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cheap nice surprises ! preamp and pickup content


hamfist
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As usual, I have been tinkering and swapping stuff around. Over the last few weeks I have bought a couple of items that I thought have been particularly excellent, especially when considering their very reasonable cost.

Firstly, the Wilkinson MWPB ceramic precision pickup. I have a couple of these and I am so impressed. I have owned 20 or 30 different p bass pickups in recent years and these Wilkinsons stand up with any of them to be honest. Great attack, enough top and bottom end. Not mid-scooped. I prefer these to most alnico magnet P bass pickups I have tried to be honest.
I have been swapping them in and out comparing them with SD quarterpounders (SPB-3) (my favourite P bass pickup) and the Wilkinson ones are different in character but not worse in any way.
Thoroughly recommended if you are after a cheap upgrade P pickup !

Second I ordered a Probass Stinger preamp on a whim. Now there's only one or two reviews on these online but it was reasonably cheap and I wanted a preamp for a double P equipped bass which already had loads of mids but not quite enough bottom end grunt for me, so I ordered it.
Fitted yesterday evening ..... what a great preamp !
As I said the bass I fitted it into already was extremely resonant and had great mids so I was not bothered having to do without a dedicated mids control.
I have fitted a passive blend knob (MN500K) to blend the output of my two P pickups into this preamp and it works beautifully and very, very musically. The bass control adds just the right frequencies for me. No mud, just great deep body. the treble control was the biggest extra bonus. I have no idea of the frequencies but to my ear it has a fairly narrow Q (which I always like for musicality) and it's boosting somewhere in the upper mids/lower treble. It's VERY musical to my ears. Not giving any harshness but lots of fruity upper mid grunt right where I think I'll want it in a band mix. Can't wait to try it out with the band. This preamp has given the bass a completely new lease of life. It had become my definite number two, but it could become my favourite. We'll see.

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[quote name='tom1946' timestamp='1393512209' post='2381248']
Have you compared the Wilkos to the SD SPB-1 pickup? I don't REALLY want to buy another if the wilko is similar.
[/quote]

I have owned an SPB-1 in the past, and it is a nice pickup for sure. It was in a completely different bass to what I have currently though, so not really directly comparable. THe ceramic-magnet Wilko cheapies may have a slightly brighter top end and possibly a slightly tighter attack (being ceramic). In all honesty, any direct comparison by me between the two pickups would be useless as it was a while ago (and in a different bass). Suffice to say that I was impressed with both pickups.

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