John East Preamp - it's excellent

[dub]

I recently bought a John East BTB-MMSR 4 Knob preamp to replace the original Musicman preamp in my 1990 Ernie ball stingray 5.
Although I liked the tone of the original, I found it a bit noisy and was interested in getting a sound closer to a 70s Musicman. I had already swapped the pickup for a seymour duncan alcino a couple of years ago which was a step closer to what I was looking for.

It has a fantastic sound and much quieter S/N ratio that the original. The mid sweep is ideal for cutting a bit of low mid when switched to humbucking or boosting 100Hz for a massive dub sound. It is very close to a 70s MM sound with a bit of extra boost on the bass. It's the best sounding preamp I've come across so far.

[7string]

Sounds like the change of preamp was a really shot in the arm for your a bass. Definately something that would be on some bassist's letters to Santa.

I have to admit to really liking the ACG/John East preamp. It's not "plug and play" you have to spend some time finding the best sounds for you, but it's time well spent.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

+1 for John East's excellent preamps - I love my J-retro

[quote name='dub' post='358691' date='Dec 19 2008, 11:55 AM']I recently bought a John East BTB-MMSR 4 Knob preamp to replace the original Musicman preamp in my 1990 Ernie ball stingray 5.
Although I liked the tone of the original, I found it a bit noisy and was interested in getting a sound closer to a 70s Musicman. I had already swapped the pickup for a seymour duncan alcino a couple of years ago which was a step closer to what I was looking for.

It has a fantastic sound and much quieter S/N ratio that the original. The mid sweep is ideal for cutting a bit of low mid when switched to humbucking or boosting 100Hz for a massive dub sound. It is very close to a 70s MM sound with a bit of extra boost on the bass. It's the best sounding preamp I've come across so far.[/quote]
I dare you to post that on the EBMM forum though

[dub]

Yeh, I'm not going to stir it on the EBMM forum, I can imagine the response. For some reason people can be very defensive about their own gear.

I would never imply that what I like is right for everyone. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, is always good advice.
I did like the tone of the original preamp from the bass, but I like the John East more, it has such great clarity.
The other danger is that the possibilities for messing with your bass are endless.

I just spotted the nordstrand mm5.2 pickup and I like the idea of having the choice of a hum free single coil tone, but I usually use the humbucking mode on the pickup, so I should really just leave it alone, if it aint broke...

Has anyone tried that Nordstrand?

[Kev]

theres a couple of ray owners on here that have nordstrands, obbm's ray 5 has one iirc

Edited January 2, 2009 by BassManKev

[JPJ]

John's preamps are the dogs doodahs imho.

I've got two J-Retro's (Overwater J & Fender J) and I've got his BTB & Mid-Stack in my Precision mutant and they all sound perfect to me.

Big +1 for John's work and interesting to hear that his Stingray pre is similarly good as my next project is going to be Stingray based.

[Kev]

i was thinkin of john easting my stingray, but id lose the pickup switch functionality iv been told, would there be any way round that??

[dub]

[quote name='BassManKev' post='368482' date='Jan 2 2009, 02:05 PM']i was thinkin of john easting my stingray, but id lose the pickup switch functionality iv been told, would there be any way round that??[/quote]

I use the pickup switch in mine with no problems. The best thing to do is get the details of your bass and check with john, 3 coil pickups may be different.

[acidbass]

I'm pretty sure John will accommodate you with regard to the pickup switch, probably best to post over on his affiliate forum to check