1992 Warwick Streamer Stage 2 Customized Electronics

[Means2nEnd]

I just finished up a project for another TB’r I met here. He lives close to me an hour or so and a have done a few small preamp jobs for him. This is his bass and it’s beautiful and for its age in excellent condition. He wanted to improve the flexibility of it so there was already Seymour Duncan active Basslines pickups in it and a Seymour Duncan 3 band preamp with the push pull mid slap scoop push pull on the master volume.

I got him addicted to volume/volume instead of a master volume and balance knob I hate that set up. Anyway so the first thing was finding 10K audio taper pots and ripping the master volume and balance now out first. The signal path is different with these Duncan preamps the signal from the pickups goes through the preamp first then to the volumes then to the jack unlike every other preamp I ever worked on where the signal from the pickups goes through the volume pots then to the preamp. Made for some hair tearing out but I figured that out and then installed an active and preamp bypass switch. Pickups are active so there is no real true passive just a preamp bypass so its volumes only no color from preamp but that switch is closest to the jack. I called Seymour Duncan and the tech I spoke to told me I wouldn’t be able to change the set up to volume/volume let alone install a preamp bypass switch. Next the switch in the push pull knob for the mid contour for slap was now gone so I put that on a separate switch and installed it next to the active passive switch. This set up is killer and offers more control with volume/volume and active/bypass preamp switch. Sorry it this comes off as a self-promoting self-back patting thread but I am proud of the work. It wasn’t easy and I’m not a pro I have done so many installs but none customized like this. Anyway if anyone is interested in wiring diagrams of what I did let me know I will share anything it should be free. I also installed a resistor at the point of the active/bypass switch to eliminate a pop when you switch either way the first time and it helped but not eliminated it. If anyone knows how to eliminate please let me know. Thanks for checking it out now all Ynnon has to do is put his gold knobs back on.

[JP Morin]

congrats, I know how hard it is messing with pre and makes things to works properly !! I learned many thing doing it and solving problems... Some time it is frustating but at the end when you succed it's so rewarding !! Did you take pictures fo your job in the elctronic compartiment ?? just curious...

Thanks to share your experience !!!

[Means2nEnd]

I am doing the exact same set up in his Streamer Stage 1 with MEC pickups but same preamp set up so I will take some pics of the guts. Hell of a man to leave his Streamer with me and say drill away do it up. That's a lot of trust in me. It's my thing though it's not like I fish...

[Jimmy74]

Respect for the work done!!

Kind enough to share what's the tonal benefits from this?

[Means2nEnd]

I guess it still in the end is a matter of opinion. Volume/volume to me gives me more control over each individual pickup and unless like only a few complete active preamps like Audere at center detent on the blend pot there is most always a pretty significant volume drop you can hear it so much when rolling forward or back and then in the middle. With volume/volume that is eliminated and I feel you’re in better control over how much you’re sending from each pickup.

The Seymour Duncan preamps offer no active/bypass option so this switch allows you to hear the pickups alone no color from preamp just leaving the volumes working. This was really the only thing I added that isn’t an original option.

I’m personally not a fan of push pull options I know it’s no big deal but I’m not cool with pulling out a knob for anything I think it looks terrible and I just don’t like it. Moving that slap contour to a switch does nothing in terms of performance or tone but it does get rid of the push pull on the volume knobs.

[musicmanmike]

Originally Posted by Means2nEnd

I just finished up a project for another TB’r I met here. He lives close to me an hour or so and a have done a few small preamp jobs for him. This is his bass and it’s beautiful and for its age in excellent condition. He wanted to improve the flexibility of it so there was already Seymour Duncan active Basslines pickups in it and a Seymour Duncan 3 band preamp with the push pull mid slap scoop push pull on the master volume.

I got him addicted to volume/volume instead of a master volume and balance knob I hate that set up. Anyway so the first thing was finding 10K audio taper pots and ripping the master volume and balance now out first. The signal path is different with these Duncan preamps the signal from the pickups goes through the preamp first then to the volumes then to the jack unlike every other preamp I ever worked on where the signal from the pickups goes through the volume pots then to the preamp. Made for some hair tearing out but I figured that out and then installed an active and preamp bypass switch. Pickups are active so there is no real true passive just a preamp bypass so its volumes only no color from preamp but that switch is closest to the jack. I called Seymour Duncan and the tech I spoke to told me I wouldn’t be able to change the set up to volume/volume let alone install a preamp bypass switch. Next the switch in the push pull knob for the mid contour for slap was now gone so I put that on a separate switch and installed it next to the active passive switch. This set up is killer and offers more control with volume/volume and active/bypass preamp switch. Sorry it this comes off as a self-promoting self-back patting thread but I am proud of the work. It wasn’t easy and I’m not a pro I have done so many installs but none customized like this. Anyway if anyone is interested in wiring diagrams of what I did let me know I will share anything it should be free. I also installed a resistor at the point of the active/bypass switch to eliminate a pop when you switch either way the first time and it helped but not eliminated it. If anyone knows how to eliminate please let me know. Thanks for checking it out now all Ynnon has to do is put his gold knobs back on.

nice I like to hotrod all my basses if needed...Im looking to purchase between a stage 1 and stage2 and still undecided...not sure about the Jazz setups on the stage 2