G&L
L-2000 Modding
Study
A Study On Extended Pickup Configurations And Voicing last
update: Jan 29, 2022
Copyright 2019-2022
by H. Gragger. All Rights Reserved. All
information provided herein is destined for
educational and D.I.Y. purposes only. Commercial
re-sale, distribution or usage of artwork without
explicit written permission of the author is
strictly prohibited. The original units with
their associated trade-names are subject to
the copyright of the individual copyright or
trademark owner. The Author is by no means
affiliated with any of those companies. References
to trade names are made for educational purposes
only. By reading the information provided here you
agree to the Terms
of
Use.
G&L L-2000
Bass. A bass
launched by Leo Fender† 1980 after his
departure from Music Man. As salesman rap
has it, it is the best, most versatile bass
Leo ever made.
The foundation of the L-2000 is a pair of
Magnetic Field Design™ (MFD)
humbuckers and what they call the Tri-Tone
system: a trio of mini toggles for
pickup selection, series/parallel signal
routing and active/passive operation. (It
defies logic what is tri-tone about it).
The output of those pickups is massive due
to the MFD design, but very bass heavy. Some
folks from the D.I.Y. community have
invented schemes to exploit the idling
potential of creative coil interconnection
beyond plain parallel native mode and all
fancy tones that are possible by that, all
with some shortcomings and trade-offs.
In the following I will show options
previously not found or at least not
published. In the process, many traditional
concepts were put to the touchstone, new
subjects arose and were evaluated on behalf
of decision making. They will appear in a
loose, not necessarily consecutive order.
Sometimes they created more questions than
giving definite answers. A
work in progress
- hence the title
"study".
Although this may serve as a cook-book
recipe for modding, I hope that, since an
increase of options is likely connected to
an increase of confusion, the kind
reader chooses wisely what promises to serve
her/him best, before firing the soldering
iron.
Hameg
(Rohde&Schwarz) HM8118 Programmable
LCR-Bridge (L and C)
Philips
PM2519 Precision Multimeter (R)
A note on the measurements.
This RLC device is, despite its name, not a
classical bridge instrument. It measures impedance
and phase angle of the device under test and
identifies the component according to a phase
diagram (positive phase values: inductance, zero:
resistance, negative: capacitance).
Since a guitar
pickup comprises a parallel resonance circuit
(inductive on lower frequencies, capacitive on
higher frequencies with zero at the resonance),
the device operates in parallel mode. Impedance
changes wildly over the frequency range, and so
do readings for L and C. With a conventional 100
Hz reading for L you may get a reading of 22H at
a meager phase angle of +22deg. Readings become
fairly consistent around some low kHz value for
L, while the one chosen was the one that yielded
the best phase readings. C measurements yielded
the best phase values at the top selectable
frequency. Resistance is measured in DC with a
respectable instrument. All values are
rounded to the nearest comma. Precision beyond
that was considered ridiculous.
Also, I just measured one of the pickups (neck). Virtually all
low-budget commercial L-C Bridges use a
different measurement principle and a limited
set of frequencies, and since nobody documents
those things, it is to be questioned how
reliable those measurements are. Indeed, I do
not claim perfection too, since there is always
leeway. However, those values may serve as a
reference point.
Determining
magnetic polarity:
In Harmony with
the information on Guitar
Lettersthe north coil is the one
that attracts the south pointing compass
needle approached from the
string´s side. According to this
specification the coil closer to the neck
(Yel-Grn) is a north coil (The side of the
pickup that has two mounting screwspoints towards the lowest string).
Caveat:
"Wer viel
misst, misst viel Mist!"
- German
saying (a word game meaning:)
"Who measures a
lot, measures a load of horse-dung!"
Back To Index Nomenclature: New
Switching Functions Demand A New Name For The
Switches
With the advent of
complex coil interconnection circuitry, some
nomenclature commonly used within this context has
to be revised to describe phenomena previously non
existent.
If those terms are not
made clear, it is impossible to understand the
following elaborations.
For example, in a basic
two pickup system consisting oft two single coils,
one at the neck and one at the bridge, one may find
a 3-position selector switch, one for neck, one for
both and one for bridge position.
Now this may be
classically called pickup selector switch,
which, since it has no secondary function, also
serves as source selector switch.
For instance, a Les Paul type guitar
traditionally has a pickup selector toggle
switch, maybe adorned with some coil splitting
functionality restricted to one physical coil
cluster. Coil selection (and thus
interconnection) is equivalent to the source
selection.
