Starfire II bass electrical questions.

[lungimsam]

1. With pup switch in middle position do you get any phase cancellation or mid scooping phenomena?
2. Is the master volume to be on all the time in order to hear the bass and individual volume adjustments made on the pup volume knobs but master v pot must be up?
3. Is the electron flow like this:
Each Pup to their respective vol/tone pots, then to selector switch then to master volume then to output jack?
Thanks for the info.

 

[fronobulax]

This is a little hard to read but the evidence available so far suggests it applies to all Starfire II basses with master volume regardless of when they were made. Maybe it is helpful?



I have no clue about phase cancellation. I'd have to use my ears and hope I could figure it out.

I turn the MV on, adjust the PU volumes so I have the balance between the pickups that I want, and the adjust the MV for overall volume. If the MV is off I don't expect to hear anything and if I want to play with the balance I just max out the MV.

There is, however, a reason why I prefer basses with one PU, a tone and a volume control

 

[lungimsam]

Thanks for the info. That diagram is easy to read.
I think with all volumes full up there would be phase cancellation but would have to rely on users experiences to know.
And even if there is, I am sure the middle position is still a usable sound.

You know if hit is having this happen if the neck pup sounds good and the bridge alone sounds good but the middle position sounds mid scooped and nasally. Sometimes to the point of not wanting to ever use the middle position.

But I think the way the SII is wired, turning one of the pup volumes down a smidge would eliminate it.

 

[fronobulax]

Bass players don't normally worry about phase. In my informed ignorance, I would say that phase depends upon how the pickups are wired to the controls and not just the controls. If the pickups are wired in phase then I would expect "more" from the center position of the toggle because the frequencies in common from both pickups would be added together. If they were wired out of phase then there would be cancellation in the middle position and the PU would sound thin. I would not expect the MV to have any effect on phasing. With the MV on max and one PU on max and the selector in the middle I would expect changing the volume of the other PU to change the amount of addition or cancellation, but which it does will be determined by the PU wiring and not the controls, besides the selector.

If you are comfortable with adding sine waves...

Assume the frequency is the same coming from each PU. Assume the amplitudes of each sine wave are controlled by the PU volume. If the waves are in phase and the amplitudes are equal, the result will be a sine wave at the same frequency but twice the amplitude. Same situation but out of phase gives you a flat line.

So "with all volumes full up there would be phase cancellation" is only true of the PUs were wired out of phase.

But what do I know?

 

[Nuuska]

The eternal dilemma of stereo recordings . . .


Whenever there are more than one transmitter to capture the sound - there will be arriving-time differences - they behave like comb filters.

Same with guitars w more than one pup - they sense the string from different physical places - depending on distance between them and frequency of played note they are more or less in sync or out of sync with each other. Thus producing comb filter sound when summed. Naturally the volume and tone mix affect the soup, too. Any tone control produces phase rotation. . . .

So if you do not wish to enter the never-ending swamp of mathematical theories - just turn them knobs until you find the sweet spot that you like.