J-Retro with Precision and Musicman pickups

[Beedster]

I'm building an interesting fretless and am thinking about a circuit to go with the MM and P-Bass pickups (Nordy Big Splitman and NP4A respectively). I'm wondering what folk's experience has been with a J-Retro with either type of PUP, not necessarily the Nordies in partisular. I'm also interesting in whether there might be any issues using MM/P-Bass PUPs through an active circuit e.g., balance/interaction between the two?  

[Stofferson]

Hi Mate

 

My alpha is not too far from your set up

 

Although its a Nordy Bigman + NP4A (reverse P) with a uni pre as opposed to the J-retro.

works a treat, off the top of my head there are gain trims for each pup, as well as giving it a good go over on pup heights etc, 

Does it work? hell yes! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Beedster]

2 hours ago, Stofferson said:

Hi Mate

 

My alpha is not too far from your set up

 

Although its a Nordy Bigman + NP4A (reverse P) with a uni pre as opposed to the J-retro.

works a treat, off the top of my head there are gain trims for each pup, as well as giving it a good go over on pup heights etc, 

Does it work? hell yes! 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely, and doesn’t look a whole lot different to my project. Uni Pre is a good shout, I do like the format and function if the J-Retro 👍

[Phaedrus01]

Always wondered how this would sound. There plenty of MM + J combo basses out there but haven't seen this before

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, Phaedrus01 said:

Always wondered how this would sound. There plenty of MM + J combo basses out there but haven't seen this before

In a word, meaty 👍

[Stofferson]

Sounds like this!

 

[Stofferson]

In all seriousness though, its versatile as F#ck pardon my midlands accent

roll back on the fat MM for huge farting bridge pickup goodness, solo the P for well, that P sound, blend them together for a full fat bigger than Jazz, Jazz bass sound.

one good thing about the John east stuff is the active blend so i dont think you get that standard scoopyness, I dunno, I'm not that technical.

 

If I had a fender style bass, deffo get the J-Retro, anything else the uni stuff, think it's more of less the same, just form factor etc.

 

Just enquiring with Chris at Alpha now about my next build! wallet forgive me!

 

[JPJ]

I’m a massive fan of John East’s work having J-Retro and U-Retro pre’s in most of my active basses. But, for fretless, I much prefer the simplicity of a passive circuit. My Fender Tony Franklin fretless PJ is all passive, two pickups, 3-way Strat style switch, and a single volume and tone. Best sounding fretless I have played, with mwahh for days. 

The J-Retro does have a pronounced low mid boost baked in, but I think John might have added a dip switch or jumper for a flatter response in the newer J-Retros. Mine are the older style so I have a lot of the bass controlled dialled back. 

Edited August 1 by JPJ

[fretmeister]

I had a J Retro Deluxe with a pair of stacked J pickups: the neck one sounded quite P like.

I did find the preamp to be a bit bass boosted / scooped when set to the mid points on the controls so if it is an option to have a flatter starting point I would go for that - especially for P tones as that really is all about the mids.

 

Not tried that preamp with a MM type.

 

The only thing in my mind is that the right settings for the MM might be quite different to those needed for the P. MM often benefits from a bit of bass boost and a bit of a scoop and that normally kills a traditional P tone.

 

If the plan is to use one or the other pickups then I don't see any downsides, but a mix of the two might be more difficult to dial in easily.

 

Sounds like a great project though.

 

When I was planning my PingRay I did think about having both P and MM but I prioritised the MM placement to match a 70s stingray and then meant the P pickup would need to be slightly closer to the neck than its usual position. So I didn't bother with the P.

 

I did think about solving the problem by using a 51 P pickup instead as that was small enough to also go in it's traditional position. But in the end I just stuck with the MM. I might do it in future though - just for fun!

