OLP MM3 Mods

[sixdegrees]

Has anyone got an opinion on the quality of the original pups in these?
I've been planning to upgrade my MM3 OLP 5 string with an SD alnico pickup, and retrovibe stinger preamp. I've since realised that the SD pickup has a much wider string spacing than the original. Would the preamp alone make more difference than a replacement pickup? Does anyone rate the original pickup, or does it need replacing to get any benefit from a preamp?

[stingrayPete1977]

Is it active or passive now? The Tony Levin OLP5 I think is actually fairly good as is so the pickup must be alright, the 2 EQs (Stinger or John East or MM)are good but trickier to get to sit in a live mix as easily IMO.

[Rumple]

My MM3 is in bits at the moment as I might use the neck on a possible project but I quite liked the passive sound of the bass, nothing like a Ray I admit but pleasing none the less.

It's a bit expensive but Nordstrand do a replacement OLP sized pick-up

http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Nordstrand_Pickups_MM.html

[sixdegrees]

It's passive now, with a volume for each set of poles.
Do you mean sit in the mix, or cut through the mix with regard to the 2 band eq?

[stingrayPete1977]

Cutting through really, sounds great when it does though! The trick is to use the bass and treble to alter the mid, if you cut both you are left with just the middle so cutting some bass gives a similar outcome to boosting the mids on a three band version. The original pickup can probably just be rewired as one in parallel to give an authentic stingray tone but you could put a switch in for series parallel, maybe on a push pull knob with the volume?

[pete.young]

The Tony Levin has a preamp, the MM3 does not, it has one tone control and two volume controls. There is a thread somewhere on here by neepheid who put an Artec preamp into an olp, it is called something like "pimp mah olp".

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1425503408' post='2708053']
The Tony Levin has a preamp, the MM3 does not, it has one tone control and two volume controls. There is a thread somewhere on here by neepheid who put an Artec preamp into an olp, it is called something like "pimp mah olp".
[/quote] I mean if he fits a Stinger to it.

[cybertect]

[quote name='sixdegrees' timestamp='1425403938' post='2706996']Does anyone rate the original pickup, or does it need replacing to get any benefit from a preamp?
[/quote]

I bought my MM3 new in 2003 and it is totally stock (I noticed the other day that I've never even gotten round to removing the film from the scratch plate!); but I've had a number of appreciative comments from the audience about its tone over the years. Quite recently I was surprised to be told it sounded better than my '79 MM Sabre at the same gig.

Edited March 6, 2015 by cybertect