therealting

I’m not a huge fan of the EMG setup in my Shuker 6-string, and have purchased a pair of Nordstrand Big Splits to pop in. The EMG pre is going to come out along with the EMG 45s, but I’m wondering what everyone’s thoughts are on how to wire them up. There will be five holes in the front of the bass (2 above 3) Should I go passive V/B/T with coil taps? Or 2/3 band pre? My favourite pre is the Sadowsky, although I also have Glockenklang and John East pres in my other active basses. That said, although it’s nice to have controls at my fingertips, I tend to run them flat into my Noble.

There also appear to be a few different shapes for five string precision pickups - do you divide them 3/2 or 2/3? Does the 2 side extend to be symmetrical with the 3 side, or do they keep it shorter? Personally I love my Dingwall Super P5 - extremely balanced all over the neck and wonderful clear tone. Fitted a Sadowsky pre and with Chromes on it I’m in tone heaven.

I actually started on a six (a Mk I Yamaha TRB) and for a long time found it easier than a five-string. Less shifting, access to chords etc. I mainly play Ps these days and while I love my 61 and 64, my 5-string Dingwall Super P might just be the best bass I’ve played and owned. I feel like it could handle just about any gig.

A 25% advantage!

I’ve always found six strings easier to get on with than fivers for some weird reason, but am now almost as comfy with fivers.

I think it looks better with the nitro. Serious mojo!

@BassApprentice Ooh, always wanted to try those strings. Do you have any clips or videos?

1. Nope, humans can hear it fine if you have decent amplification. 2. Strings can be whatever you favour. As a guide, look at 5-string sets with gauges similar to your preferred 4-string set. 3. If you can’t get a stock black guard, there are lots of places you can get one made. 4. Hipshot do good lightweight tuners, Gotoh Res-o-lites are also fantastic. Depends what yours swap easily with. 5. Pickups can be a worthwhile swap if you know what you want. @KiOgon is the king of wiring harnesses here.

The Warmoth Dinky J is basically the Sadowsky shape.

@4000 Apologies for the poor paraphrase! That’s all fair enough. I’ve found that I tend not to favour the Jazz tone too much, in general a good P tone tends to do the trick for me.

I think a lot depends on what you like out of a bass sound, it’s certainly a lot cleaner sounding than - say - a Tone Hammer or a Darkglass. Tone is so subjective, for instance although I am a Dingwall player I can’t stand that grating bass sound that lots of NG2/3 players seem to want to replicate.

@Al Krow IMO the Sadowsky pre gets you a hefty chunk of the way towards the Sadowsky sound. The rest of the bass is fundamentally just a (very nicely) tweaked Fender. I’ve plugged all sorts of basses in including my two pre-CBS Precisions and the pedal adds that extra polish to them that I really like. M Roger is very open about it being an Alex Aguilar design. I think the Aggie pres have a wider sweep, but similar EQ frequency points. I do not find the lack of mid control a problem. Someone earlier said that they were unlikely to try a Sadowsky at a gig because they didn’t like how it sounded at home. To me this is like not wanting to try a Ferrari out on track because you don’t like trying to park it at a supermarket 😂

I own a Sadowsky MV4, and have had Sadowsky preamps put into two Dingwall Supers (a J5 and a P5). All these basses sound very good at bedroom levels. However, they sound absolutely superb in a band context - clear and precise, but still with plenty of warmth and punch. I liked them enough that I also bought a Preamp DI which lived on my board for years, only being displaced by a Noble Preamp a couple years ago. If you already have a passive bass you like, a Sadowsky Preamp DI is a very inexpensive way to get the Sadowsky active sound (footswitchable) and it’s also a very good DI with a tuner mute. The EQ points and curves just seem to work extremely well for getting the bass sound you want without getting in the way of everyone else even in a dense mix.

That’s actually one of the coolest-looking basses I’ve seen in a while.