Lakland Skyline 55-02 gets new electronics...

[bassmayhem]

My fretless 55-02 died in December last year. I ordered new pickups from Nordstrand and a preamp from John East, the Uni Pre 5 knob.
I had to wait 'til the middle of July to get all the goodies, due to the Corona situation, but now it is completed. It was a h*ll of a job to get all the preamp parts and the mini toggle switch for the MM pickup in place; it took my tech a day and a half to get it right. Now I can use the bass in active AND passive mode; that was not the case with the original Bartolini pickups: the difference in volume was enormous. Now there is no difference what so ever. 

In the original electronics, the mini toggle switch switched between 60's Jazz pickup position, 70's Jazz pickup position and Stingray tone. Now I have the 70's Jazz position, Stingray (parallel) and "Solo volume" (series).John East is the king of electronics. Carey Nordstrand makes fine pickups; may he recover well from his cancer treatment. 💖

[ebenezer]

Well, it's nice to know the circuit fits in the cavity!.....i have a 55-01 and i am putting in nordstrand big splits along with the uni-pre 5......looks mega and it will sound mega.

[bassmayhem]

14 hours ago, ebenezer said:

Well, it's nice to know the circuit fits in the cavity!.....i have a 55-01 and i am putting in nordstrand big splits along with the uni-pre 5......looks mega and it will sound mega.

Then you have a bit easier; you don't have to think about the mini switch, no matter how mini it is, it takes some expensive space in the cavity. Also, the drilled holes for the original preamp are bigger, so you need bigger washers and cannot have a nut or washers on the inside, due to the length of the shafts and threads. Good luck!  

A guy here in Sweden has this one, the same as yours but with Big Singles and Glockenklang 3-band preamp:

Edited August 2, 2020 by bassmayhem

[LukeFRC]

I made the same switch last month in my Lakland- I don’t know about you but mine is early enough to not have a separate battery compartment - it was quite a tight squeeze to fit everything in! 
it is brilliant - mine is louder than passive As the pickups are so quiet! I can live with that! 
 How did you find the adjustable bass and treble frequencies inside. I found the bass quite tricky to set to do what I wanted! 
 

FWIW in my measuring and converting from 34 to 35inch scale the bridge coil of the MM pup is 60s jazz position. (The whole pup is slightly further towards the bridge than a stingray positioning)

[bassmayhem]

7 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

I made the same switch last month in my Lakland- I don’t know about you but mine is early enough to not have a separate battery compartment - it was quite a tight squeeze to fit everything in! 
it is brilliant - mine is louder than passive As the pickups are so quiet! I can live with that! 
 How did you find the adjustable bass and treble frequencies inside. I found the bass quite tricky to set to do what I wanted! 
 

FWIW in my measuring and converting from 34 to 35inch scale the bridge coil of the MM pup is 60s jazz position. (The whole pup is slightly further towards the bridge than a stingray positioning)

Well, I left them untouched, those adjustment wheels.  I kinda use it with everything neutral.

[LukeFRC]

2 hours ago, bassmayhem said:

Well, I left them untouched, those adjustment wheels.  I kinda use it with everything neutral.

they are quite powerful in fine tuning - esp treble boost if you use that. 

I really love the treble boost/pick attack whatever it's called when you pull the treble out, but with the passive tone backed a wee bit

[Rudybee]

Bass Mayhem, what model # pups did you put in your Lakeland fretless? I have the same bass & would love the passive/ active option as it has the Barts currently. Thanks in advance my brother.

[bassmayhem]

On 01/08/2020 at 20:08, ebenezer said:

Well, it's nice to know the circuit fits in the cavity!.....i have a 55-01 and i am putting in nordstrand big splits along with the uni-pre 5......looks mega and it will sound mega.

It is a VERY TIGHT FIT...  

[Rudybee]

On 01/08/2020 at 11:08, bassmayhem said:

My fretless 55-02 died in December last year. I ordered new pickups from Nordstrand and a preamp from John East, the Uni Pre 5 knob.
I had to wait 'til the middle of July to get all the goodies, due to the Corona situation, but now it is completed. It was a h*ll of a job to get all the preamp parts and the mini toggle switch for the MM pickup in place; it took my tech a day and a half to get it right. Now I can use the bass in active AND passive mode; that was not the case with the original Bartolini pickups: the difference in volume was enormous. Now there is no difference what so ever. 

In the original electronics, the mini toggle switch switched between 60's Jazz pickup position, 70's Jazz pickup position and Stingray tone. Now I have the 70's Jazz position, Stingray (parallel) and "Solo volume" (series).John East is the king of electronics. Carey Nordstrand makes fine pickups; may he recover well from his cancer treatment. 💖

Bass Mayhem, what model # pups did you put in your Lakeland fretless? I have the same bass & would love the passive/ active option as it has the Barts currently. Thanks in advance my brother.

 

[bassmayhem]

1 hour ago, Rudybee said:

Bass Mayhem, what model # pups did you put in your Lakeland fretless? I have the same bass & would love the passive/ active option as it has the Barts currently. Thanks in advance my brother.

What a beautiful bass...!
The Nordstrand Big Splitman 5 with Lakland spacing in the bridge position, and the NJ5S in the mid/neck position. I used the original mini toggle switch to get series/parallel/70's coil mode. The pickup has four coils so it is humbucking in all positions, and I preferred the coil closest to the bridge to get the tone I like. The preamp is the stellar John East Uni Pre 5. It takes some thinking, squeezing and sweating to get things in place. I had to put the balance pot as the frontmost pot. The volume is just in front of the toggle switch.The two lower are mid/mid shift and bass/treble. The "rearest" pot is passive tone.

https://nordstrandaudio.com/collections/5-string-music-man-bass-pickups/products/big-split-man-5?variant=48677049940
https://nordstrandaudio.com/collections/5-string-jazz-bass-pickups/products/nj5s-hum-cancelling

 

[Rudybee]

4 hours ago, bassmayhem said:

What a beautiful bass...!
The Nordstrand Big Splitman 5 with Lakland spacing in the bridge position, and the NJ5S in the mid/neck position. I used the original mini toggle switch to get series/parallel/70's coil mode. The pickup has four coils so it is humbucking in all positions, and I preferred the coil closest to the bridge to get the tone I like. The preamp is the stellar John East Uni Pre 5. It takes some thinking, squeezing and sweating to get things in place. I had to put the balance pot as the frontmost pot. The volume is just in front of the toggle switch.The two lower are mid/mid shift and bass/treble. The "rearest" pot is passive tone.

https://nordstrandaudio.com/collections/5-string-music-man-bass-pickups/products/big-split-man-5?variant=48677049940
https://nordstrandaudio.com/collections/5-string-jazz-bass-pickups/products/nj5s-hum-cancelling

Thank you so much for the info brother! Much appreciated! Your bass looks killer man! I know it growls & purrs!

 

 

[Misdee]

I have a very similar Lakand fretless 4 string with Lakland pickups and it sounds great.  If you're only going to have one fretless this design makes a lot of sense as it is so tonally versatile, offering as it does Jazz Bass and Stingray options, plus a few more besides.