I think the reason people find the blend in a jazz bass or other single coil instrument a tone suck has to do with one pick up always being at 100%. You can’t do a little of both or like 90% of one and 20% of the other.We had crappies in the man-made ponds that were stocked for kids to fish for in Omaha. My friends ate this shit called doughball that we used as bait. It was, more or less, bread dough, but I’d never eat that shit.
I never cared for blend knobs either, but it’s what’d to find active instruments with more than one pickup with vol vol etc and not vol blend etc.
It used to be rumored that blend knobs on passive instruments were tone suckers and I totally bought into that, and still do.
@wetwillie The Grind I had, I put in new pots and wired it like a Les Paul with an added pickup selector switch. New pickups would’ve been next, but I ditched it when I went to my medium scale Luthier-built FBB.
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I simply turn my blend on my Jazz all the way to the neck pickup. I can start dead center and turn it a hair to the neck and it sounds super close to the neck pickup soloed. They may as well put a 3-way switch on that bass. Would suit me fine.
Every once in a while I like them both at 100% with certain overdrives.