Ernie Ball Musicman upgraders, want to hear from you

[rojo412]

I am in a position to acquire a Musicman in a trade. The thing with me, though is, I always need to have a plan... an agenda... that "backup parachute", if you will.

I have never upgraded a Musicman bass. I have had 4 in my life and the reason I don't have them anymore was the lack of versatility. Of course, I had them in the days of "1 pickup to rule the world" mentality.
Nowadays, there's multiple pickups and aftermarket upgrades out the wazoo for Musicmans and you can make all sorts of adjustments with relative ease.

Just looking for opinions from those who've mod'd their Musicman basses with success and/or failure.
The East preamp, for example... I love it in my J, but the MM is a whole different beast. Anyone tried one?
Nordstrand MM pickups... how are those?
Anything else you've got, just wondering. Don't see much on the topic, so I figured I should ask.

[shirtforbrains]

I did the nordstrand 4.2 in my stingray. Seems like it gives it a more classic tone with out the ultra highs. Had a bart in it as well. I would say if you get bored of the tone, change the pickup.

I have a lakland 44 02, Factor, G&l 2000... And since I put that pickup in it. Its now back to being my main axe...

Hope this helps...

[TheMutt]

I can't say much about the East preamp as I modded mine with a Glockenklang preamp to allow it to be active/passive. The Nordstrand pickups are much better than the stock pickup (in my opinion). However, my situation may be different than yours as my Stingray is a 5'er before they went back to using Alnico pickups (mine was a ceramic magnet pickup). I replaced it with a Nordstrand MM5.4 and the sound is fantastic. Much more balanced string to string, and not as nasal especially on the D and G and up the fretboard past the 12th fret.

I would say that I am extremely pleased with the way that my bass is now working. I also know that more than a few people would say that what I have done is blasphemy. The only real advice that I can offer you is to really think through what it is that you are doing before you go and mod your bass and possibly damage the resale value (since you have a history of buying and selling them).

[rojo412]

Back when I first got to own a Stingray, it was the holy grail of basses for me and I basically was afraid to even think about changing the pickup.
As I got older, played a few more Stingrays and Sterlings, I found that the tone was not usable for me, but the replacement option was... nothing! Then Barts came along... Now, it's a whole bunch.

If this trade happens for me, its good to know that there are now options and I can experiment. And I've experimented and mod'd enough stuff where I'm confident that I could return one of these to stock with the greatest of ease! If I don't sell the original parts, of course... that'd be the hard part.

[SGD Lutherie]

The thing to think about is most MM replacements are made just like the originals, so they are supposed to sound like the real thing.

If you want a different tone, you need a MM shaped pickup that is different on the inside. Otherwise it will sound like a MM pickup.

So if you want something different, avoid the "vintage" style MM replacements.

[rojo412]

... if I only knew of someone who offered that!

[depalm]

Nordstrand is a nice "upgrade", it has a marvelous vintage, warm tone that slightly differs from modern MM pickups.

East preamp is also very good, a friend of mine installed one (2 band) on his Ray. Nice, really nice tone, lots of boost, and very "MM".

That said I'd not change anything on a Sting Ray if I don't really need, keeping the original parts of course.

Sterling is a different history...

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by rojo412

... if I only knew of someone who offered that!

I can think of at least three off the top of my head...