Please ID this John East(?) preamp

[BassAgent]

A few months ago, I bought a USA Lakland JO5 which was fitted with a preamp. A DJ-Retro from John East, according to the seller. Hm, strange, because the control plate of a DJ is slightly curved, and on the JO it's symmetrical. The knobs however indicate a DJ-Retro (black-chrome vs chrome-chrome on the regular J-Retro). I took the preamp out because I wanted to restore the bass to passive, and wanted to fit it to my Sadowsky MetroExpress. It doesn't fit; the PCB is too far forward to squeeze in the control cavity.

Point is: I can't seem to find which preamp it is. It's a symmetrical control plate (so you'd think J-Retro), the knobs are black-chrome (DJ-Retro)... Someone put some black tape which looks like kinesiology tape on it, and when I took it off it took a bit of the serial number sticker with it. It is barely readable, but what it certainly doesn't say is "East-UK [serial]", which it should say. So now I'm doubting it being something from John East at all.

Can anyone ID this mystery preamp for me?

[Hellzero]

It's a J-Retro, it's even written there:

 

[BassAgent]

Got a response from mr East himself:
 

Quote

 

Hi Hidde

 

We buy DJ plates directly from Lakland, and fit special J-Retro electronics to them for DJ-Retro. It’s purely a physical difference as the pots are on slight radius to match the Lakland curved plate. The electronics is a standard J-Retro.

 

A JO5 will normally accept our standard J-Retro which uses a regular Fender Jazz style plate. The knobs being black and chrome is purely cosmetic. The pic confirms that it’s an East unit.

 

Remove the white plug for the pickups, that’s a Lakland addition, to see if the preamp fits without their plug.

 

Best wishes, John

 

 

Edited September 13, 2024 by BassAgent