Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

NPAPD (new pickup and pre day)


LukeFRC
 Share

Recommended Posts

Woooo!

Well there has always been something about my Warwick that... doesn't quite do it for me. A amazing bass, sounds great... but something didn't feel right.
Well as an experiment with christmas money I bought some bartolini pickups... but then would need a new pickup blend control so never put them in. And the MEC's grew on me.

Well put the barts up for sale and no one wanted them so they sat in my room and I got on with life. And then I figured, well may as well get a pot and try them.... but a replacement pot from warwick costs a lot, so £10 more than that I picked up a Glockenklang two band preamp from Davetbass and spent this evening from 7-10.30 carefully taking the old electronics and pickups out and putting the new ones in.... and then it was finished.... and nothing happened.
No idea what it was really but something in the volume control was sending the live signal to ground whatever the setting.... except I didn't know that, cue hours trying to spot my mistake, wondering if the pre was broken, were the pups.... and then narrowed it down to the volume pot, took it out, stuck it back in and it works.... except for the fact that it's now past midnight, I'm tired and the flatmates are in bed so I can't try it out, my tuner is getting a signal though! woo :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So it works... and I thought I would give a little review and explanation, there will be a video comparison coming too.

My problem with the MEC's were that were very aggressive with a very very sharp attack, added to the maple of my bass and it was almost like there was some mids being scooped out all the time. But they are good pups, very responsive, not massive deep lows but getting growly (?) when pushed at the bottom end. Because of the attack it wasn't the best bass for sitting plodding on the root note but enjoyed funky stuff.
I actually quite like the old MEC two band pre, the bass point is daftly high and the high point pretty low. In practice that means the bass knob acts as a general beefing up of the sound, making it fatter, when boosted and cleaned things up in the mix when cut. The treble was set at the cutting through point, with the highs and some high mids coming with it, making it more present in the mix and honing the attack/aggressiveness. cutting the top end I never found that useful. It's a nice pre and I imagine works perfectly on one of the more dark sounding warwicks.

So why the change. we simply put my warwick sounded lovely. But very distinctive. There were some things I would use my P for, and others where I would want a Jazz. As a response last year I bought and sold on loads of other basses, toyed with selling the wick several times and kept wanting to change things. Even when the bass would sound amazing the next song I would be sat there wanting less aggressiveness, the MEC azz pup sounded pretty good, but I was less impressed with the P pup, it was just weaker. My plan is to have one main bass, to play it and stop looking at other basses so much (less basschat too) to do that I could either find that one bass somewhere, and then bring myself to sell the wick, or to do something to the wick....
The idea of finding a bass that fits my body, feels so nice, is so lightweight and so well made as my streamer.... well I don't think it was going to happen, there are folk on here who spend thousands on many different basses and are still searching for 'the one', I had found it, but didn't have a sound that would fit in all circumstances.

So the barts and glockenklang.... first impressions, it still sounds like my bass, but better. the P pup is beefier, more P sounding, the jazz pup lacks the aggressiveness of the MEC but sounds good and overall the range of tones between the pups is far wider. Generally the bass has been smoothed out and is rounder, the aggressive attack is dulled, but still to an extent there if I change my right hand technique. In practice what it means is that the bass is more versatile, it feels more balanced in sound, I like.
The glockenklang will take more getting used to I think, passive mode with a tone control is a nice touch, esp good on the bridge pup, active mode the bass is less middy and more bottom end. I think useful for some set ups, with my tecamp puma not lacking a nice bottom end it feels less useful at the moment- but cutting it is more useful as the low mids stay in there. The high point on this pre is daftly high, and quite similar sounding to the high freq boost on my amp. Cutting there is a bit odd, and boosting... I think it will work live, it needs getting used too.

so overall I am happy, I get to try it out tomorrow with the band.

Oh and a new jack replacing the chocolate built original :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well played live, even through the crappy trace 2x10 combo I was using, it sounded great. Still not sure about the preamp. the bass control is brilliant, really fattens up the sound... the treble.... less good, it is pretty high set. I guess on my amp I can just boost the treble.
Also need to work on the pickup balance, one very loud neck pup and very quiet bridge.
I do like how you get the phasing mid cut with both pups on :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had one of those preamps, in a bass with a MM (bridge) and J (neck) pickups.
I felt the same way about you regarding the highs. They are VERY high. I found them useful only to remove finger noise and make the sound a bit "rounder". That felt a bit odd, although the mids control was quite well chosen in frequency and bandwidth, and the amount of boost and cut seemed plenty. Lots of bass on tap too, like you noticed.
It didn't give me goosebumps, but it was nice. I expected better than just nice 'though. I eventually sold the bass with the preamp.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1329152864' post='1537969']
I had one of those preamps, in a bass with a MM (bridge) and J (neck) pickups.
I felt the same way about you regarding the highs. They are VERY high. I found them useful only to remove finger noise and make the sound a bit "rounder". That felt a bit odd, although the mids control was quite well chosen in frequency and bandwidth, and the amount of boost and cut seemed plenty. Lots of bass on tap too, like you noticed.
It didn't give me goosebumps, but it was nice. I expected better than just nice 'though. I eventually sold the bass with the preamp.
[/quote]
:) I don't have the mid control, mine is two band. Dunno what I think of it to be honest, it feels better at the bottom end than the MEC (way better) and love the passive roll off in passive mode, but really not sure about the high end.
Not sure if I can be bothered trying anything else though, and wouldn't know what to try!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1329155911' post='1538073']
ah, two band!
If your MEC is like the one I had on my Corvette $$, I can understand what you like about the bottom end of the Glockenklang. Although I was happy enough with the MEC on that bass.
[/quote]

may try it back in and sell the block. Dunno, the bass is nice, but it's a bit odd not having that high boost on tap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...