A classical Strat has
three single coil pickups and is equipped with a
three-position switch. Each position selects one
coil. Later models have a 5 position switch that
also allows for intermediate settings and
combinations of adjacent coils. Still the coil
selection (and thus interconnection) is equivalent
to the source selection.
Even later connection
schemata arose that made complex interconnections
possible like series and non-adjacent coils. Those
clearly exhibit a distinction between coil (=
pickup) selection and switch position. A switch
position begins to select a fixed sound-scape.
This is a performance selected feature rather than
a recording session feature, which is the approach
Dan Armstrong has taken with his Superstrat
switching scheme. Lester Polfus (see later under
“voicing”) has explored a similar path with his Les
Paul Recording guitar. Similarly, one
tinkerer modified his L-2000 with three
three-position switches that allows for all
imaginable interconnections – not necessarily a
performance approach.
Scarcely however
people have gone the way to the end by also
incorporating individual “voicing” caps into those
positions or dummy coils where needed.
In the case of the
modded L-2000, the previous pickup selector
switch (the one closest to the neck) loses its
direct coil cluster fixation
and becomes a source selector switch.
The center switch (series/parallel)
maintains its original functionality, but complex
coil interconnection, beyond fixation to a cluster
of adjacent coils, is transferred to a newly
introduced three-way switch, best called parallel
pair selector.
In this case, any pair
of coils, possibly spreading over non adjacent coil
clusters, may be selected (such as inner pair
or outer pair), which if source selector is
in both mode will be a humbucking (parallel)
pair, but in solo (neck or bridge mode) a single
coil. See the
reference chart later on.
For clarity, a
distinction has been made between coils belonging to
one physical cluster of adjacent coils (hereafter native
mode) and two physical units (hereafter cross
mode).
According to the
previous differentiation between performance
and recording switching schemes the scheme
presented in the following is positioned in-between.
It is experimental and work in progress. Ideally,
there should be a “P”, a “J” and a “S” position and
little more.
The widely used
nomenclature „single inner“ resp. „single outer“ is
a misnomer, since it indicates single coils, but it
is actually a hum canceling pair (for both
mode at least).
This
nomenclature stems from the fact that one coil
out of physically stacked up pair is used
together with one single coil borrowed from the
pair across, hence the name cross-mode.
It is replaced by the
terms inner pair and outer pair, referring
to the physical arrangement of 2+2 coils at the neck
resp. bridge side. "Inner" and "outer" makes only
sense in reference to this arrangement.
Nevertheless, true single coil
operation for all four coils is possible, it
comes into the bargain. Refer to the pickup selection
chart for more information.
Back To IndexEvaluation:
Why Do Players Consistently Revert To
Passive Mode?
Some users of the L-2000
insist on using it passive, with volume and tone
pots dimmed. Why? We want to understand this,
because there may be things we can optimise into
the bargain. This also builds some foundation
for any alleged voicing later on.
Some aside
to technical explanation is inevitable.
Every pickup
basically is a resonant R-L-C circuit (winding
resistance, inductance and winding capacity), which
forms a higher order resonant low pass. Guitar
Letters explains this well.
Such a circuit on its own will
exhibit some ringing at the cutoff frequency,
sometimes substantially dependent on its Q.
Although this may be perceived
as extended treble range, the ringing is usually
not appreciated. Think of a wah pedal halfway back
at a fixed position – good for an effect, but not
for always.
Technically this peak can be
modified by two factors: a parallel cap
and/or a parallel resistance.
An additional cap will add to
the winding capacity and shift the peak towards
lower frequencies. An additional load resistor
will bring the Q down and with it the ringing.
Our pickup always exists
within a practical electrical environment,
in the vicinity of a volume pot and a tone pot at
least, so a certain load resistance is always
there. Humbuckers are more sensitive to load than
singles, that´s why you always see recurring
pot values of 500k versus 250k in single coil
environments.
A passive treble cut pot, when
at 100%, presents some more load, say 250k, which
totals in 120k together with the volume pot for a
single coil. Turning tone down just a little may
be enough to remove the hump and thus the ringing.
(Remember: that´s what many players say they
like...).
Turning it down completely will
bring the tone cap in parallel to the winding
capacity and create an artificial resonance at a
ridiculously low value, which is unfortunately
beyond good or bad to be useful for stock cap
values. All passive guitars work like that.
