha, every time when you get the correct combination the bass sound louder, I'm right? greetings!
A pretty good jazz bass: all knobs at 10 turn the neck volume down to 8 flip the phase switch on. not 100%, but the closest i've come across while experimenting. cheers.
That would take some time, and my idea of what the sounds are like may be different to other folks. What I'm trying to promote is for folks to learn how to use the circuit and use their ears. But perhaps I will do a chart some time to help...
I've played a Grabber but I'm darned if I could remember what it sounded like. It will mimic the Ripper fairly well so it may touch on the Grabber if you can work out what knob to turn..
Off the top of my head: Both volumes fully up, neck pickup tone to 7.5, phase switch on (out of phase). Switching between the neck pickup and centre position should capture two of the rippers sounds to a degree..
Good range of tones. The weight probably not for the over 50 yo. A little bit of fret buzz there that wasn't an intentional part of vintage style. A good bass but it needs a fair bit of effort.
To my ears it doesn't really do the different basses sounds, perhaps just a mere nudge. And it doesn't do the mellower or midrangy tones either, plus there's always that slightly annoying hard edge...
Brilliant bass. Had one since '79. Heavy, yes - but just grow some and pick it up. Well worth it.
Also slinger straps help
I owned one of these years ago. Pretty incredible tonal versatility from a passive instrument! For those wondering about the control functionality: The volume controls are totally independent circuits for each pickup, but that is about it. However, it is the TONE controls that contain the real voodoo. Rotating the tone control of either pickup fully to "10" splits the pickup and makes it function as a SINGLE COIL! Roll it down from there to 7 or so, and the second coil engages and it becomes a HUMBUCKER! From 7 down to 0 it functions as a normal tone control on a full-range humbucker. The phase switch reverses the coil polarity on the bridge pickup only … so it will only really effect the tone with the pickup selector in the bridge or middle position. and the tone control for that pickup set for humbucking mode. It is a little odd, and no other instrument to my knowledge ever used these tricks, but it does offer some VERY cool tones!
The volumes are not totally independent as such. As far as progressively isolating one or the other pickup from the circuit is correct, however there is the issue of the treble bleed capacitor on each volume pot.The bleed cap will indeed retain highs as the volume is reduced what happens as the pot hits zero is interesting. The pickup is shunted to ground and is out of the circuit, however the cap is also shunted to ground.This means nothing until there is another pickup in parallel with the first (when both pickups are selected). Then the treble bleed cap shunted to ground parallel to a pickup suddenly becomes a tone cap (one that only shunts the very highs of the remaining pickup) this "high only" shunt plays a trick on the ear and seems to accent the mids (as there is nothing you can hear above it). That is how the T-40 is able to mimic the precision sound to a degree (and the vintage MM bass). It is in fact the only way to get a tone control on the single coil settings on the T-40. Roll one volume off totally and then play with the pickup selector the two remaining tones are indeed quite different...
TheEmac70 Interesting … I never picked up on that when I had it. I do remember that I could get a pretty damn convincing Jazz Bass bridge pickup tone for finger style funk. Especially with a fresh set of Rotosounds.
I picked up my t-40 two days ago. After fiddling with it for a day I've gotten what I can only describe as a 1980s geddy lee style wal sound. It's not as bright as it could be due to the fact that line is rosewood and not ebony, but it is really close. These instruments are amazing.
No way you're the same guy who had the long hair in part 1 ! What a transformation...
Still a killer bass and wonderful video. That Hofner sound is spot on to me.
Thanks for doing this video, many people still don’t believe how good these things sound!!!
Absolutely remarkable how you nailed that Hofner thump at about 2:38. You must have spent untold hours with this bass because in both of your "'T-40 secret sounds' videos, brother, you nail these sounds. I'm amazed at your ear and ability to dial in these sounds at will.
Recently picked up a black '81 T-40 and I cannot wait to work with these crazy controls. Thanks for a great post man!
The volumes pots have a .01 treeble bleed capacitor fitted to retain clarity when the volume is reduced on the 250kohm pot. But if both pickups are selected and one volume is rolled off, not only does it shunt the pickup to ground but the .01 cap gets shunted as well which becomes a psedo tone cap for the pickup that has its volume fully up. I'm sure Peavey never intended this to work this way but it does add so much variation to the sound options...
