Corsair Posted December 10, 2023 Share Posted December 10, 2023 Hi Folks, One of the basses in my stable is a squier jag bass, the one with the single humbucker pickup. I wasn't expecting to like this bass as much as I do and will be upgrading the bridge, tuners and pickup. The stock pickup can sound a bit muddy and I wanted to swap this out for a replacement. A friend of mine who's main bass is a late 90's US made stingray has offered to sell me the original pickup as he swapped his out for a Seymour Duncan some years back and the pick up is going unused. I'm not an expert in this stuff but from my understanding the MM pickup is passive but the preamp in a MM bass runs off a 9v battery. My question is because the Squier Jag bass is passive will the MM pick up sound dull if its run without a 9V preamp? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 Yes you are right that the MM pickup itself is passive. I wouldn't say muddy, but on its own it has a surprisingly low output, which may or may not give you issues. Also, 'that' sound associated with the Stingray is very much to do with the preamp and so the sound will be very different. John East does do a splendid preamp that is 'tuned' to the Stingray/Sterling sound if you wanted to head towards the adventurous... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 23 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: Yes you are right that the MM pickup itself is passive. I wouldn't say muddy, but on its own it has a surprisingly low output, which may or may not give you issues. Also, 'that' sound associated with the Stingray is very much to do with the preamp and so the sound will be very different. John East does do a splendid preamp that is 'tuned' to the Stingray/Sterling sound if you wanted to head towards the adventurous... Thanks for that much appreciated, I didn't realize the output would be significantly lower. I think I'll go with a Kent Armstrong MM pickup instead, its cheaper and the website lists it as having enough output to use as a passive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 If you want to make the bass sound more like a stingray, you might be better off keeping the original pickup in the bass and adding an active preamp such as the retrovibe stinger. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDaBass Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 3 hours ago, Corsair said: Thanks for that much appreciated, I didn't realize the output would be significantly lower. I think I'll go with a Kent Armstrong MM pickup instead, its cheaper and the website lists it as having enough output to use as a passive. 36 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said: If you want to make the bass sound more like a stingray, you might be better off keeping the original pickup in the bass and adding an active preamp such as the retrovibe stinger. Check out the Warman MM Pickup. I have used them successfully in a couple of projects they really are good. Coupled to a Retrovibe Stinger will get you very close to that traditional MM Stingray sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 On 10/12/2023 at 13:02, Corsair said: Hi Folks, One of the basses in my stable is a squier jag bass, the one with the single humbucker pickup. I wasn't expecting to like this bass as much as I do and will be upgrading the bridge, tuners and pickup. The stock pickup can sound a bit muddy and I wanted to swap this out for a replacement. A friend of mine who's main bass is a late 90's US made stingray has offered to sell me the original pickup as he swapped his out for a Seymour Duncan some years back and the pick up is going unused. I'm not an expert in this stuff but from my understanding the MM pickup is passive but the preamp in a MM bass runs off a 9v battery. My question is because the Squier Jag bass is passive will the MM pick up sound dull if its run without a 9V preamp? Cheers Those MM pickups sound just fine without a preamp, despite what many say (makes me wonder if they tried them). You just won't have the tonal diversity that the preamp's built in EQ will give you. My 2002 EBMM Stingray has now a bypass switch, so I can play it passively (just a little 'get me home' switch, in case I mess up my battery replacement schedule). Plenty of output (of course, if you normally boost the crap out of the preamp controls, it'll be a bit quieter than that!) and if at the right spot for a Stingray, it has plenty of Stingrayness (just one of the many flavours available if you had the preamp too). If it's not at the Stingray position, then it'll never sound like a Stingray anyway, but it'll sound good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obrienp Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 I have both the Kent Armstrong and Warman pickups that I have used in a passive bass. I like the Kent Armstrong: enough output and the covered top means you don’t get the buzzing from accidentally touching the pole pieces. The Warman is higher output and not as refined to my ears. Both sound quite Stingray like to me used in passive mode. Both pickups have four conductors, so you can do parallel/single coil/series switching. That really opens up your tone palette. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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