Now we have not yet plugged the
guitar into an amplifier in our mind experiment.
Adding a cable adds more
capacity and more load resistance dependent on the
pot´s settings, so that there may be a sweet spot
of all settings that sounds good. Of course
passive circuits also introduce other
imponderabilia that can wreck the signal.
That´s where the active mode
enters. However, this way has not been gone to an
end with the L-2000´s stock circuit. Dropping all
load factors – too much brightness, too much
ringing and that consistently. Since the built in
amplifier is configured for some treble boost even
in the normal mode, letting alone the treble boost
option, this can only worsen things for some.
Happily,
some small capacitors and resistors before the
buffer can tame any of those things and thus
introduce all of the merits of passive mode
without its drawbacks. It so happens the L-2000
already has a 1nF cap in parallel by definition
(this is the one soldered onto the bass pot).
This, to my
taste, is too hefty. See later in the section on voicing.
Our extended
switching circuitry offers some unassigned
positions for that into the bargain.
Since this
procedure is really that easy and cheap, it
makes me
wonder if the ones who devised the circuitry did
only have their sales numbers in mind, saving caps
worth cents... It brings more
money to sell another instrument rather than
have just one that does all you want...
Back To IndexEvaluation:
OMG Mode, More Boosts That Are
None And Boosts That Chase Their Own
Tail
In 1982 Leo Fender filed a patent
(US.-Pat. 4,319,510) for splitting humbuckers that do
not have all leads accessible, also known as three
wire humbuckers.
This is in
fact astonishingly simple. As different to
shorting out a coil entirely, a capacitor shunts
frequencies out. Choosing the capacitor´s size
wisely, 50 Hertz hum cancellation remains
intact. However, higher frequency hum (such as
from switching electronic appliances) will not
cancel. Making the capacity smaller will work
better, but let increasing amounts of low
frequency content through.
On the L-2000 basses, Leo was probably
trying to achieve a pseudo
single coil sound, which is less boomy, and in
the verge of trying different caps found the bass
boost attractive. How the term OMG came about
is unknown, since this is recent social platform
lingo.
By shorting some of the treble content
out, bass content appears louder. Although just
cutting and not boosting, this mode was called „bass
boost“. All is relative. Unfortunately, together with
the fixed 1nF voicing cap, this mode sounds pretty
dark. Maybe interesting for some retro sounds, but not
for contemporary sounds.
Again this is no real coil splitting, it
is a humbucker wired pseudo single coil.
There is no coil shorted out with a hard wire bridge.
OMG mode lead to many complaints by musicians, because
hum suppression is, like in all single coil circuits,
inferior. Moreover, Leo could have at least the center
position (both) humbucking, which was recognized by the DIY community[1],
but never cured by the company. Conversely, they
decided to drop OMG entirely on later modes, such as
in my
specimen of the bass.
My personal opinion is that the series
wired pickups are powerful enough the way they are -
without "boost", and that it is somewhat awkward to
generate a bass overload first and then use treble
boost to remedy that. The cat bites its own tail.
When working with new modes it became
obvious that the volume drop between serial and all
other modes was a nuisance, requiring a permanent
re-adjustment of the volume pot.
The
previous owner had made a feature out of this flaw
by calling it the „rock switch“ - volume boost.
Hmm. Rather make a small, adjustment on the volume
pot if needed.
I found the idea great to equalize
the volume levels by adding a series resistor
where normally the wire bridge between yellow and
black goes. Extensive listening tests in both active
and passive mode and also some PC simulation did not
indicate any change in tone.
Of course, OMG does not harmonize with
that, but this was deemed questionable anyway as
elaborated above. There is no need for pseudo
humbucking if real coilsplitting is at hand.
However, by bypassing the dropping
resistors with a cap, some partial "boost" of high
frequencies can be achieved. Again, this is no boost,
but treble content gets less suppressed. Why making
half hearted attempts towards single coil sound when a
brighter sound can be achieved another way while
maintaining full hum canceling functionality?
Back To Index Exploring
Existing Groundwork And Setting New
Goals
By far the most of the
mod tips I
could find are limited to the installation of a
three-position (on-on-on) switch, selecting between
serial, parallel, and one single coil combination,
and possibly a push-pull pot for extra switching,
which basically replaces the existing two-position
serial/parallel switch.
