Looking East This Christmas

[deepbass5]

I have been through a bit of a Bass change round this last year, and now down to Three wise men in my stable.
My main Gigging bass remains. A shuker 5 string I bought from Homer about three years ago now. Ash body, maple neck and board, camphor top fitted with Wizards and a John East deluxe 5 preamp.
So was thinking if I get my last two acquisitions loaded full of East 'n' promise they may shine as well.

First up is my Status Electro 2, bought this from Tim in Ireland back in August. Very nice bass. Bought it for jazz and 60's pop/ motown. Slapped some black nylons on it straight away and got some really nice sounds. The existing EQ was a little scratchy and didn't feel the two tone roll off knobs did much at all. So E-mailed John East to discuss his piezo board and how I could best control a Mag and Piezo pickups.
John came up with a Hybrid U-retro he adapted to buffer the piezo and give me Vol, Pan, Stacked Bass/treble, stacked Mid/Freq.

Shown below is the Status before the Mod. and while adding the copper shielding to the control cavity. then the finished job from above. all as I can say is Wow. Really impressed. This preamp has given this bass everything I had hoped for.
I posted this thread as there has been some recent questions over retro fitting Eqs with piezo and mag pickups. I knew John did a piezo control board the MPM-01 so thought i would go for this and the SPM-02 control pots, but he suggested he could adapt the 4 knob u-retro to give separate Volume and balance with stacked bass/treble and stacked mid. The install was easy enough. got some 10mm>8mm bushes from Status so I could fit the modern U-retro thin pots to the larger holes on the Status.

Self adhesive copper screening foil was from WD music [url="http://www.wdmusic.co.uk"]www.wdmusic.co.uk[/url]

The next Bass due for an East U-retro 4 knob deluxe is my latest acquisition an MBass from Scooby to be undertaken over Christmas.

Edited December 22, 2013 by deepbass5

[deepbass5]

I had not planned to retro fit a new preamp into the mBass. But I felt something needed to be done to achieve its full potential. I bought this from Scooby on a rush of Gas, a couple of months back as I have always wanted one and still feel they are one of the most beautiful basses made. (Marmite I know). Having set the bass up the way I like it and put on my normal strings (GHS boomers). The bass did not respond as I had believed a bass of this build quality should. Very difficult to define and explain but the nearest I can describe is that it had a head cold. It just didn’t breath properly despite the variations in tone with the two pickups and the switchable humbucker. I felt all the available sounds lacked some presents.
The existing controls are Volume, pan, stacked bass/treble. And a passive tone. I was thinking of wiring out the passive tone knob to be full on and I could then use the hole for a mid freq pot. Having written to John East I went for the U-retro 4 knob deluxe as a complete replacement.

Pictures below show control cavity and the existing Pots. Very neat cavity with good shielding, the battery nicely tucked into its own alcove. The first issue I discovered was the hole sizes were different, two large ones a medium and one small. The surface plate of the Russian walnut top was countersunk requiring box spanners or reverting to the dangers of long nose pliers. The sunken jack socket plate was also a different thread to the East unit so I had to swap the two over. The picture shows the internal thread protruding; I had previously removed a thick plastic washer from behind the original to enable the jack to come further out of the recess allowing for right angle jack use without fouling the bass body. I wanted to retain this.
Having drilled out the smaller hole I was ready to fit the East preamp. I had intended to lay the circuit board on its edge between the pots as I had with the Status bass but the cavity depth risked shorting out on the shielding.
Assessing the best layout on these aftermarket installs is always a compromise. The final positioning is not pretty but it is safe from shorting and accessible for battery changes. I did have to extend some wires and re- route an earth cable from ground to be the pickup cold into John’s board. Most were common sense adaptations from previous bass projects. I also changed the grounded white wire from the neck pickup to be the hot into John’s board instead of the black, but had to change this back after experiencing the dip in pickup volume in the centre position you get if the two pickups are working against each other.
Good news
Immediately after switch on it has shown it has lost whatever masked its ability to speak clearly, I still find it difficult to describe what it was, but now even the pan control has a greater affect on the tone and I find the Neck pickup more pleasing than before, more “P ” like. All the sounds including the switchable humbucker are more pleasing and distinct. I am always wary being too hasty to praise a new toy, as is often the case on the forum. But this installation and first testing has come as a great relief to me and I look forward to gigging this great bass again with renewed passion.

Hope someone finds this useful

Edited December 29, 2013 by deepbass5

[deepbass5]

Down to three basses now all 5's but all different enough to cover most situations. Now all East equiped.


[b]Status Electro 5.[/b] I have installed Status black nylons, but also tried GHS. Prefer the Status tone but kept the GHS on the (D & G string) as they have higher tension. The East U-retro has really given this bass a voice. Very flexible sounds between the Piezo and Mag pickup. My choice for Jazz / 60's and Motown.
[b]The Shuker[/b] is as I bought it and has the East U-retro 5 knob deluxe, with Wizard pickups.
[b]Marleaux mBass[/b]. All as above fantastic workmanship, really pleased the East preamp brought this bass to life. This may now give the Shuker a tussle for the Pop and funkier sets next year.

Edited December 29, 2013 by deepbass5