Spector Tone Pump Jnr removal/passive mode?

[NancyJohnson]

Just a quick one for people in the know.

I've recently acquired a Spector Legend 8-string bass, it's got two SSD INC soaps and a Tone Pump Jnr preamp.  I've come to realise very quickly that the TPJnr really isn't doing it for me at all, god knows how it's factory settings are configured, but it's nigh on impossible for me to unplug it and change to a different bass without having to change all my amp settings to get a similar tone.

Soooo, here's the thing.  I'd like to remove the guts of it - the Tone Pump at least - and just go with a (four knobbage) passive set up in a VV/TT configuration.  I'm not actually certain how the SSD INC soapbars require the Tone Pump to operate.

Any suggestions for a twin passive soapbar set up?  The pickup routs are 3.5"x1.5"; I think the Bartolini Singularity BB4S B&T pickups will fit...

[Woodinblack]

Just now, NancyJohnson said:

Just a quick one for people in the know.

I've recently acquired a Spector Legend 8-string bass, it's got two SSD INC soaps and a Tone Pump Jnr preamp.  I've come to realise very quickly that the TPJnr really isn't doing it for me at all, god knows how it's factory settings are configured, but it's nigh on impossible for me to unplug it and change to a different bass without having to change all my amp settings to get a similar tone.

Are you sure that removing the preamp will make the difference to changing your amp settings? Isn't the tonepump on those a boost only thing, so if you turn them all off they should be flat?

[NancyJohnson]

@Woodinblack

I've read a few bits about the Jnr. this afternoon; that the tone controls are +/-12db bass and treble (so you need to locate a central position for a median/flat tone - there's no centre indent) and that the knobs just need to be rolled right back and then rolled forward to boost, however there a thread here (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/93320-spector-tonepump-is-not-boost-only/) that seems to clarify that it's cut and boost.  Interestingly, there's a lot of posts about bass players removing them.

Interestingly, there's a couple of comments about the Tonepump Jnr being too hot and that it distorts/clips the amp (which is the case with mine); if you roll back the volume knobs on the bass and play hard, tonally you're not getting as full range a tone as you are having everything on full and playing not so hard, if that makes sense.  There's no facility on the Jnr to roll back the output in the body cavity.  As @Conan posted Yes, the output is very hot, but can be tamed by judicious use of the bass and treble controls.

In the real world, I just want a bass that I can turn the volumes up full, plug in and go, and forget about tweaking when I'm playing.  I really haven't got any inclination on locating the bass's sweet spot or whatever it's called!

[Woodinblack]

I agree, the tone controls on a the legend 8 were unnecessarily faffy. I am used to something a bit more simple, like bass / treble with a centre indent when they are flat. For all my ibanezes with bass, mid and treble, I almost always have them flat all the time unless something happens in the middle of a gig.

in a way, the G&L tone controls are good for that. It has bass cut and tone (ie treble cut). Flat out is completely flat, anything else reduces. 
let the amp do the shaping, and the controls on the bass remove a problem

[NancyJohnson]

I still feel like pulling the whole lot out, plus I'm still uncertain how the stock pickups will operate if I just went the passive route.  I may pull the battery out later and dig out my little crocodile clips.

[Woodinblack]

Well, they are marked as 'emg designed passive pickups', so there should be no problem just pulling the preamp out and just wiring it like a gibson. 

[NancyJohnson]

Well, I've ascertained that the pickups work fine (battery out, crocodile clips), so I'm just going to whip the TP Jnr out and rewire it passive.

I've never really been that au fait with active pickups/electrics. I'm fine with the John East kind of thing, that you're simply adding a big chunk of preamp/active circuit between the (previously passive) pickups and the output jack, but it's the stuff like EMGs/Barts etc. where there just seems to be fork all circuitry in the loom that confuses me.  Do the pickups themselves contain some kind of circuitry?  The pots?

 

[Woodinblack]

Very rare to get active pickups. Most active basses are just passive pickups with a preamp. So all the preamp does is buffer the signal from the passive pickups so it can drive it down the wire. Except once you have a passive preamp, you might as well put tone controls on it as you have the ability to do it, but not essential. 

 

[NancyJohnson]

Right, it's done.

The Tone Pump is out and, at this juncture, I've simply bypassed the tone control pots and gone straight into the output jack (I've done this previously; to be honest, as I generally play with everything open, it's fine).. 

Had a quick noodle, I just feel it sounds cleaner tonally and a bit more under control.  Incidentally (and I forgot to mention this earlier), I was also getting in intermittent loud popping off the neck pickup if I played to hard over it, and that's disappeared too.

Happy now.

[Woodinblack]

After all that though, its still not very... thunderbirdy.. though is it?

[NancyJohnson]

Just now, Woodinblack said:

After all that though, its still not very... thunderbirdy.. though is it?

lol

I bought a Euro LT with some of my mother's inheritance money (cough, it's what she would have wanted, cough) and while I don't own a single Gibson at this point, we're still sitting at Thunderbird shapes 3, Spector NS shapes 2.  There's also a single Precision interloper.

 

[Woodinblack]

Slippery slope...