Help needed! 1961 Framus Star Bass 5/150 wiring diagram

[Zarky]

I just bought a 61 Framus 5/150 Star Bass to restore. I need to clean the crackling volume pot etc and removed the control plate behind the scratch plate. 3 wires have come loose and I can't find were they were connected. I have scanned the web for wiring diagrams and have taken the bass to a guitar electrician who spent hours trying to figure out were the wires go but said he would need a wiring diagram. It's quite a unconventional odd set up and no one seems be be able to work it out. There is one volume pot, a pick-up selector and a toggle switch for Tone & Bass.
The bass is all ready to go but I have come to a halt with the electrics. Does anyone know a good guitar repairer or know where I can get a wiring diagram?

 

[40Hz]

Picture?

Did you try just grounding all three and see what happens? Ground wires are usually the first to come loose in my experience..

 

[Haroldo]

The following should get you to a German website run by a guy named Cadfaels. It is full of wonderfully clear schematics for a variety of guitars, basses, etc., including your Framus.

Google Translate

 

[40Hz]

The following should get you to a German website run by a guy named Cadfaels. It is full of wonderfully clear schematics for a variety of guitars, basses, etc., including your Framus.

Google Translate

I've got a copy of Cadfael's collection. And while there are two Star 5/150 wiring diagrams, neither one matches the OP's control layout. Cadfael noted there were apparently a number of different wiring schemes for that model bass over the years. The OP's particular configuration isn't in the collection.

 

[Zarky]

Hi Thanks for the info. Mine is the model that has 1 single volume control, a pick-up selector and a bass/treble selctor switch.

 

[Haroldo]

Hi Thanks for the info. Mine is the model that has 1 single volume control, a pick-up selector and a bass/treble selctor switch.

It's not precisely like the Star 5/150 you have, but it looks a fair bit like the Framus Vintage 5/150 Star Bass 2012 (if you yanked out the treble and bass tone poteniometers) on Page 197 of Cadfael's pdf. It is the third Star Bass listed.

 

[petrus61]

Looks like a volume, pup selector and varitone/series parallel/phase switch. Why not just wire it as one of those? Got images of the under carriage? Looks more like a vari type deal that maybe selected between a series of caps with resistors, or maybe even just caps.

 

[Zarky]

I've got a copy of Cadfael's collection. And while there are two Star 5/150 wiring diagrams, neither one matches the OP's control layout. Cadfael noted there were apparently a number of different wiring schemes for that model bass over the years. The OP's particular configuration isn't in the collection.

How do I get a copy of Cadfaels collection? Much appreciated. Thanks again

 

[Zarky]

Looks like a volume, pup selector and varitone/series parallel/phase switch. Why not just wire it as one of those? Got images of the under carriage? Looks more like a vari type deal that maybe selected between a series of caps with resistors, or maybe even just caps.

There are 3 wires detached although one I do know connects to the + on the jack socket. Another comes from one of the pick ups and another has detached from a selector pot. thanks again

 

[40Hz]

How do I get a copy of Cadfaels collection? Much appreciated. Thanks again

Use this link. It's a must have.

(Text is in German, but it's easy enough to figure out even if you don't speak it. And you can always use Google translate.)

http://www.ak-line.com/medium/Bassschaltungen417.pdf

 

[Zarky]

Looks like a volume, pup selector and varitone/series parallel/phase switch. Why not just wire it as one of those? Got images of the under carriage? Looks more like a vari type deal that maybe selected between a series of caps with resistors, or maybe even just caps.

The large Selector pictured on the left is a Treble/Bass selector with 4 positions, the other large selector pictured at the bottom is a simple pickup selector with 4 positions and the small pot is a simple volume. I have found 3 star bass diagrams but none have the treble/bass selector.

 

[Zarky]

Use this link. It's a must have.

(Text is in German, but it's easy enough to figure out even if you don't speak it. And you can always use Google translate.)

http://www.ak-line.com/medium/Bassschaltungen417.pdf

What a great source of information for bass wiring diagrams! So glad I have this for my other bass projects although for some reason it doesn't list the control setup for my 5/150 star bass. Mine has a treble/bass toggle selector rather than a separate treble dial.

 

[Haroldo]

How do I get a copy of Cadfaels collection? Much appreciated. Thanks again

Go up to Post #3. (40Hz covered that much more effectively in Post #10, I see.)

The large Selector pictured on the left is a Treble/Bass selector with 4 positions, the other large selector pictured at the bottom is a simple pickup selector with 4 positions and the small pot is a simple volume. I have found 3 star bass diagrams but none have the treble/bass selector.

Per Petrus61 (Post #7), the Selector on the left is effectively the tone pot shown in Cadfael's Star Bass #3 ("Vintage 2012").

 

[40Hz]

What a great source of information for bass wiring diagrams! So glad I have this for my other bass projects although for some reason it doesn't list the control setup for my 5/150 star bass. Mine has a treble/bass toggle selector rather than a separate treble dial.

Yes indeed. Seems there were seven different iterations of the 5/150 Star bass. And each had a different control configuration. Small wonder Brother Cadfael doesn't have them all in his marvelous collection.

More on that here.

As far as the tone toggle goes, it probably just switches between two different capacitors. A small value one for treble and a larger value cap for bass. That switching scheme should be fairly easy to work out. That in turn gets wired to the volume pot just like a more traditional tone pot/capacitor combination would in a standard passive bass. The pickup selector seems to be a neck/both/bridge/off configuration that can be borrowed from one of the existing diagrams. It's a common enough switching arrangement.

(I've been told the main reason there's an "off" setting on many of those old basses is mainly because 4-position switches were easy to get, whereas a 3-position switch was less common and more expensive. So they needed to do something with that extra position - and voila! - the off feature was born. (Don't know if it's true btw. But it is one amusing explanation for it.)