All the those attempts
to maintain the original possibilities (serial,
parallel) plus at least two cross-connections
(inner/outer pair) without inviting other penalties,
failed to
my knowledge.
There is a limited amount
of switching possibilities that manipulate the „hot“
side of the pickups, and even more limited for the
„ground“ side, since G&L have decided early to
connect a screening ground plate to one of the coils
(green wire). Drilling some holes for extra switches
or the like was not an option, being commonly
associated with a loss in resale value.
A guy named Femto
has devised a switching method using the stock
serial/parallel switch plus an extra on-on-on switch,
which would have to take the active/passive switch
location (this one moving to the switch of a push-pull
pot), yet functionally being very similar to the
method devised by me.
Femto
manipulated the ground sides of the coils, which,
although this appeared to work for him noise-wise,
might invite trouble due to the ground plane floating,
that is mounted to the bottom side of each physical
unit. It is likely that people were reluctant to adopt
his method because of this fact.
However, combining both
high side and low side switching turned out to work
flawless with a compatible switch layout.
The goals for modification
thus were set to be:
exploiting all coil
interconnection methods
(serial/parallel/single/cross-connection) while
maintaining the existing switch layout to avoid
degrading resale value
In
a nutshell: the newly devised switching
scheme keeps the original serial/parallel
switch, except that the range of available
parallel modes has been expanded, determined
by the setting of the parallel pair
selector configuration switch. Dependent
on the setting of the source selector
switch, all four individual coils can be
addressed in true single coil mode too.
The parallel pair
selector switch physically resides in the
space, that was previously occupied by the active/passive
switch, whose functionality moved onto a push-pull
switch linked to the volume pot knob.
Note:treble
boost mode has been dropped as mentioned
earlier.
(click on the picture to load
larger image)
Pickup
Selection Chart:
The parallel pair selector
switch allows for three positions:
inner
pair (lever towards the neck,
pairs one of the neck with one of the
bridge coils,
here referred to as cross mode)
parallel
(lever centered, pairs physically
adjacent coils, here referred to as native
mode) and
outside
pair (lever towards the bridge,
pairs one of the neck with one of the
bridge coils, here
referred to as cross mode)
When both is selected on
the source selection switch, those
positions are hum canceling. Since the
coils are arranged N/S - N/S starting from
the neck, the cross-mode arrangements xS
- Nx (inner pair) and Nx-xS
(outer pair) are hum canceling as well as
the native N/S arrangements.
Note: In solo
mode (e.g. neck only), out of the selected pair,
although both coils are active, only one will
contribute to the output signal - the one
residing in the source selected (neck in the
example), hence a true single coil. This
one is subject to hum as all single coils are.
Determining which one out of the two adjacent
coils is currently active is slightly awkward
and is not always in direct relation to the
switches´ lever position due to the fact that
one has been eliminated out of a cross-pair.
Logic has been optimized in so far that the
lever points towards the inside of the guitar
body in inside pair mode and
towards the outside in outside pair
mode. Thus, only if bridge solo is
selected, the parallel pair switches´
lever points to the correct single coil, but
this is reversed for neck. This is
inevitable and a small problem.
Humbucker pairs in cross mode may have an
slightly inferior hum suppression capability due
to a greater “magnetic aperture”
Download
serial mode chart (click on the
icon to download)
The threading of the 4pole
on-on-on switch I used (Knitter Switch MTA
406 PA) appears slightly shorter than the C&K
variety, so it needed to go slightly deeper into
the wood. The usage of any machine operated drill
was avoided at all cost, since this eats itself
into the wood way to fast. A few turns by hand
were enough.
Note:knitter switch MTA
406 PA datasheet
information is erroneous on the pin layout.
The layout is equivalent to the ubiquitous C&K
7411 and Multicomp 1M46
switches. WARNING: I just received two switches
from them that DO adhere to the Datasheet.
Measure before you solder!
Update: refer to a special
document on those switches for more
information.
I looked for a good quality
push-pull volume pot with a solid 6mm shaft
like the other pots on the L-2000. There exists
one from Alpha, but this seemed unavailable. The
one chosen is a CTS 250k PUSH/PULL 3/8",
which fits just perfectly inside the cavity. It
has a very smooth volume reduction over its travel
and also exhibits the same friction to motion as
the others do. Its thread too, is a bit short, but
using a bigger diameter lock washer that sits on
the pot body rather than the small mounting rim
works well.
