Stacked Volume pot StingRay Special HH Possible?

[ThomThomKC]

So my plan is to purchase a StingRay Special HH this year, with future aspirations of changing the volume to a stacked pot. The idea/purpose is to be able to single out a particular single coil from among the two pickups. I don't really care how its done, volume/volume or master volume/pan, though the latter seems better. Regardless, I posted this a while back on facebook and I got a response that it would cause a hum in certain positions of the 5 way switch. Is this true? Kind of a deal breaker on the idea if that's the case.

 

[Samoht]

So my plan is to purchase a StingRay Special HH this year, with future aspirations of changing the volume to a stacked pot. The idea/purpose is to be able to single out a particular single coil from among the two pickups. I don't really care how its done, volume/volume or master volume/pan, though the latter seems better. Regardless, I posted this a while back on facebook and I got a response that it would cause a hum in certain positions of the 5 way switch. Is this true? Kind of a deal breaker on the idea if that's the case.

I think it's going to be quite a bit more complicated than you hope. I believe, not having an HH SR to judge by, that the pickups are connected directly to the PCB preamp with the vol/eq stuff being internal PCB connections and the 5-way being jumpers from the preamp. I don't think there's a streamlined place to change from master vol to stacked volumes without forgoing the preamp itself. I i could be wrong though.

 

[tbonesullivan]

Of course it's going to cause hum. You need 2 coils to have hum cancelling. When you take one out, you lose that, and the hum returns, unless it's designed to have a hum cancelling circuit or dummy coil.

There is not one of those in the Stingray special, and you really can't just add one.

I don't really think what you hope to do would be "easy", and closer to "not possible".

 

[strummer]

Afaik there is no suitable vol/pan dual gang pot available anywhere, so it would have to be vol/vol. I think that if you wnat to do something like this, prepare for a pretty costly operation that might not produce very good results. As others have said, you can't just swap the pot as it is attached to the circuit board and also the coils are already combined at that stage.
Why not try and find a second hand Game Changer instead, then you can have all the crazy ideas you could ever dream of

 

[ThomThomKC]

Haha yeah a Game Changer I suppose is an option. I assumed the person who spoke about a hum was talking about a different source of hum other than the standard single coil. Ehh oh well it seems its not meant to be. I'll still be more than happy with it stock. Maybe I'll just try and build it myself some day out of a kit where I'm more than willing to add additional switches and such.

 

[strummer]

Haha yeah a Game Changer I suppose is an option. I assumed the person who spoke about a hum was talking about a different source of hum other than the standard single coil. Ehh oh well it seems its not meant to be. I'll still be more than happy with it stock. Maybe I'll just try and build it myself some day out of a kit where I'm more than willing to add additional switches and such.

Play your new Stingray for a while, and if you feel the need to try a balance I would suggest wiring it outside the bass, before all the electronics, to see if you get something useful out of it. That way it's an easy reverse.

 

[ThomThomKC]

Play your new Stingray for a while, and if you feel the need to try a balance I would suggest wiring it outside the bass, before all the electronics, to see if you get something useful out of it. That way it's an easy reverse.

Thanks I'll keep that in mind!

 

[Samoht]

Afaik there is no suitable vol/pan dual gang pot available anywhere, so it would have to be vol/vol. I think that if you wnat to do something like this, prepare for a pretty costly operation that might not produce very good results. As others have said, you can't just swap the pot as it is attached to the circuit board and also the coils are already combined at that stage.
Why not try and find a second hand Game Changer instead, then you can have all the crazy ideas you could ever dream of

Not sure what pot values are needed, but Noll does make a couple of stacked vol/blend pots. Bestbassgear has a selection of them. I also believe I've seen one or two available from Warwick, available from a place that sells their replacement parts (thebassplace).

 

[pertyman]

I’m on my way to make a similar change (mod) on my Special.
I’m going to change the volume knob to a push pull one so when you pull it, coil no 4 will be disconnected. This will add 3 more sounds to the bass but also will cause a hum when the bass will be in the single coil positions.
I have tried already this in several rehearsals, and with a full band you don’t hear the hum at all.
In this video I play only with the bridge coil (coil no 1):
Roxy Music - Same Old Scene - Bass - YouTube

And here I play only with the third coil:
Aerosmith - Eat The Rich - Bass - YouTube

 

[ThomThomKC]

I'm new to all wiring details of an instrument, so truly looking for help and direction. I appreciate everyone's patience.

Seems like maybe both of these might work?

NOLL TCM 3PM Vpp - Bl - T/B - M/M - Best Bass Gear

NOLL TCM 4 XM Vpp - Bl - T/B - Lo M/Hi M - Best Bass Gear

If either indeed achieves what I'm looking for, then the active/passive switch is extra interesting to me. I've seen that if the pickups are active, then you can't bypass to passive. You can only do that with passive pickups. I've only worked with passive basses thus far, so the SR Special will be my first. I know its an active bass but I thought that was squarely the EQ and not the pickups? Having a passive bypass in case my batteries go out certainly would be cool, but its certainly is not a game breaker by any means for me. I'd be more than happy with just being able to blend as wanted.

 

[strummer]

Yep, pickups are passive. That means that the Noll P 1070 placed before the preamp will give you what you are after, but I am not too sure about the preamp behaviour when controlling the volume on the input side of the preamp.