parker_muse Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 By crap bass, i mean ultra playable with shoddy hardware. I've got a vintage stingray and i love how it plays - i'm looking to make it sound as good as it feels. I'm currently looking at a John East 4 knob 3EQ and perhaps pairing it up with a Wizard MM pup as i've heard great things about them. Do you think this is the best combo for the money? Also, i'd want to replace the bridge - what do you guy reccomend? Cheers, Parker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie Posted August 13, 2010 Share Posted August 13, 2010 I had the same bass as you and fitted a Nordstrand MM pickup to it. Over £100 - so it's got to be good, wouldn't you think? Well, no. The Wilkinson that was in there originally sounded a lot better to my ears. I swapped back and forward several times (and tried series/parallel wiring on them both) but ended up selling the Nordstrand. So, try replacement parts by all means but bear in mind that there is a lot of marketing hype surrounding pickups and preamps - just look at the Duncan Antiquity range to see what nonsense goes on. This is why these companies can charge up to £200 for an item with a parts value of less than a fiver. What good aftermarket pickups do give you is consistency, i.e. you pay your money and you can be reasonably confident you've got a good one. Do buy used, because this could otherwise prove to be an expensive exercise. I'd go for the preamp first if it were me: getting the right amount of bass boost on that bass is key to getting it to sound good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimBobTTD Posted August 13, 2010 Share Posted August 13, 2010 Do you have a vintage Stingray or a Vintage Stingray copy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrenleepoole Posted August 13, 2010 Share Posted August 13, 2010 I have the Seymour Duncan Basslines upgrades: Alnico pup and 3 band active eq preamp thingy! Altogether it cost about £130 I think - pickup was £70 ish and the preamp £60 ish second hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parker_muse Posted August 13, 2010 Author Share Posted August 13, 2010 It's the copy! Sorry for any confusion. Like hell would i fiddle with a pre-EB musicman... Derren, what do you think of the preamp and pup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrenleepoole Posted August 13, 2010 Share Posted August 13, 2010 Very good indeed, the preamp adds a lot of flexibility, and the tone was great The system was easy to install, and made a huge difference in tone and was very cheap. Perhaps this is the way to go, it would only be worth putting in super expensive upgrades on a super expensive bass IMO. [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/basslines/progressive-1/smb4a_5a_3coil/"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/bass...smb4a_5a_3coil/[/url] [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/basslines/cutting-edge-1/stc2_stc32_3ban/"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/bass...tc2_stc32_3ban/[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted August 13, 2010 Share Posted August 13, 2010 If you're feeling really DIY inclined, the original 2-band stingray preamp circuit shouldn't be too difficult to build. There's a guy over on Talkbass who had a load of PCBs made up and was selling them cheaply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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