It also comes with a 1/4”
knurled shaft. Unfortunately, dome knobs for
knurled shaft pots are not available hereabouts.
Fortunately, you can buy small brass sleeves
that slide over knurled shafts and make 1/4”
solid shafts out of it. The dome speed knob´s bore
was increased to 6.5 mm with a stock steel drill
and this works great.
The ceramic treble bleed cap
was replaced by a good quality cap on the go.
The push-pull switch activates
passive mode when pulled, but this is a matter
of taste.
The barrel output jack
was replaced by a new one since it permanently
interrupted the signal when the slightest sideways
pressure was applied onto the jack[2]. Removal was easy with
a screw extractor (the type that has reverse
„threads“ on it). The jack does not even get
destroyed by this. It just screws out.
Unfortunately that the new jack appeared to be no
cure. Signal went intermittent when you use a long
flange plug and apply sideways pressure. So using
angled plugs and folding the cable back under the
strap is paramount if the kind reader insists on
keeping the barrel jack.
The barrel plug is just inferior. A disgrace
for such an expensive instrument. It is
beyond comprehension why they used it, probably to
distinguish themselves more from other
manufacturer´s products visually. Internet
forae are full of complaints about this nuisance,
and many owners have decided to replace it by a
conventional jack:
(click
on the picture to
load larger
image)
Soon before long, the barrel
jack was replaced by a standard jack
together mounted onto a metal football shape
mounting plate. The procedure is
described here[3].
An oval (a.k.a. football) jack plate together
with a standard Switchcraft short Ľ“ jack was
mounted (a Gibson style square jack plate
appeared almost too big, extending into the
beveling) – end of discussion and end of
signal problems.
Folks doing the same before worried that it
may be a problem to drill a large enough hole
without slipping and damaging the guitar
finish. Not at the least. I used a stock metal
step drill in a slow running
cordless electric drill to enlarge the hole to
20mm just at the rim, yielding a somewhat
conical bore.
A 20mm Forstner bit now fitted
perfectly into this bore, so no danger of
slipping. The wood is soft enough that a very
slow drilling speed can be used. Some more
gentle drilling and the hole was through. No
chipping, nothing, a razor sharp cutout. A
five minutes procedure and painless.
Another questionable omission
was the unscreened electronics compartment
cover plate. This is ridiculous, since the
compartment itself is paint screened.
A piece of self adhesive metal foil was applied to
the plastic plate. A small strip of copper
foil was folded and glued over the cavity´s edge
and soldered onto a ground point so that it makes
contact to the cover´s foil, at a location near
the output jack where the back plate is screwed
onto the body for good contact.
The wire to the preamp that
does the treble boost was be removed.
The preamp itself got wrapped
inside a piece of self adhesive tape to prevent
contacting anything.
The cavity is now quite crammed, but
serviceable since I left enough slack on the wires.
Pickup height.
While not being a new feature, this subject
belongs to the changes made to the instrument:
during slap playing, the E string easily thunders
into the pole pieces, with an according sharp snap
from the amp. With the pickups fully down and the
spiral spring underneath fully compressed, they
still protrude about 10mm from the body. The
remedy was to shim the neck slightly so that all
strings are elevated somewhat. This of course
requires raising the bridge again to restore the
previous action.
Now the switching stuff has all been sussed, a
whole new can of worms is torn open – voicing[5].
Browsing through the settings invariably involves
a change in perception of treble, mid and bass
content, some subtle, some heavy. A minimalistic
guitar setup will be equipped with a treble
control, which, as we saw earlier, can tame the
resonance peak and cut some high. The second
resonance that occurs when the pot is at zero
(caused by the treble cap), is usually too extreme
to be useful. So those positions remain
essentially raw and untreated sonically.
Lester Polfus, better known as Les Paul,
was confronted with exactly the same problem back
in the seventies with his Les Paul Recording
Guitar, and he solved it by providing a
rotary switch with an array of caps, not different
to the C-switch devices available today.
He aptly called his guitar recording,
since, in a performance situation, few would have
been able to cope with all those knobs and
switches.
These days, things head towards performance
selector switches (such as in those fancy
aftermarket 5-way Strat switches), which select
between “sounds” consisting of useful coil presets
and potentially voicings.
This means a deliberate step backwards from Les
Paul´s idea for the sake of simplicity and
performance, but he wanted it all.
