TRBboy

Looks fantastic, especially for the money! 👌😍🔥

Big shout out to Jim Dunlop Guitar Products! I've been using Super Brights for probably around the last 10 years, they've been a revelation to me; REALLY easy to play, with lower tension than anything else out there, without feeling floppy, GREAT tone, and they last a super long time! I've never had any problems with them, however in December I was stringing my bass and the cores in a couple of the strings snapped. I contacted Jim Dunlop, and they sent me not one but TWO replacement sets! Now that's what I call customer service! 😊👌❤️

I think our aural tastes are similar: those pickups in the Marlowe DK are the Alnico V ones, the same as in the TT Passive 😉👌 I too think they're absolutely fantastic

Generally, 'active' basses have passive pickups and an active preamp. The main exception being EMGs, although various other active pickups exist but seem rarely seen in comparison. In very generalised terms, Alnico pickups will give you a warmer, more traditional sound, and ceramics will give a more modern, aggressive sound. The inductance of the pickup i.e. how hot it is also plays a part. Hotter pickups clearly will provide a more powerful sound, but that can be at the cost of 'tone' and being natural sounding. If I was looking to order a TM or VM, I think I'd go with @fretmeister suggestion of looking at alternative pickups. However, if you don't have much knowledge or experience of different types/brands of pickups, you're entirely reliant on the testimony of others to decide what you think will be best.

Difficult decisions! Both great pickups. After having a PJ set made for my bass build last year, I'd be going straight to Allan at Catswhisker pickups, best sounding, best value set of pickups I've ever had.

Sandberg's web shop says this in the description, which aligns with my experience: For more aggressive and modern Sound Ceramic Magnet with Ferro Pole Pieces Deep and Clear Sound

Yeah they didn't deliver quite what I was expecting. I've had pretty much every Sandberg pickup variant over the years, but can only speak from my experiences. I found the stock Sandberg 'Delano style' pickups to be a bit more organic than the black labels, but they're still pretty modern sounding.

I watched this video SOOOOO many times in the months I was waiting for my TT5 passive 🤣

I guess it all depends what you like tonally, the black labels are maybe okay if you want a modern, powerful, super clean and neutral sound, but I've come to realise that I prefer a much more organic, 'soulful' tone and dynamic response from pickups. I do highly recommend the Alnico V J pickups in the TT passive, they sound superb. If you want an active preamp, I'm sure they'd be happy to make you a TT5, but with the pickups from the passive model. Good luck in your endeavours! Oli

That's a stunner! 😍 You may well like them Mike, a lot of people do. Plus as long as you like the rest of the bass, pickups can be changed (admittedly it would be frustrating to have to on a new, expensive bass though).

Ah okay, gotcha. Well if it's on VM/TM pickups, that will be Sandberg Black Label pickups, and I've absolutely no idea who makes them 😅. I was really excited to try them, ordered a gorgeous VM5 I waited 9 months for, and then absolutely hated them when I got it! 🤣 Each to their own of course, but they were my least favourite Sandberg pickups I've had. I just found them to be HUGELY powerful and aggressive, too much so to my ears (and I like a hot pickup), but they just didn't have enough actual tonality for me, it was like a loud, angry lot of nothingness. All anecdotal and subjective of course, weren't for me though. After waiting ages for the bass, I sold it immediately (not solely because of the pickups).

I've been using lighter gauge for years now, it really helped reduce tension in my left hand. 40-120 5 string. Furthermore, I use Dunlop Super Brights, which are lower tension than anything else out there, and feel SUPER easy to play, whilst still having monster tone and lasting absolutely ages. Oli

I've tried in the past coaxing the info out of Mike at Sandberg service, and also Gregor Fris, neither were willing to give it up! 😅 Clearly Sandberg have had a long-standing relationship with Delano, and given that they sport the large pole pieces that Delano are known for, my money would be on them, probably wound to Holger's specs though, so slightly different to any stock Delano models. It's a bit like the preamps; they're definitely made by Glockenklang, but the EQ frequency bands are different to their stock preamps, according to Holger's specs. Despite my love for Sandberg, I'm personally not a huge fan of the large pole piece models. It's taken me 9 different basses to find my favourites, which are the Alnico V Jazz pickups found on the TT passive basses. I highly suspect these are made by Kloppmann, as they also have a close relationship with them (as featured on Gregor's custom spec TT passive). I'm not completely sure what you mean by the single and double pole designs, do you have a link or pics? Oli

Completely agree, yes it's not too my taste, but I really appreciate that Ibanez are always innovating and trying to change things up, it's refreshing compared to a lot of other guitar companies. They have loads of different choices at every price point. I'm most pleased that they're now doing more finishes in the SR500 series, which HAS to be about their biggest selling range. The old brown stain was pretty tired, but the black and black aurora burst in particular look awesome. I keep flirting with the idea of an EHB... Every time I pick one up in a guitar store it feels superb! 😍

I used just a cheap 250k MN from eBay and it seems to work fine. I've had crappy CTS pots, but all the cheap pots I've had have been great, so I'm happy to stick with cheap and cheerful 😅 It's only a true 'no load' circuit if you cut the traces at either end of the pot, nevertheless it works well without that. I'm not really fussed if each pickup isn't quite fully soloed at each extreme.

Don't know if it's of any interest to anyone here, but I rewired my BBN5 to be VBT last night, details here:

Honestly, describing what you like and don't like, I would HIGHLY recommend trying a Sandberg California TT5 passive. Ticks all your boxes, and the neck feel is on a whole other level. You could spec a completely customised instrument, even a masterpiece one to be honest, and still come in under your budget. Not the fanciest bass you can buy for that money, but really would fit the bill for you. Here's mine 😊

Hey folks! 😊 Finally got around to rewiring my BBN5 last night, I've never liked the VVT setup it came with as standard, and the tone pot was a bit 'all or nothing'. I used a schematic from a thread I saw some years ago on TB, and installed successfully on my PJ5 build last year. It really seems to work well, and I'd swear my Yamaha just sounds 'better' now too. The OP in the original thread actually cuts the traces each end of the blend pot, to give a true solo sound of each pickup at the two extremes of the pot rotation. I didn't bother with this, but it still just works really well, good smooth blending of the pickups and great tone. I know it's hardly advanced electronics, but it does work well, so I just thought I'd share in case it was of interest to anybody. Oh, and I changed my knobs while I was at it 😅. Original thread: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/ultimate-no-load-ungrounded-blend-pot-pics.1096449/

I'm.... Not a fan! 🫢 Where in the range does that sit? Is it a 4 series?

Right now, probably buy my old Sandberg back, and spend the remaining few grand on a new car 😅

I'm hoping to be going, went at the old venue and it was pretty good! Should we paint an orange BC on our foreheads so we can see each other? 😅

Thanks Sam! 😊

Thanks Paul, that's really interesting! Was it easy to get the board out?