[Chiliwailer]

I don’t know if this is relevant Chris, but I had a J-Tone once with CS Jazz pickups and it was great, but when I used it with Fralin dual-coil Jazz pickups the preamp couldn’t handle it and was popping and clicking when I dug in. I spoke to John, but he said he had no idea what the issue was 🤷🏻‍♂️

Edited August 1 by Chiliwailer

[Beedster]

15 hours ago, Chiliwailer said:

I don’t know if this is relevant Chris, but I had a J-Tone once with CS Jazz pickups and it was great, but when I used it with Fralin dual-coil Jazz pickups the preamp couldn’t handle it and was popping and clicking when I dug in. I spoke to John, but he said he had no idea what the issue was 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

I must admit that was my first thought, whether a pre-amp optimised for single coils will work well with - and I'm probably technically incorrect in saying this but I'm going on experience - apparently more powerful P and MM PUPs? I'm aiming to use a Jazz Bass control plate which limits my choices to a degree, and for the time being I'm going to install a VT/VT stacked passive circuit courtesy of @KiOgon, which will at least allow me to compare the O/Ps of the two PUPs and perhaps experiment with circuitry.

 

Hope you're enjoy that FL Dan 👍

[Chiliwailer]

How about

5 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

I must admit that was my first thought, whether a pre-amp optimised for single coils will work well with - and I'm probably technically incorrect in saying this but I'm going on experience - apparently more powerful P and MM PUPs? I'm aiming to use a Jazz Bass control plate which limits my choices to a degree, and for the time being I'm going to install a VT/VT stacked passive circuit courtesy of @KiOgon, which will at least allow me to compare the O/Ps of the two PUPs and perhaps experiment with circuitry.

 

Hope you're enjoy that FL Dan 👍

The Aguilar OBP-1 is pretty small, and has mini pots, I wonder if that’ll work for you at a squeeze? Then again, it has a million wires to make room for.  But if you didn’t mind routing under the pickguard for a battery then it might work? That’s what I did with my Ray, I have 2 x 9v batteries under the pickguard. 
 

Yep - fretless is great fun thanks, with an equal measure of it laughing at me when my intonation sucks 😂 Hoping this one is a keeper, stunning bass 👌

 

Good luck with yours 👍

[Beedster]

On 01/08/2025 at 11:49, Stofferson said:

Sounds like this!

 

 

Really enjoyed that @Stofferson, and yes great bass tone (and playing) 🙏

[Stofferson]

4 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Really enjoyed that @Stofferson, and yes great bass tone (and playing) 🙏

Thank you sir!

[Beedster]

On 01/08/2025 at 09:08, Stofferson said:

Hi Mate

 

My alpha is not too far from your set up

 

Although its a Nordy Bigman + NP4A (reverse P) with a uni pre as opposed to the J-retro.

works a treat, off the top of my head there are gain trims for each pup, as well as giving it a good go over on pup heights etc, 

Does it work? hell yes! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I'm going the Uni-Pre 4 direction, in part because I love John's preamps but suspect the J-Retro might not be the best option here, and in part because I love the tone in that clip @Stofferson 👍

[Beedster]

On 08/08/2025 at 20:01, Beedster said:

 

 

I think I'm going the Uni-Pre 4 direction, in part because I love John's preamps but suspect the J-Retro might not be the best option here, and in part because I love the tone in that clip @Stofferson 👍

 

Anyone know if the Uni-Pre 4-knob can be configured with the four pots in a line (as in Jazz Bass Deluxe), looking at it in detail I'm not sure it will?  

[Joe Nation]

Looks to me like the only issue with setting them up 4-in-a-row is the space available in the cavity - some of those circuit boards are pretty big. But if you're after using a normal Jazz control plate, surely the J-Retro 01 is the way to go? Or the 01 Deluxe if you're prepared to fit a side-mount jack.

[Beedster]

3 hours ago, Joe Nation said:

Looks to me like the only issue with setting them up 4-in-a-row is the space available in the cavity - some of those circuit boards are pretty big. But if you're after using a normal Jazz control plate, surely the J-Retro 01 is the way to go? Or the 01 Deluxe if you're prepared to fit a side-mount jack.

 

Thanks @Joe Nation, cavity will take it more a question of the plate I suspect, I've messaged John which is probably the best bet 👍

[Stofferson]

@Beedster I haven't opened mine up, I've only got a shot of the cavity from when it was being spraying, but looking at the size and layout, I'm going to assume it takes some space!

[Beedster]

37 minutes ago, Stofferson said:

@Beedster I haven't opened mine up, I've only got a shot of the cavity from when it was being spraying, but looking at the size and layout, I'm going to assume it takes some space!

Thanks mate, my feeling also, I have some options on space luckily 🙏