Despite thousands of schemes available on the
internet, rarely anybody exploits the whole
potential of tone shaping those positions.
A 1nF cap (stock) is already active for all
positions, which to my personal taste was too
much. It was replaced by a 680 pF Styroflex cap.
This made the series signal even more pristine,
alleviating the need for an active treble boost
even more.
First listening tests on the untreated parallel
modes and particularly the single coil modes
revealed a pretty trebly, sterile tone, reminding
of early Stanley Clarke recordings. A test
jig was put together quickly, nothing different
than what is known as the commercial C-switch
or tonestyler (a rotary switch with a
rake of small caps) and small caps in the nF range
(around 2.2nF) were found for each position
that brought the resonant frequency down to an
pleasing value before tone was becoming honky.
Naturally, single can take more capacity than
parallel, but due to the lack of unoccupied
switching positions a compromise value of 2.2 nF
was chosen for all non-series positions. Tone gets
much more mellow by this, without sounding honky
or bassy.
The acute reader will have noticed, that this
demands another switching element in the series/parallel
switch, which is non existent unfortunately, but
some crafty solution has been found, remaining my
ace card for the moment.
Any excessive resonance peak (“Q”), perceived as
stinging quality, can further be tamed by dialing
the treble pot down just a hair, long before the
treble cutting action itself comes into play, so
individual Q-shaping resistors were equally
abandoned due to the lack of switching positions.
"Passive tone" despite buffering was
re-contemplated. A typical guitar cord may exhibit
100pF/m capacity, a 6m cable will thus easily have
600 pF. Together with the built-in load 1 nF
capacity this is a fairly hefty load for a passive
system - too big for my taste as mentioned, but
some seem to like it.
With all this extra
switching, you can always leave the parallel
pairs selector in center position, in which case
the bass behaves exactly like stock, leaving
aside volume equalization and voicing. It
certainly looks stock. Flipping the parallel
pairs selector into another position,
you´ll have powerful presets ready at the flip
of a switch.
Volume,
after equalization, seems subjectively
fairly constant across the different pickup
modes. It is still slightly bigger in serial
mode, but was left at that.
Astonishingly,
once loudness-equalized, a parallel mode
(provided using active mode) does sound very
similar to the corresponding serial mode.
This is probably where the axiom louder
sounds better is striking. In fact
they are so similar, that for a future build
series mode may be dropped entirely without
losing.
With the switching given,
all extended pair modes (inner and outer
pair) are parallel modes. Theoretically,
there is a possibility to connect those in
series too, but little promises to be gained as
stated before.
Parallel
and single modes do cope better with passive
mode if an additional load is present.
Series is
still the most bassy, but with an increased
clarity due to the bypass caps and the
reduced stock voicing cap. With some hundred
picofarad worth of cable capacity, tone
heads towards dark as expected - which
is why we go active for a start. Parallel
and single modes however do cope
better with passive mode if an additional
load is present.
Cross
modes sound very beefy and growly. Do
they remind of a Stingray? Maybe. People say
not even all Stingrays sound like a
Stingray. Both
modes have a different mid-range compared to
all other modes, even compared to each
other. There for sure is a certain mid-scoop
that the ´Ray´s have too.
Single
(bridge) mode reminds of a J-Bass, but
is prone to noise as expected despite
shielding (this helping nothing against
magnetic interference...). Any individual
single out of the two adjacent pairs can be
activated, although it is a bit awkward to
select them (see the pickup
selection guide).
Singles
sound very raw and into-the-face. Very
attractive too. Again, P-bass is not P-bass,
J-Bass not J-Bass, a single pickup
sure gets into their ball park.
I decided that a general
load simulation was neither necessary nor
useful. Leaning more towards modern
sounds, passive mode was not considered
attractive, but if one wishes, one switch
position is free on the active-passive
switch (volume push/pull switch) which could
activate a dummy load. In this case, active and
passive tone would not differ much, but passive
tone (as mentioned above) could be reproduced
reliably and repeatably independent of
subsequent loading circuitry.
All of those features
accessible with the new circuit have their
merit, but time will tell if the increase of
switching options or -methods itself is
a blessing or a curse.
Back To Index Active
Noise Reduction For Single Coil Mode
After some playing, the single coil modes do not sound
particularly attractive or reminiscent of other basses´
sounds*, but they are different and interesting
and may as well be used. Unfortunately they are prone to
hum. Maybe, due to the powerful nature of the pickups,
more than others. I tried to do something about this and
made up a large area aircoil (not unlike the Suhr silent
coil) to passively cancel out hum frequencies.