Thanks for posting, very interesting vids on an iconic bass! I once read that Journey bassist Ross Valory achieved his distinctive haunting midrange heavy 80's tone with a T-40, tunes like Who's Crying Now, Don't Stop Believing and other hits from that era.
I painted mine metallic gold. Now at least it looks like the weight makes sense.
Absolutely brilliant. Wish someone would do it for a T60.
Excellent job with both videos and thank you.
Two sounds which I was able to get out of my T-40s (I had three of them during the 1980s) were a sound which had some of the characteristics of an acoustic upright (let's just say the resonance) and a sound which, played hard with a touch of overdrive sounded pretty much like a tuba!
Thanks for the videos.. I just picked up one of these a few weeks ago.. needed a new pickup & a setup... should have it back in a week.. I can't wait to play it
Man, that L2 type setting for the T-40 sounds awesome
Thanks for making these videos. Been looking into one for a long time to satisfy my "other" bass tone needs.
YES! A chart or table similar to what TECH21 does for their SansAmp BDDI, VT, Leeds, and others would be great!
Great stuff on both videos. I'm buying one on Saturday!!!
sdw1106
I just traded two bases for a T 20, I couldn’t be more excited... after years of owning vintage instruments (1960 Jazz, 65 P-bass) I am in love with this thing!
E...had seen your first vid awhile ago, spoke with Jeff Scott on TalkBass, reminded me of the video, came back and found your second video. I'm been restoring two T-40s forever, a video on explaing the controls and how they work together would be great. Please keep them coming! Btw, the short hair looks much more distinguished :)
Damn that tone at 5:06 was absolutely killer!!!!
Thank You !!! Great Mate.
Super vid. There one on its way to me now :)
Hey Emac, good thing this second video!
One question: Can you explain how the volumes and the capacitors work and what do they do?
Untderstood everything about the tone knobs, but I thought the volume controls were just that: volume controls.
Great video man! I have a t40 too, but someone in the past change the 2-way phase switch to a 3-way switch with a unknow characteristics. I was trying to figure out the different combinations to get different tones and I notice something... this is like a safebox haha, every time when you get the correct combination the bass sound louder, I'm right? greetings!
A very informative and interesting video my friend :) Thumbs up of course !!
A pretty good jazz bass:
all knobs at 10
turn the neck volume down to 8
flip the phase switch on.
not 100%, but the closest i've come across while experimenting. cheers.
Emac, could you provide tabs for the riff you were playing with it getting the Thunderbird sound? I'd like to use that for a punk song.
That would take some time, and my idea of what the sounds are like may be different to other folks. What I'm trying to promote is for folks to learn how to use the circuit and use their ears. But perhaps I will do a chart some time to help...
I personally love the thunderbird sound
THE BODY ELECTRIC!!
Please do. I would greatly appreciate it.
Would you be kind to summarize your sets in a table? Thanks! Szilárd
What settings would get close to a Gibson Grabber?
I've played a Grabber but I'm darned if I could remember what it sounded like. It will mimic the Ripper fairly well so it may touch on the Grabber if you can work out what knob to turn..
TheEmac70 What settings did you use to emulate Ripper tone then?
Off the top of my head:
Both volumes fully up, neck pickup tone to 7.5, phase switch on (out of phase).
Switching between the neck pickup and centre position should capture two of the rippers sounds to a degree..
By everything open, do you mean cranked all the way
Good range of tones. The weight probably not for the over 50 yo. A little bit of fret buzz there that wasn't an intentional part of vintage style. A good bass but it needs a fair bit of effort.
The perfect bass for someone who only plays requests
Matt Bowen as long as they could sit down whilst playing them....
also with both pickups selected.
That's right!
To my ears it doesn't really do the different basses sounds, perhaps just a mere nudge. And it doesn't do the mellower or midrangy tones either, plus there's always that slightly annoying hard edge...
Nice. Detune a whole step and throw a capo on the second fret and you got a eb2-3. But why would you want to? Lol
That makes sense...
Massive and Roots (y)
2:06 Dragon!
That's Right!
A few years ago I owned Todd Hunters ex Steinberger L2 that was used on Rain etc. So I had to add that in...
Nice hair cut!
A pick players dream, must sound great for slap too.