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stewblack

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4 minutes ago, Killed_by_Death said:

 

If it were mine I'd got 100% Passive:

Nordstrand Zen Blades

Neck pickup Volume

Bridge pickup Volume

series/single/parallel switch for neck pickup

series/single/parallel switch for bridge pickup

bass-cut (instead of treble-cut)

if you have another hole to fill, treble-cut (22 nanoFarad cap)

 

Thanks man. Will look at zen blades.

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ZB just have a wide range of sounds, because of the series/parallel option, but if you want Aggressive single-coil sound the Big Singles simply cannot be beat.

any dual-coil Nordstrand pickup would be good, & you could stay active & drop in a JC-3b Nordstrand pre-amp, which is:

"3 band bass preamp with volume (pull passive), blend, treble (push/pull neck pickup - series down, parallel up), mids (1kHz down, pull up for 400Hz), bass (push/pull bridge pickup - series down, parallel up)"

https://nordstrandaudio.com/collections/bass-preamps/products/3-band-preamps

 

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1 hour ago, horrorshowbass said:

Guys, 

My Sr600 is dead. PCB dead, active preamp needs replacement...

What year is your SR600? 2 or 3 position Mid Switch?

Worth checking the Ibby site spares listing for part number.

Some available... https://www.meinlshop.de/en/ibanez/spare-parts/e-basses/equalizer/ibanez-3-band-eq-mk-1-3-bartolini-for-sr-series-3eq1cmk1

Mines July 2010, 2 position...

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1 hour ago, horrorshowbass said:

Always wanted to put big singles in bass but now preamp/labour could be very expensive.

Luthier is saying he can do glockenklang preamp and like the look of darkglass tone capsule. What other options do I have?

Put the big singles in, make it passive for now and leave it until you have a bit more money.

56 minutes ago, Killed_by_Death said:

ZB just have a wide range of sounds, because of the series/parallel option

I read somewhere you were a fan :D

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7 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Genuinely I would never pay that sort of money for a genuine mid range ibanez preamp - they are not that good. If you have that sort of money to spend, get a Glok or a Darkglass or an Agular or one of the other named preamps. For that sort of money get a John East!

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1 hour ago, horrorshowbass said:

Yeah definitely want aggressive sound.

The trouble with single-coil pickups is that you can't install series/parallel switches to fill out the passive controls, so you should stick with the 3-band preamp scheme.

However, you might be able to custom order Big Splits that have 4 wires, which could be switched. The downside is that you'd lose 33% of your output Power in parallel.

Been thinking about asking the local luthier to rewire my Big Splits to parallel for that extra top-end that I'm missing from the Big Singles.

If you have a soldering iron you can quickly bypass the preamp now just to get it working with the stock Bartolini pickups. Note that the MK1 Barts are split-coil humbuckers with only 2 wires.

 

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9 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Put the big singles in, make it passive for now and leave it until you have a bit more money.

I read somewhere you were a fan :D

Forgive the ignorance but can big singles be run passively with the same aggression?

I'm thinking either Glock/EMG/darkglass preamp and labour could be too expensive

@PaulThePlug its 2 position mid switch.

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11 minutes ago, horrorshowbass said:

Forgive the ignorance but can big singles be run passively with the same aggression?

I'm thinking either Glock/EMG/darkglass preamp and labour could be too expensive

Practically every pickup can be driven through a preamp or by themselves. EMG is a good exception of this rule (except their HZ series!). Many preamps are 0 dB amps, so the signal is the same with or without the pre when eq is set flat. But if you crank the eq, you naturally get more output. Remember: the gain of your amp is your friend.

A preamp costs £20 - £300. I do not think that the assembling will cost a fortune. After all it is pretty staightforward: few wires, pots, some screwing or tinning, batteries in and the system is ready.

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25 minutes ago, horrorshowbass said:

Forgive the ignorance but can big singles be run passively with the same aggression?

They can be run passively yes. There will always be a bit of treble attenuation running anything passive (and why often people prefer passive) but it isn't going to be that noticable.

Note that all the premiums have a active / passive switch so can run big singles passively and there really isn't much difference (with good cables).

 

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6 minutes ago, itu said:

Practically every pickup can be driven through a preamp or by themselves. EMG is a good exception of this rule (except their HZ series!)

Almost all EMGs can be driven without a preamp, as they have a preamp built in anyway. They can't be driven without power but that is provided separately.

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13 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

They can be run passively yes. There will always be a bit of treble attenuation running anything passive (and why often people prefer passive) but it isn't going to be that noticable.

Note that all the premiums have a active / passive switch so can run big singles passively and there really isn't much difference (with good cables).

 

Ok will pick up some big singles, tell tech to run passively and drop them in.

Thanks

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3 hours ago, horrorshowbass said:

Ok will pick up some big singles, tell tech to run passively and drop them in.

Thanks

Happy days on the way I reckon; I loved the tone of the Big Singles in my 1605.

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3 hours ago, Killed_by_Death said:

The only downside to the Big Singles is the noise, if you blend away from center. I don't think it would bother most, unless you're frequently soloing one pickup.

The only time that was a problem was playing in a small venue with my valve amplifier, I couldn't stand next to it without noise.

Luckily I don't use that much any more.

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This talk has made me realize I don't consciously think about my electronics in my basses enough after 25 years of playing on and off. Maybe that's why I've never found 'the' sound?!

The Aguilar PJ set I put in my TMB35 are as near to a great classic sound as I think I need that I'm happy with. But I've never found the more modern sound in my head yet for my own stuff. The nearest was my og TRB6 and the custom dual coil Nordstrand in the GWB35 I sold recently. Clean, full, not too hi-fi a blend of that slight Jaco burp and Foderaish smoothness without any brittleness or too many highs.

I'll have to spend some time this weekend with all my Ibanezs to get to know specifically what I like better it seems. 

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