MIMF

I am a guitar player that is making a bass. How important is a volume control for a bass? Now for a guitar player has to have a vol control for volume swells, but this is not an issue for bass. I am putting in a sduncan active tone controls and can either use a concentric pot with a volume control or ditch the volume pot. I never use the vol control when I play bass. As a side note. I am a lefty guitar player, but am making right handed guitars and now bass. They hang on my wall and look pretty and my friends play them when we jam. I have too many lefty guitars now, so quit making them. I never sell my children.

If you are going to play it, then make it set up the way you want it. But if others are going to play it, then make it more generic- put the volume on there, or other bass players will miss it.

mark
i am left handed and I am swimming in lefty guitars, so now make right handed instruments that look pretty on the wall and are available for friends to jam with. When I play bass I never use the volume control, but with active controls, I wonder if they don't in fact a defacto volume control? I am looking for ideas and experience and appreciate your opinion and your many helpful posts

Yes, you are welcome and I understand that....but since you are making these for others to play and not yourself, then you need to make it comfortable for them. Most everyone wants a volume control. If the instrument is not comfortable for others then they will choose to play one that is, and most folks are used to a volume pot....also, some tone settings on an active system will be louder than other settings and it's good to be able to adjust for that.

I guess as a bass player I never touch my volume control, it's always up all the way so I wouldn't miss it too much. The caveat is on a two pickup bass with two volumes where I might very deliberately set the balance to get exactly the tone I want. Not an issue on a single pickup bass.

Mark and David, thanks for the replies and the different answers. They say in the life of any product, that the company has to shoot the engineer and go into production.
Both your posts reflect my thoughts, but it was great for confirmation. I find making decisions one of the most difficult things about instrument building.

Jedi,

The nice thing about wiring is that it's easy to revise it and add more pots and switches later on as the need or curiosity arises.

I can see where some people wouldn't want or use a volume knob, but I find I use it all the time at rehearsal and at gigs. Sometimes it's for musical effect, but usually it's because I need to adjust the level to match the mix on the fly in the middle of a tune. Another typical case is that I have to set the amp up in a spot that requires careful navigation of stage space (read: because of the drummer's kit, monitors, and assorted cables littering the space), so having a volume knob allows the adjustment without risking injury. I'll also turn down/off in between tunes from time to time to keep random finger/clunk/etc. noise down, and I suppose a kill switch could do the same thing.

Paul, I was thinking the same thing about the kill switch, there may be room on the yamaha super switch to provide that function. In addition I wonder if I installed a two band active eq, since they can cut and boast, also provide a volume function by turning both up, but maintaining the balance? I don't lack for ideas, but I also need a reality check. Altho technically a senior citizen now, I am not allowed into GC unless accompanied by an adult.