Ibanez Mezzo - Pickup or preamp upgrade?

[shoulderpet]

Hi

I have a lovely Ibanez Mezzo bass, as some on this forum will have read on another post it arrived with some tarnished frets and I was thinking of sending it back but it seemed daft to return a bass that I liked for something that I could fix for the price of some metal polish so polished up the frets and happy with the bass. 

That being said the one thing that niggles me a little is that the onboard treble eq on the bass gets noisy with more than a moderate boost, by noisy I don't mean hiss so much as the frequencies it seems to be boosting seem to be the ones that correlate with string noise, fret buzz etc, as I am a treble cranked to 11 kind of person it is something that I would like to fix. 

This leads me to 2 options

a) a darker voiced pickup so that boosting the treble gives a boost in the treble but with those highest frequencies rolled off by the pickup by its design, for example a Duncan SPB-2 is not completely without treble but the overwound design means that those highest frequencies that tend to get harsh are greatly reduced, the voicing of such a pickup could also be very useful in that because that pickup is so midrange heavy I could crank both the bass and the treble on the active eq and get a pretty balanced tone

b) a different preamp, I have zero experience with replacing preamps so I am a complete noob in this world 

Thoughts? thanks

[ikay]

It sounds like the freq point of the treble on the preamp is just too high for your taste. How about leaving the treble flat on the preamp and EQing the treble end at the amp instead?

[fretmeister]

There is a massive thread on the other place about Mezzo modifications and upgrades. Some have gone completely passive with the stock pickups, others have just changed one or the other.

But a popular thing seems to be ripping the whole lot out and putting in the EMG Geezer Butler set, either just with the stock EMG tone control or a 2 band EMG preamp.

 

On mine I tend to use it with both EQ knobs down just a tiny bit as it sounds a bit scooped to me when at the centre positions. Then EQ the amp to taste.

Then if I need to boost anything on the bass I'm not going up nearly as far on the knobs.

 

As it happens I'm about to buy another (my 3rd!) and I'm tempted to try the EMG set in one of them.

 

[shoulderpet]

4 hours ago, fretmeister said:

There is a massive thread on the other place about Mezzo modifications and upgrades. Some have gone completely passive with the stock pickups, others have just changed one or the other.

But a popular thing seems to be ripping the whole lot out and putting in the EMG Geezer Butler set, either just with the stock EMG tone control or a 2 band EMG preamp.

 

On mine I tend to use it with both EQ knobs down just a tiny bit as it sounds a bit scooped to me when at the centre positions. Then EQ the amp to taste.

Then if I need to boost anything on the bass I'm not going up nearly as far on the knobs.

 

As it happens I'm about to buy another (my 3rd!) and I'm tempted to try the EMG set in one of them.

 

Ok thanks, I will have to look up that thread

Yes I tend to either run mine flat or with bass and treble rolled off slightly, the scoop explains why the treble sounds harsh boosted

[therealting]

Going through this decision right now. Will be curious to hear others’ thoughts!

[shoulderpet]

9 minutes ago, therealting said:

Going through this decision right now. Will be curious to hear others’ thoughts!

Yeah, I have a Duncan Quarter pounder in my Squier so I'm contemplating taking that out of the Squier and putting into the Ibanez and putting the money i have saved doing so into a preamp

[shoulderpet]

I really like the bass tone in this song (skip to around 30second mark to hear the bass better) what kind of pickups would get me this kind of tone? I am guessing Model P, obviously I know there is a little bit of overdrive on this song also

[YouTube]

 

 

[fretmeister]

For my 4 string I've decided to try some EMG-X series.

They are the updated active ones apparently with more headroom than the regular ones, although I do really like the regular ones too.

Going to stick with 2 vol and a tone control at the moment and see how I get on. Partly because the EMG BQC set that I like has gone up by £65 since the beginning of the year!

 

This bass is almost always tuned to C-Standard for recording.

 

Pickups should arrive in a few days. 

[shoulderpet]

9 hours ago, fretmeister said:

For my 4 string I've decided to try some EMG-X series.

They are the updated active ones apparently with more headroom than the regular ones, although I do really like the regular ones too.

Going to stick with 2 vol and a tone control at the moment and see how I get on. Partly because the EMG BQC set that I like has gone up by £65 since the beginning of the year!

 

This bass is almost always tuned to C-Standard for recording.

 

Pickups should arrive in a few days. 

Let us know how it goes, I was tempted to go active with the pickups but I have heard the j pickup is a slightly different size to most j pickups so I was thinking of maybe just replacing the p pickup, if I can find an active set that fits then I may just swap out both pickups

[fretmeister]

If the EMG J fits perfectly then I'll fit them myself. If it needs routing then I'll get a pro to do it in the new year.

As there isn't a scratchplate I don't want to ruin the finish with my ham fisted attempts with a budget copy of a Dremel!

[shoulderpet]

6 hours ago, fretmeister said:

If the EMG J fits perfectly then I'll fit them myself. If it needs routing then I'll get a pro to do it in the new year.

As there isn't a scratchplate I don't want to ruin the finish with my ham fisted attempts with a budget copy of a Dremel!

Yeah that is what is putting me off, ive read some people saying they had to sand a little to get a J pickup to fit but as you say no pickguard around the bridge pickup to hide any bodged attempts

[shoulderpet]

On 16/12/2020 at 09:52, fretmeister said:

If the EMG J fits perfectly then I'll fit them myself. If it needs routing then I'll get a pro to do it in the new year.

As there isn't a scratchplate I don't want to ruin the finish with my ham fisted attempts with a budget copy of a Dremel!

Have you fitted the Emg's ? If so how did it go? 

[fretmeister]

Nope.

I’ve ruptured a tendon in my right hand.

I’ll get a pro to do it in the new year.

[shoulderpet]

17 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Nope.

I’ve ruptured a tendon in my right hand.

I’ll get a pro to do it in the new year.

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that, I hope you are feeling better soon, all the best

[shoulderpet]

Have just taken my Mezzo to have a Seymour Duncan SPB-2 Hot pickup fitted,I find the stock pickup a bit limp sounding and a bit scooped in the mids so am looking forward to having a hefty dose of low mids although I anticipate the bridge pickup will be much quieter than the P pickup after the swap, with the stock preamp being pretty hot it should be pretty loud.

 

[shoulderpet]

And got the bass back, the scoop is definitely in the preamp, with the SPB-2 in this bass there is a tonne of midrange, more than enough available but there is a little less than when I had this pickup up in my Jaguar bass and the treble response is brighter than when I had this pickup in my Jaguar bass. 

Overall I am really happy with the new pickup, it is nice to have my midrange back and the bass is sounding noticeably fatter, I may at some point in the future have an active/passive switch fitted for some more tonal variety.

The stock Ibanez pickups are the usual glued on ceramic magnets that you tend to see on cheaper basses, I will be trying them on my Jaguar bass before I sell them on just to see how they sound without the preamp.