Lakland 55-94 pickup swap

Munjibunga · #1 08-09-2010, 12:12 AM

I have a '96 Lakland 55-94 with the stock Bartolini pickups in it. The stock pickups are a little to "dark" or "soft" for me. I'd like something more aggressive and richer in the high mids. I'm thinking about swapping out the pickups for either Lakland pickups or Nordstrands. Would a pickup change accomplish this without a corresponding swap of the Bart electronics?

What are the thoughts of the resident gurus on this?

Munjibunga · #2 08-09-2010, 12:14 AM

Anybody?

bwest9 · #3 08-09-2010, 12:19 AM

I'm no guru, but I do know the 55-01 I had with MK 5 Barts and the 4 band Audure pre REALLY REALLY got the tone you're describing.

bwest9 · #4 08-09-2010, 10:00 AM

(wrong answer)

KJung · #5 08-09-2010, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

I have a '96 Lakland 55-94 with the stock Bartolini pickups in it. The stock pickups are a little to "dark" or "soft" for me. I'd like something more aggressive and richer in the high mids. I'm thinking about swapping out the pickups for either Lakland pickups or Nordstrands. Would a pickup change accomplish this without a corresponding swap of the Bart electronics?

What are the thoughts of the resident gurus on this?

One thing for sure... do not swap with the Seymour Duncans that were an option for Lakland. That pickup set is unbalanced, with the MM pickup much louder than the neck pickup. It did brighten mine up, but at the expense of balance, etc.

I have a buddy with the Nordstrand MM/HC J pickup combination in a bass, and it is SUPER bright and sizzly. Not sure if that would be a direct drop in option for the 55-94, but tonally, it would brighten things up. It is TBer Mikebass... I know Nordstrand makes a number of MM pickups, and not sure which one he has, but it is a sizzly, bright beast of a MM pickup.

I have spent some time with the Lakland pickups in a 55-94. A touch brighter in the upper treble, a touch deeper, but IMO, not worth the trouble.. more similar to the Barts than different... still no grind or growl to my ear. The preamp is also nice, with all the different mid center points, etc., but also not a 'night and day' difference.

I think it is the Nord's for you if they will fit.

Hope that helps. I eventually got rid of my 55-94 for this reason. Warm, fat and punchy with the Barts, but no grind on the gig, and the only other option at the time was the Seymours, which just didn't work at any level.

Luis Fabara · #6 08-09-2010, 10:26 AM

Have you considered DeLano Hybrid+ J ?

More agressive than the barts, less than Seymour or Nordstrand

The will fit your Lakland and give a more agressive tone.

you can keep the stock bart pre, with pretty much any pickups.

Have you tried the barts on passive mode with a high gain tube pre? They sound much more grindy this way, wich leads me to belive the bart pre does muffle the tone somewhat

Munjibunga · #7 08-09-2010, 05:55 PM

Thanks guys. I think the Nordys are going to end up being the ones if I make the swap. John at Lakland said pretty much the same thing you did, Ken. I just want to liven up that bass a bit. It was my first high-end bass and has sentimental value, but the likes of my Drozd and F Bass kind of move it down the list, tone-wise.

pickles · #8 08-10-2010, 08:57 AM

There is a pretty long thread on this topic in the archives here somewhere. My notes are that the Laklands are faster and drier than the Barts, with more 600hz type mids, and a bit of texture in the highs that is nice. But it still going to sound like the same bass.

An interesting thing from my experiemnts with the Laklands is that the Bartolini preamp and blend pot are pretty extreme tone suckers. I removed that setup from my USA JO5 and replaced it with passive vol/vol only, and it REALLY opened up the tone. Then I put it throough a sadowsky outboard and oh boy ... monster tone.

I ended up selling my 55-94 becuase I was gravitating toward all my 34" basses, but the next step for me to try tone wise was going to be the bart pickups with an onboard Sadowsky pre w/ VTC.

Luis Fabara · #9 08-10-2010, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pickles

An interesting thing from my experiemnts with the Laklands is that the Bartolini preamp and blend pot are pretty extreme tone suckers. I removed that setup from my USA JO5 and replaced it with passive vol/vol only, and it REALLY opened up the tone. Then I put it throough a sadowsky outboard and oh boy ... monster tone.

