A question on my basses sound
 

Hey guys and girls, I've just been playing around on my new Black Tiger and been trying different settings out.
I have a question regarding an overdriven sound I've been getting.

If I have the pickup selector in the middle, I have that cool Smith sound no matter what I do with the either the bass, treble, parallel switch, mids etc.
But I've found if I put the pickup selector full to either the bridge or neck pickup, have the bass up full and have the switch in series I get quite an overdriven sound. Definitely a bit of distortion. Is this normal?

It won't be the battery as I've only just received the bass.
Does anyone else get this overdriven/distorted sound with these settings?

Keen to hear from you all

It seems to me you're pushing the pre-amp to its limit. I've never felt a need to do that in a playing situation, or at all.
There's a mini control inside the cavity (I think it's on the mid board, the small one) which is used to preset the preamp gain. Maybe turning it down a little will solve this for you. The pickups in series mode have more output.
If I recall right the instruments leave the shop set up with the passive mode equals in volume to active with everything flat, with pickups in parallel mode (standard Smith sound).

-- Edit --
On the current pre-amp the mini control is a tiny white box on the middle board, located right above the bass pot in the cavity. On the older 9V pre-amp it's on the Mid board.

Yeah, that's probably it. I'm not saying I will ever play with this setting, but I've also not had a bass that does this. I can normally have the controls anyway I want and still have a clean sound.
Just thought it is quite odd and haven't encountered it before.

When was the last time you changed the battery?

Right, thanks for all your suggestions and help etc.
I've just spoken to Ken and he helped sort it out, it was all user error. :rolleyes:

Thanks heaps for your help Ken, was great talking to you.
One very happy customer :D