* Maybe I
expected to have a Precision sound or a J-Bass
sound at hand, and while it surely crosses
into that territory (like any similarly built pickup
in that position will...) I found there is no such a
thing like THE XY sound. There are
several web sites that try to carve this out and
they had to admit that they failed, because over the
years so many models with different body and neck
woods resp. shapes and surely differently wound
pickups had been made. This can´t be generalized.
Self-made back plate, an
epoxy bobbin with an aircoil inside:(click
on the picture to
load larger
image)
This worked and continues to work flawless on my
Stratocaster. It makes it virtually hum free
without changing tone.
Unfortunately, due to the heavy signal coming
from the L2000´s pickups, the aircoil with a
typical rate of turns is too weak.
Back plate inside view:(click
on the picture to
load larger
image)
The inside is covered with foil for screening
purposes. Can be detached from the electronics
PCB. Weight is negligible.
Experimental
electronics PCB:(click
on the picture to
load larger
image)
I devised a crafty active circuit
with switch position detection, dynamic
phase reversal and adjustable gain. To
the left you see some C-MOS IC´s that
detect switch positions. Hum
cancellation is only active during
certain positions. This part also
dynamically connects voicing caps
dependent on the switches´ positions, so
the newly gained modes may stay balanced
sonically.
Hum cancellation worked in some environments,
but made things worse overall. The
idea was dropped and basic functionality
restored. The empty sockets you see stem from
the IC´s pulled for this purpose.
The remaining
circuitry is entirely optional.
No need to change what is there.
The
singles do still hum, but the rest is
dead quiet.
Now that all
active methods to eliminate hum failed, I find myself
back at the roots. While it is true that screening
won´t help against magnetic interference, it will
certainly help against electrostatic
interference. And true, some of what I hear,
sounds like a harmonic of mains (transformer
originated) frequency, without the fundamental.
I opened the pickup cavities - and they
are bare wood. Agreed, the guitar was never intended
to be used with single coils, but even in humbucking
modes it appeared vulnerable to higher frequent
noises. To cancel those the "aperture" of the two
coils is too big. People report that with screening
they made even humbuckers quieter.
I have plenty of copper foil at home, but
there is no space in those cavities. So I bought a
small bottle of Humbrella screening paint
invented by a German guy and allegedly preferred by
luthiers. This does not consume any noteworthy space.
Three layers
with drying time in between is recommended.
With a small brush I even poked a little into the
tunnels that go from the electronics compartment to
the pickup cavities. The wires should be screened too.
(See my hints
further down on working with the paint)
MFD pickups from underneath:(click
on the picture
to load larger
image)
(picture taken after cavity painting)
Take
a look at the pickup´s underside.
There is a massive copper base plate
with two green wires attached. One
comes from the coil, one leads to the
switching assembly. As stated above,
the method Femto
has devised to switch the coils
from the ground side was ruled out
previously due to the base plate grounding
problem, but it looks this can
be remedied no problem by adding a
separate wire to the base plate.
Soldering is no witchcraft,
just
make sure the extra wire is secured
against pulling strain. So his method
may prove useful in
some respects after all.
Painted pickup cavities:(click
on the
picture
to load larger
image)
A few hints
for using the paint:
stay
away from contacts. While the paint is
not super conductive, it is low ohm
indeed.
stay
away from cables. They advise not to
rely on the paint´s adhesion to
plastics, but it adheres to cables
like hell.
While this does not harm the cable
itself, it might make contact
somewhere else.
the
paint adheres greatly to rough
untreated wood. From lacquered wood
you can scratch it away with the
fingernail after drying. Be aware that
it stains blank wood immediately.
Rough up lacquered surfaces as
recommended, but be aware that steel
wool debris will go flying to all
magnetic parts. Better use fine
sanding paper if you have the pickups
in the vicinity like I had.
Reassembling the pickup cavities: (click
on the picture
to load larger
image)
The
pickup cavities have two holes drilled
to hold springs to push the pickup up
(left arrow). A piece of foam pushes
back (the foam was already a bit
deteriorated and was renewed).
I
had to widen those holes slightly,
because the springs are really tight in
there. After painting with conductive
paint and re-inserting the springs prior
to assembly, I inserted small strips of
copper foil between the spring´s
windings (bottom arrow).
