Stingray electronics conundrum

[rhythmbug]

10 years ago I had a Stingray 5 built to my specs with a piezo bridge and I later put an SD basslines alnico 3-coil pup in it. It went into storage in 2006 when I moved to London.

More on the SD pup - the tone was great but not clean at all - the signal distorted and farted all over the place, from irritating to unbearable depending on the settings.
The tech who installed it wasn’t able to figure it out. We speculated the piezo pickups might be playing a role. It drove me nuts not being able to find a solution hence being in storage for so long.

Fast forward to today – I opened up the electronics cavity and turned down the mini gain pot. Limited success – most of the distortion is gone but so is all the head room. Much cleaner tone but very weak output.

Wondering if anyone would have any advice how to move forward with this.
If I were to install a new preamp, what would be suitable, given that it’s a 3-coil with a 3-way switch and piezo bridge (5 knobs). Not sure if a John East system would be compatible. Not that bothered if I lose the piezo, a bit beyond caring now. Just want this bass in working order!

If I could buy another original 3 coil MM pup I would, but that is a rare commodity and go for ludicrous prices on eBay....and I'd know, because I sold one

[obbm]

Before you go chasing after another pre-amp you have to consider that the coil switching circuitry is an integral part of the MM SR5 pre-amp. It includes some compensation so that there is minimal level change as you switch. Most replacement pickups are wired to connect directly to the SR5 pre-amp and as far as I am aware other pre-amps do not have this facility. Also to use external (to the pre-amp) switching you have to slightly modify the pick-up.

I tried various pick-ups and pre-amps in my SR5. It came with a Bartolini, an Aguilar OBP3 pre-amp and no coil switching. The Bart was changed for an SD, which I found too aggressive so it was changed for a Nordstrand MM5.3. Eventually I found a genuine SR5 pre-amp to replace the OBP-3 and that is how it has been for the past 8 years and how I intend to keep it. The Nordstrand has a certain purity of tone which I very much like.

The early SR5s had 2-coil pick-ups and coil switching was fairly basic. I took this circuit as a guide and worked out how to rewire a 3-coil pick-up for simple switching. It worked out but there were significant level differences. Along the way I even built a small board with the coil-switching element of the MM pre-amp which was connected to the prototype John East MM pre-amp. That also worked but the control cavity was a touch untidy. Far too many wires. Eventually I concluded that I needed a real SR5 pre-amp which I eventually found on Ebay.

I would thoroughly recommend having a look at the Nordstrand pick-up before you start swapping pre-amps.

[rhythmbug]

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge. Yeah,the SD is aggressive and that's why I like it, understandably not suitable fo everything. I've heard the nord is warmer, how would you describe it?
I need to retain that midrange growl and bite.