King Tut Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 I spent a bit more time with mine past night and I’m more than happy. Only negative so far is the treble control which gets noisy when it’s turned up more than about halfway. I’ve got a VTC arriving today which’ll sort that in passive mode. Not sure if the new pots will improve it in active mode. The noise seems dependent on the position of the instrument, so shielding might help. The pickups sound great to me with plenty of mods to cut through. It’s nice and light at 8.4lb and the fit and finish is pretty much flawless. The neck is slim with a bit of depth to it, quite comfy for me, and I’ve got the action to a smidge below 2mm on the E at the 12th which is probably a bit low for my hamfisted technique. For £251 this was a bargain, well happy! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glassmoon Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 Quick question for you all... Who here has upgraded their MetroExpress with the VTC circuit, and how much of an improvement is it really? My bog standard eq is all flat and both pickups are on full. How much "more" will the VTC bring to the party? Thanks, as always... Julian aka Glassmoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killerfridge Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 I love the VTC, I think it's one of the best onboard preamps around. It just gives "more" i.e. when people say "jazz bass on steroids", the VTC is the steroids. It boosts just in the right places to emphasizes that jazz bass two-pickup-scoop sound 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velvetkevorkian Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 But you get that with the basic preamp, all the vtc brings is a separate treble cut, right? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 1 hour ago, velvetkevorkian said: But you get that with the basic preamp, all the vtc brings is a separate treble cut, right? That's how I understand it. My VTC mod kit arrived today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted December 1 Share Posted December 1 21 hours ago, glassmoon said: Quick question for you all... Who here has upgraded their MetroExpress with the VTC circuit, and how much of an improvement is it really? My bog standard eq is all flat and both pickups are on full. How much "more" will the VTC bring to the party? Thanks, as always... Julian aka Glassmoon I changed the original preamp in my previous ME P/J 5 for the drop-in VTC preamp. Honestly, looking back and listening to the recordings I did with it both before and after, it wasn’t the night and day difference some made it out to be. I’m sure changing the stock pick ups as well to the full fat noiseless sets in the Metro and NYC models would be more noticeable. I’ve been corrected on this before but I believe the VTC control acts as a low pass filter for the treble frequency, so you can adjust it so that it’s no so harsh/dark sounding. I can’t speak for the passive tone side of it as I don’t ever use any active bass in passive. Currently, I have a 4 string ME JJ and it is all stock and I genuinely enjoy the preamp and find (as even Roger himself has said) keeping the treble around 40/50%, the bass at 60%, and then adding some presence on my amp gets me the nice modern hi-fi jazz bass tone that I prefer. Here’s a recent cover with it: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCfOnJdOkgr/?igsh=MWQ1YzF3dHExdDdyeQ== 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velvetkevorkian Posted December 1 Share Posted December 1 (edited) 1 hour ago, Josh said: I’m sure changing the stock pick ups as well to the full fat noiseless sets in the Metro and NYC models would be more noticeable. I did this and it made barely any difference, to my ear. Eliminated a tiny bit of single coil hum but not much else. IMHO, YMMV, etc. Edited December 1 by velvetkevorkian humiliating typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glassmoon Posted December 1 Share Posted December 1 Yeah, to both the VTC and the pickups... I'd rather put some super warm Bartolinis in. I know what they sound like and I like what they sound like. Or perhaps start playing flats hahahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonestar Posted December 1 Share Posted December 1 (edited) On 30/11/2024 at 15:57, glassmoon said: Quick question for you all... Who here has upgraded their MetroExpress with the VTC circuit, and how much of an improvement is it really? My bog standard eq is all flat and both pickups are on full. How much "more" will the VTC bring to the party? Thanks, as always... Julian aka Glassmoon I added the VTC to mine and it was worth every penny. Mine is a 2020 model and although there were none of the common noise issues from that time, the vintage tone control, better pots, and versatility of tones has made a big improvement to my bass. I’ve felt no need to change the pickups, since swapping the VTC preamp and controls, but I did swap the string retainer for a Hipshot one, as inspired by Andy Irvine. That in itself seemed to improve the tone somehow and “tighten” up the sound is the only way I can think how to describe it. Roger Sadowsky has posted a very useful how to video on Youtube. Get your soldering iron out and go for it! Edited December 1 by lonestar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftyJ Posted December 2 Share Posted December 2 On 30/11/2024 at 09:30, King Tut said: I spent a bit more time with mine past night and I’m more than happy. Only negative so far is the treble control which gets noisy when it’s turned up more than about halfway. I've been playing mine some more too, and after some time with it I can honestly say it's not the preamp that's noisy but the singlecoil pickup. On the neck splitcoil I can turn the treble up as far as I want and it remains totally quiet and hum-free, but with the bridge pickup soloed the noise gets annoying with the treble halfway up or more. I really like the EQ center frequencies of both knobs, the range of both is very useful and musical sounding without getting overly harsh or boomy too soon. It really is a nice bass with a great feel to it and a great range of tones. I'm still a bit bummed by the QC issues, but I don't mind them as much as when I had just received it. I've actually gotten quite curious about a fretted one now too... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glassmoon Posted December 11 Share Posted December 11 So I've decided on a possibly somewhat radical change of mind. Instead of dropping in the VTC circuit, I've decided to play with taking the treble pot out (disconnecting the treble circuit completely) and putting in a passive tone pot. I will never use the active treble boost (in nearly 30 years, I've never boosted the highs) but the passive pot sounds wonderful. Thoughts? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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