Ampro CD-J Jazz Active Conversion Kit

[Norris]

A few years ago somebody gave me this kit. They had it sitting on a shelf for several years before that. It's for converting a Jazz ("Jazz bass, lookalike or clone" says the documentation ) to active and dates to 1987. Fitting the kit involves routing out a battery compartment behind the scratchplate and has a cover that fits to the scratchplate. I'm not the greatest fan of active, and I'm certainly not going to take a router to one of mine to try it out.

The kit seems to be complete, all packages still unopened, all instructions and templates present. It takes a single 9V battery and contains active/passive switch, switched output socket and battery warning LED.

For your amusement, some marketing blurb verbatim from the manual:
[quote]CD-J ACTIVATOR The heart of this professional system. Power up your JAZZ BASS with a truly silent Treble and Bass control. Super Thick Bass and Ultra Shrill Treble at your finger tips. The controls are NON-INTERACTIVE giving wide tonal combinations. Output suits usual amplifiers and pedal effects as well as studio DIRECT INJECTION. The ACTIVATOR will even power headphones for tuning in the dressing room![/quote]

So, is it any good? (And, shamelessly) Is it likely to be worth anything?

Behold pictures:
[attachment=65673:004.JPG][attachment=65674:002.JPG][attachment=65675:001.JPG]

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Weird! It looks from the manual that it has Volume, Pickup Pan, an LED & an active passive switch, but no eq control. I thought more control of eq was the main point of an active unit - that's why I have an East J-Retro in my jazz.

[Norris]

The tone control (or whatever) is just called 'Mix'. Whether it's a pan, or controls the "Ultra Shrill Treble" I don't know. There's a lot of information about fitting it, but not too much about controlling it or what it does.