This is interesting. I read that replacing the Vol and Blend pots for 500K with the bartolini preamp helps opening up the tone.

And the lakland in passive with barts does sound better than with the pre active.

Im gonna replace the vol/blend on my Modulus and Lakland to see if that is all the issue.

BigOldHarry · #10 08-10-2010, 10:09 AM

Have you tried different strings? Those P'ups are great...

KJung · #11 08-10-2010, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

Have you tried different strings? Those P'ups are great...

They are great, but they are the classic Bartolini tone, which is fat, warm, mid present, and while having some upper treble extension, they have zero, zilch 'brightness' (meaning upper mid content and a bit of grind).

I played a stock 55-94 for a number or years, and dug that smooth 'Bart' soapbar/HC' type tone for what it was. However, if you are looking to brighten and grind it up a bit, new pickups can help.

Munjibunga · #12 08-21-2010, 11:48 PM

Waaaal, I don't know if a swap is going to be necessary after today's gig. I ended up taking my Glockenklang rig instead of Aguilar, because the smaller cabinet size was just enough to enable me to get the full PA plus my rig in the car (Venzaaah).

I took my Am Jazz Deluxe FMT V along with the 55-94, planning to play it most of the day. But I plugged in the Lakland to tune it up and, after playing a few notes, thought it sounded pretty tight. So I played the first set with it and the tone was excellent, and the J-bass never got on a strap.

Moral of the story: Some basses like some amps better than others. That, and just because one thing sucks doesn't mean something else doesn't.

phillipkregg · #13 08-22-2010, 12:31 AM

I posted this thread a while back regarding the same subject:
Lakland 55-02 Replacement Pups

I have a 55-02 with the Bart system and I've had the same issues. Recently I put some steel strings on it though, and it really came alive with those. However, now that the steels are starting to lose their sparkle, I can hear the sound becoming a little too mellow again.

From everything I've seen I may be going for the Nordstrands pretty soon.

I took my bass into a local music store and A/B'd my bass with the barts against a new Lakland 55-02 with the LH3 system. To my ears, they sound very different. The Barts are very bassy, deep and mellow with punchy warm mids - but no sparkle or "grind" like you get with a jazz bass. The LH3 system opens up the tone quite a bit more, with more high mids and highs in general, but they seem to lack the warmth of the Barts. To me, they came across as a little thin sounding - even when I boosted the bass quite a bit.

From talking to a lot of folks, I now feel like the Nordstrands may be the best solution for me to open up the tone options. It's a great bass and I think it's worth spending the extra dough to have it modded.

chicago_mike · #14 08-22-2010, 12:43 AM

Okay heres what I did. Works awesome!

My Laky has the LH-3 setup but I put a Bartolini buffer inbetween the pups and the pre. Right now I am adding a switch to bypass the buffer when I want to.

What does the buffer do? Tightens up the lows and makes the lakland sound like it almost has a peizo bridge. My strings are dead as **** right now so clips are worthless..also I am in the middle of re-soldering.

EDIT: Im about to try a new one. DB918.1 Buffer module. Orioganl unit was made for Bill Dickens..so I dont know how this one will sound just yet. I love tweaking!

willyrep · #15 08-22-2010, 12:54 AM

I've had similar experiences with my 55-01. Running thru my Little mark II and big Epifani 4x10 its very dark sounding, bottom heavy and hard to get good snap out of it. Thru my Little Mark II powering my Aggie 2x10 ( for smaller gigs) its snap crackle pop! Tons of high-end and bright highs. Anyone want to trade me their Aguilar 4x10 for an Epifani PS 4x10?

pickles · #16 08-22-2010, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

Moral of the story: Some basses like some amps better than others. That, and just because one thing sucks doesn't mean something else doesn't.

Absolutely! That's actually what made me end up selling my 55-94, it was the odd man out in terms of which basses liked my favorite amp. With my old M-Pulse 600 it was magic.