fortress + bartolini + glockenklang = :)

[ahpook]

before going away at the weekend i picked up a bartolini jazz pickup for my fortress to match the bart precision one i've already installed and a glockenklang 2-band active circuit to replace the stock mec one that came with the bass.

just spent a very careful hour or so intalling the pickup and wiring up the preamp.

and...whoooo ! what a difference !!

the preamp is amazing...doesn't seem to colour the bass as much as the mec one, and the added touch of having a passive tone control when the active is bypassed is such a boon !

the glockenklang is a bit of a fiddly wiring job, but fairly straightforward if you take your time and are careful.


so, thanks to thomann for the pre and allparts uk for the bartolini.

[Grand Wazoo]

Dingwall basses come with those Glockenklang pre-amps and yeah they are awesome. You can tell the subtle difference when switching from passive to active in the fact that they really just add frequency range rather than over-colouring the tone or giving you an unwanted exaggerated boost. I really rate those preamps. +10000000

[ahpook]

i've been playing the fortress for the last couple of hours and it sounds so much better than with the mec pre.

only ~€100 from thomann too...

[mojobass]

ive been tempted to try swapping out my MEC stuff in my fortess too! cant make my mind up though! like barts but also like EMG! decisions decisions...but the prices on thomann for the glok pre's are pretty good!! wonder if my stock MEC pups would sound any better through a glok??

[ahpook]

well, the pickups in my fortress were quite weak, so i thought i'd change the front pickup to see what difference it made, and the 2nd hand bartolini i got really increased the output, but i still wasn't keen on the eq, so that's why i went the whole hog and changed both p-ups and the eq.

i wasn't keen on the eq on the corvette $$ i had either, but oddly the one in my rockbass fretless sounds fine to me.