Which on-board pre for my Thumb NT6?

[Reissueplayer]

I recently acquired a Thumb NT6, which is lovely in every way conceivable, but one. It has Bartolinis in it but probably not the Bartolini pre. Anyhow, the treble pot just produces hiss. It doesn't bring out the attack in the note or the string sound itself. I've read somewhere they put the frequency at 10KHz. It makes no sense to me.

So, what are your recommendations for replacing the on-board preamp? The Thumb has three pots, a stacked volume/blend, a mid, and a stacked treble/bass. Do I keep the pots and just hook them up with any 3 band preamp or do I have to buy a special kit just for this? I've heard good stuff about the Aguilar, and someone recommended a Glockenklang, which, funnily enough, state their treble frequency at 18KH(!!!). What other options are there?

Grateful for any input

[Fat Rich]

If it is the Bartolini preamp you can probably adjust the frequencies by adding capacitors across the treble pot, may save you buying a new preamp.

Have a look on the Bartolini website and see if you can identify it, it may be a TBT or NTBT. The site also shows you where to add capacitors and what values to use, at least it did last time I looked.

Edited June 6, 2010 by Fat Rich

[Reissueplayer]

That's a good thought. The existing preamp isn't Bartolini, though. I think it's an MEC. It has a single trim pot in it. I'm not sure exactly what it does.

[chris_b]

It probably came with MEC pickups and the Bartolini's have been added later, by a DIY'er? I wouldn’t just launch in and make changes when you don’t know what the problem is. I'd get it looked at by a tech. It sounds like the previous work hasn’t been done properly.

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='chris_b' post='858772' date='Jun 6 2010, 12:00 PM']It probably came with MEC pickups and the Bartolini's have been added later, by a DIY'er? I wouldn’t just launch in and make changes when you don’t know what the problem is. I'd get it looked at by a tech. It sounds like the previous work hasn’t been done properly.[/quote]
Not necessarily so. My Streamer LX 6 has Seymour Duncans in it, and I've seen Barts as standard in a Thumb 6 fretless. I'm not sure I've ever seen a sixer with MEC pick-ups in. MEC Eqs are usually a stock option on most Warwick basses, though.
As for the treble, it could be a knackered component in there somewhere- capacitor or potentiometer.
Can you try out a 3 band equipped Warwick in a shop and see if there's any difference by comparison? At least then you'd know if your (presumably) MEC eq was working properly or not.
As for replacements, I'd imagine you can accomodate quite a lot if you're prepared to have 3xstacked controls. That'd open up all sorts of products from MEC, Duncan, EMG, Bartolini, East, Aguilar, Glockenlang, Audere, ACG, and so on etc.
IIRC Thumbs have 18v electrics, right?

[goingdownslow]

I find the treble control on my Thumb with the MEC 3 band eq is not as usable as the one on the 2 band eq due to the frequency it is set at.
In comparison the 3 band treble control appears not to do anything.

Edited July 19, 2017 by goingdownslow

[mart]

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='859167' date='Jun 6 2010, 07:09 PM']...
IIRC Thumbs have 18v electrics, right?[/quote]

I can't comment on most of that, but my '08 thumb has 9v electrics. I don't think Warwick have fitted 18v as stock in any of their basses for quite a long time.

[Reissueplayer]

Thanks for the input. All of your comments are valuable to me. Keep them coming.

This bass has 18V in the on-board pre.

I've heard good things about Aguilar preamps. Could I buy the 3-band version and wire it to my current MEC pots? (stacked volume/bal, mid, stacked treble/bass)

[Lfalex v1.1]

You'd have to check the potentiometer values, and they [i]may[/i] not have the right number of terminals on them, and some may have pull-up switches fitted, too.
It's unlikely that they'd all be suitable.

With regard to MEC EQ treble centre frequencies, I seem to recall the 2-band is 2kHz, and the 3-band is either 6 or 8 kHz (which does seem kind of high). Don't ask me about the bandwidth, though...

[Reissueplayer]

Thanks. Most seem happy with the Aguilar preamp. Maybe I'll get one of those 3-band obp's and let a tech take care of what needs sorting.

[bassbora]

How old is the bass? If not sure you can see it from the serial number.

I have both a 5 and 6 string Thumb 89 and they have EMG and Barts. They both have just bass and treble (no mids) so yours sounds a like a newer model. So I dont know if the following is applicable for yours or not.

The Thumbs with Barts used to have Bart preamp (almost sure about that) and in the control cavity you could change some frequency settings in there. Its just a small pot you change with a screw driver. But maybe this is just something to change the mids and since your bass has 3 band Eq it wont have this option. Maybe worth a look inside it. I have read somewhere that this minor change can drastically change the sound of the bass. Never changed mine since I have always been happy with the sound.

[daflewis]

Check out the acg eq-02 or some of the other john east designs.... i have an eq-01 in my '89 thumb and it's stunning. see my review

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3919&hl=daflewis"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...amp;hl=daflewis[/url]

gary won't sell the 01 anymore unless it's fitted to one of his basses, but the 02 is very similar.

if you can't face the extra hole in your bass john east does a variety of great preamps with three knob control options...