Cort GB75 tweaking

[kurcatovium]

Hello.
First to say: I hope I'm posting this in right section. Now to my "problem".

I recently bought Cort GB75 which is really sweet bass. To get in picture here's photo of it:



The bass has J + MM pickup configuration. Feel of the bass is really nice for me, so I'm thinking of changing pickups (and pre) to get even nicer sound of it. Those stock Mighty Mite are not bad at all, but they lack a "definition" in bass or ... hard to explain. Simply: they're not bad, but also they are not great. The same is with active electronics installed, it could be better.

1) The bridge MM pickup should be easy to replace. According to my ruler it seems it is same dimension like bridge pickup on Lakland 55-02. There are Nordstrand, Bartolini and some others to get in this shape and dimensions.

2) The neck J pickup might be really hard to change without cutting into wood or pickguard/scratchplate. Length of pickup is about 102mm, width 19mm and it has 49mm between screws. I've searched the web for replacement, but was pretty unlucky. It seems like biggest problem is with the screw ears. I have an idea of purchasing another pickup, pull it from its plastic shell and push it into Cort's original Mighty Mite shell. But it might be really hard to find pickup with exactly matching pole pieces.
So I'm asking if there are some bassists playing 5 string bass with J neck pickup who can provide some dimensions. I made crappy picture of what should be sufficient (C is about those 17,5mm):


Thanks for any ideas you might have.

3) Switching the electronics should be easy job. First there are 2 holes for switches. One switch is bridge pickup selector bridge coil/series/neck coil. That switch will stay to provide versatility. Another switch is midrange selector and in future it might be used for active/passive selector with one of plenty 3 knob electronics.


I'm not desperate to change the pickups right now. I'm quite satisfied with the bass as is, but GAS is working 24/7 so I'm looking and thinking. I'll be really glad if you can share your ideas of what to do or how to do it. :-) Thanks!

PS: Sorry if it's hard to understand. My english is far from being perfect.

Edited April 19, 2010 by kurcatovium

[geoffbyrne]

A John East U-Retro will fit your bass perfectly. You might want to try it with whatever pre you install before messing with the pups.

G.

[kurcatovium]

To be honest U retro is a bit too expensive for bass like this. The bass was about 250GBP and I think stuffing it with cca 200GBP U retro is kind of wasting the money.

Does anybody have experience with Seymour Duncan STC-2(P)? It seems like nice and easy to install two band three knob electronics... And it doesn't cost a ton.