Active pickups, humbucking, and overall volume levels

[vomitHatSteve]

So in gearing up to record with my new band, I've been switching back and forth between my two basses, and I've noticed some behavior that makes me curious.

Bass A is a Peavy Foundation (fretless). It has 2 stock pickups that near as I can figure are identical.
Bass B is a Kramer of some variety of Spector active pickups. They're clearly not an identical set since one is a straight bar, and the other is split.

I've noticed that when I turn one of the pickups down on the Peavy, it starts to buzz. So I presume this means the two pickups are wired opposite each other, and this is standard humbucking behavior right?

On the Kramer, if I turn one of the pickups down slightly, the entire instrument gets louder. What would cause this? There's no hum either way. (The split pickup should be humbucking itself anyway, right?)

[Greg_L]

So in gearing up to record with my new band, I've been switching back and forth between my two basses, and I've noticed some behavior that makes me curious.

Bass A is a Peavy Foundation (fretless). It has 2 stock pickups that near as I can figure are identical.
Bass B is a Kramer of some variety of Spector active pickups. They're clearly not an identical set since one is a straight bar, and the other is split.

I've noticed that when I turn one of the pickups down on the Peavy, it starts to buzz. So I presume this means the two pickups are wired opposite each other, and this is standard humbucking behavior right?

On the Kramer, if I turn one of the pickups down slightly, the entire instrument gets louder. What would cause this? There's no hum either way. (The split pickup should be humbucking itself anyway, right?)

I don't know about the active problem, but it seems the Peavey is behaving normally for humbucking bass pickups. A "buzz" is never good though. Check the grounding in the bass.

[vomitHatSteve]

I don't know about the active problem, but it seems the Peavey is behaving normally for humbucking bass pickups. A "buzz" is never good though. Check the grounding in the bass.

"Buzz" was probably the wrong word. It's closer to the the standard noise floor just getting a little louder.

[ocnor]

Yes that is normal for the peavey. The pickups are out of phase from each other to cancel the hum. The Kramer probably has a dead spot in the volume pot causing the resistance to change.

[vomitHatSteve]

Yes that is normal for the peavey. The pickups are out of phase from each other to cancel the hum. The Kramer probably has a dead spot in the volume pot causing the resistance to change.

Hmmm... I suppose that's possible. It happens with both volume knobs tho.