Hi All,

I am thinking of buying an Ibanez BTB405QM and changing pickups on it. From what the bass owner is telling me it sounds as if the pickup dimensions on it are close to the standard 1.5 x 4.5 inches but a bit narrower. Will I need to do any routing to fit EMG 45 standard size pickups into a BTB405QM?

Thanks a lot!

Anyone?

I had a BTB1005OL a few years ago. I put a Demeter preamp in it and ordered pickups from Bartolini. Once I put the preamp in I was amazed at the difference in sound. The stock Ibanez pickups are not bad, the preamp is the weak link. It took 5 months for the Barts to come in and I was disappointed to find that they only improved the sound by about 10-20%.

Start off by replacing the preamp and then go from there.

Ralf

Hi All,

I am thinking of buying an Ibanez BTB405QM and changing pickups on it. From what the bass owner is telling me it sounds as if the pickup dimensions on it are close to the standard 1.5 x 4.5 inches but a bit narrower. Will I need to do any routing to fit EMG 45 standard size pickups into a BTB405QM?

Thanks a lot!

Thanks Ralph, but my purpose is to demo Villex pickups rather than improve the bass ;)

What size were the Bartolini's? Why did it take several months, were they customs?

... but my purpose is to demo Villex pickups rather than improve the bass ;)

I put two lots of Villex in my BTB405QM fretless and I was not pleased with the result. One lot was a MM style humbucker bridge and after that didn't work all that well ( humbucker was nowhere wide enough for the 5str despite requesting the humbucker for 5 str, ) and the other combination was both soapbar humbuckers.

I've now sold these and used the Barts and Bart on-baord-EQ from my BTB1005 in this bass ( replacing the barts in the BTB1005 with Nordstrand Dual Coils/Audere )

This was by far a vast improvement.

The equivelent cover to use that will match the BTB405 is the "bartolini P4" profile apparently.

Mo

Thanks Ralph, but my purpose is to demo Villex pickups rather than improve the bass ;)

What size were the Bartolini's? Why did it take several months, were they customs?

If you want to demo the pickups, then I suggest going passive. The stock Ibanez preamp really is that bad.

The Barts I ordered were a custom split coil that they made as a drop in replacement for the Ibanez pickups. My guess is that they already had the tooling for them from making samples for Ibanez (the later model BTB1005 had offshore Bartolinis in them).

Why did it take several months? It's Bartolini - you have to ask? ;)

Ralf

Thanks a lot for the answers guys!

If you want to demo the pickups, then I suggest going passive. The stock Ibanez preamp really is that bad.


Thanks for the advice, I was going to completely replace the electronics anyway.

Go to the Bart site and download the pickup drawings and dimensions pdf. That'll tell you what size and name of the shape. Makes it easier to look for different brands then.
http://www.bartolini.net/pdf/Pickup%20Drawings_wDims.pdf

..I was going to completely replace the electronics anyway.
As rpatter pointed out the stock Ibanez electronics were'nt all that great PLUS Villex is better left as a passive system according to the maker ( when I was in the process of installing them some time ago )

Villex comes with a special pot for the mids PLUS William Villex recommended reverse taper pots which you can buy from smallbear electronics.

All the best - I sincerely hope you get a better result than I did.

Mo