Philip Ramsey Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funkfingers Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 SHORT ANSWER The best pre-amp for a professional quality, passive Jazz Bass is the front end of an Ampeg SVT. Second choice, the SVPCL LONG ANSWER What improvements do you wish the active circuitry installation to provide? Bear in mind that combining passive single coil pickups with boosting electronics will increase background noise. Even if your pickups employ a reverse magnetic polarity and coil winding direction relationship in an attempt to cancel noise and interference, this can only be effective when both pickup volume controls are set to the same level. On a physical level, on a regular Jazz Bass body, the PP3 and all of the electronics need to squeeze into the control cavity. A more practical option is to have a battery compartment cut into the back of the instrument. The downside is that this alteration is not reversible. If you like the idea of the Seymour Duncan STC-3 system, it used to be available as the Paranormal pedal. All the same controls and switching as the onboard version with the addition of an XLR direct injection socket. Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 One of these. I have one in my Jazz and it's fantastic. http://www.east-uk.com/index.php/all-products/j-retro-01.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoJoKe Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 (edited) +1 for John East! Supplied on a bell plate which drops into the bass with little or no effort! Which one; for me the J-Retro all the way! I have one fitted on my 5 string jazz fretless (the swept mid EQ gives some great, growly Wal-esque tones) and another in my Lakland DJ5. Some might say they are too hot, in which case East have the J-Tone, which is a more subtle and oriented to a a more punchy passive sound. Hope that helps! Edited December 30, 2017 by MoJoKe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoJoKe Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 8 hours ago, Funkfingers said: Bear in mind that combining passive single coil pickups with boosting electronics will increase background noise. On a physical level, on a regular Jazz Bass body, the PP3 and all of the electronics need to squeeze into the control cavity. With the J-retro I have never experienced issues with either of the above with any of the basses I've owned. The J-retro currently in my fretless has previously been in two other basses (a Squier VM5 and a Lakland JO5). With no noise or fit issues. The only slight pain is you need to remove the bell plate again to refit a new battery, and it can be fiddly to re-seat with the pickup and battery connector wiring, but once you get the nack, its straightforward, and more importantly doesn't need to be done that often (3-6 months as long as you don't leave the jack plugged in between shows or at home/studio)! If you are not sure it will work for you, and want this to be reversible, simply make sure you take a pic of the wiring before you make any modification so you can re-solder the connections correctly, but otherwise it'll be completely reversible with no damage at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 I had an East J-Retro in my Jazz and went back to passive after a while. The East is excellent, but I felt the active preamp robbed the instrument of that essential Jazz Bass character and made it sound a bit more generic, if that makes sense. I was initially impressed (and the East is very well made and clean sounding), but grew tired of it, so replaced it with new pots, cap and wiring and sold it on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoJoKe Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 (edited) 2 hours ago, Dan Dare said: I had an East J-Retro in my Jazz and went back to passive after a while. The East is excellent, but I felt the active preamp robbed the instrument of that essential Jazz Bass character and made it sound a bit more generic, if that makes sense. I was initially impressed (and the East is very well made and clean sounding), but grew tired of it, so replaced it with new pots, cap and wiring and sold it on. I think this is why he developed the J-Tone... It is less "preamp-y" and more like the bass it is fitted to. I don't know this for sure as I have never used one, but found this video and would definitely love to try one myself! Edited December 30, 2017 by MoJoKe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funkfingers Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 3 hours ago, Dan Dare said: I ... went back to passive after a while ... I felt the active preamp robbed the instrument of that essential Jazz Bass character and made it sound a bit more generic, if that makes sense. Makes sense to me. With Jazz Bass guitars, I like passive Fender pickups and pots for certain sounds and fully active replacement pickup/EQ systems for others. i.e. The old Seymour Duncan Active EQ "switch" pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoJoKe Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 3 minutes ago, Funkfingers said: Makes sense to me. With Jazz Bass guitars, I like passive Fender pickups and pots for certain sounds and fully active replacement pickup/EQ systems for others. i.e. The old Seymour Duncan Active EQ "switch" pickups. Ditto, would love to give the J-tone a try though! Anyone out there got one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 Interesting video above. I do feel it confirms what I found. If I couldn't see that he was playing a J bass, I'd be hard pressed to tell that was the case from the sound alone (I appreciate it's a Squier, rather than a full fat one). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 another vote for the J-Retro01 I've tried other preamps, Audere and the like... nothing came close to the J-Retro for my taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 John East without a doubt. Infinitely flexible and user friendly too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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