Once the spring pushes down and gets
compressed, the copper foil makes
contact to the paint. Since the foam
pads are right beside, those push down
too. The springs themselves work against
the bare copper baseplate, which by
itself is grounded.
Note
the piece of copper foil on the right. I
wrap this around the piece of wire that
grounds the bridge (and strings), which
was already a bit recessed in the wood.
After assembly, I inserted a small strip of copper
foil in a crevice right beside the pickups to
contact the paint and measured some 50 Ohms
against ground. This is absolutely perfect.
Repainted electronics compartment: (click
on the picture
to load larger
image)
The electronics compartment is
insufficiently screened. There is conductive
paint inside properly, but incomprehensibly,
they failed to screen the back cover plate.
This is simply a matter of applying foil to
the plate, which conveniently contacts the rim
of the compartment - but not on this guitar (see the pictures above).
G&L did not paint the rim with
conductive paint. But this can easily be done
with the newly acquired wonder paint. Make
sure to paint copiously over the already
existent paint a little down the side walls to
ensure connection and stay away from all
electrical connections inside.
Of course I also painted the cavity I drilled
in order to replace the dreadful barrel jack as explained
above. Insulate the jack inside!
The arrow points towards one of few places
where I spilled the paint (picture taken after
drying before any further steps. No sweat, it
does not adhere to shiny lacquer.
As expected, hum did not go down, but its higher
frequent components did. The effect is subtle, but
noticeable.
Let me know if any of this is
useful or appeals to you.
Credits: Many threads on modification of
the L-2000 have been sieved through, notably written by
a guy named DavePlaysBass in talkbass
guitar forum and BassesByLeo forum
(several threads), by Femto
and Ken Baker, who maintains BassesByLeo,
all of whom I feel deeply indepted to. Credits also go
to Ulf Schaedla in Germany, probably the best source of
information on pickups and voicing currently
available.
[1]G&L
L2K Wiring Mods Rev 4.1, 27-Dec-2117, by
DavePlaysBass@hotmail.com, p.2 Fixing
Bad Designs: Barrel-Style Output Jacks - Hanff
Guitar Repair [2]Jack Replacement: (how
to re-fit a new barrel jack), by Ken Baker
from BassesByLeo [3]Jack Replacement: (how to replace
a barrel jack by a
conventional jack),
by BluesBassPlayer
on BassesByLeo
forum [4] G&L
Preamp Rev 2.2, 12/28/2017,
by DavePlaysBass@hotmail.com [5]Guitar-Letters: a
wealth of information on pickups and voicing
(in German language), by Ulf
Schaedla
Back To Index Sound Samples The
subsequent recordings have been done using
the following setup and no further
processing:
L-2000 modified
as above, pickups as specified, all controls
full. EB cobalt flat strings.
Warwick
Pro-Tube IV, direct out
Recording
device: Focusrite PC interface into DAW
Note:
"inside pair" means _N B_ and "outside" means
N_ _B. Neck single mode inside thus
means _N _ _ and outside N_ _ _ etc.
Yes, more options, more confusion 8-)
On the single mode recordings, you may hear
some hum, but worse, you may hear high
frequent noises to a lesser extent on all
recordings. This comes from the proximity
to the PC, although not necessarily hum. PC´s
and neon lamps are the recording musician´s
worst enemy. Recordings have been done prior
to shielding.
(Names may be
copyrighted by the associated copyright holder, no
association with any of them)
Comparison
serial / parallel (native)
modes: Neck PU (serial
first, parallel on second phrase)
Note how little difference
there is sonically between serial and
parallel modes when volume-equalized
and when a buffer is behind to avoid
tone sucking. A valid argument to
ditch the serial modes if one wants.
Comparison serial
/ parallel (native) modes: Both
(serial first, parallel on second phrase)
Comparison serial
/ parallel (native) modes: Bridge PU
(serial first, parallel on second phrase)
Extended parallel
modes (cross-mode): Inner Pair Does one of those two cross
into Stingray territory? Guess it does. Decide
yourself.
Extended parallel
modes (cross-mode): Outer
Pair
Single coil mode: Neck
PU
Outside (towards neck)
Single
coil
mode:
Neck PU
inside (towards
bridge)
Single
coil
mode: Bridge
PU Inside (towards
neck)
Single
coil
mode: Bridge
PU Outside
(towards bridge)