On board preamp query

[stubass]

So, I've aquired an ibanez btb300 for much cheapness, I love the damn thing, it feels like a good woman in my arms! Problem is, I don't like her nasal voice! I've heard that ibanez stock preamps are pretty sh**ey and I must agree. Not much adjustment or colour. Can anyone recommend me an upgrade? At circa £100, what could one achieve?!?!

[icastle]

[quote name='stubass' timestamp='1395951675' post='2408386']
I've heard that ibanez stock preamps are pretty sh**ey and I must agree.
[/quote]

Without wishing to be funny, you're basing that on a bass that was retailing at £300?
There are limits to what a manufacturer is going to supply at that price point.
Go up into the SR range, which has a different preamp, and you'll struggle to find anyone complaining about them.

[quote name='stubass' timestamp='1395951675' post='2408386']
Not much adjustment or colour. Can anyone recommend me an upgrade? At circa £100, what could one achieve?!?!
[/quote]

In reality, very little because of other limitations.
You could spend £100's on pre-amps and pickups and still not get the sound you're after.
You'd probably get a far quicker, cheaper and flexible result by buying a Graphic EQ pedal.

[stubass]

I've got an SR and I'm happy with it, plug in and play, no arsing about, just want the same for the btb. I'm in a function band and I use on board controls a lot. I'm considering turfing it if I can't get anywhere and just get another SR. I do like how it sits though and I've sold a few basses that didn't feel right, reluctant to do that here. I personally hate pissing around with eq's but I might give it a try. Thanks.

[hamfist]

If you're handy with a soldering iron I can thoroughly recommend the Probass STinger preamp (£45 posted). Despite "only" having a bass and a treble control (although it's treble is more like a treble/upper mids) It's a thoroughly musical pre-amp. It only comes supplied ready for one input though, so you would need to either take a feed out of your current pickup balance pot, or wire in one of your own to get the functionality you would want from both your pickups.

[BigRedX]

Why not take out the under-performing pre-amp and simply go with passive volume and tone controls for each pickup. IME separate tone on individual pickups is more versatile than overall EQ. Besides you should have a good set of EQ controls somewhere else in your signal chain - probably on your amp.

[stubass]

Thanks chaps, I'll look into a stinger, worth a punt at that price. And yeah, might try it without the eq to see, that's a free option. I only use this bass for 3 songs dropped to D so the less adjustments to my amp the better from one bass to the other but I'll try. I was having a play around with it and I think there's something dodgy with the preamp. Seems to have been resoldered pretty rough and my blend pot does absolutely nothing. Going to get the schematics and check it out. The bridge pickup doesn't do much either, worrying!

[BanditSid]

I've played loads of gigs on a BTB400 and it always sounded good, maybe there's a problem with your preamp.

[stubass]

Yep, the pre was goosed, fitted an artec 3 band jobby last night and she's singing like a prostitute on the last Friday of the month. Good preamp for the money, only got it cos I wasn't 100% on it being the problem but won't be in a hurry to swap it out for a "better" one. Saga over tf.