I found the barts too dark. The idea with the Seymour Duncan Basslines Passive Phase II NYC soapbars was to get some more mids and cut the lows a little. I made some high quality recordings to document the change.
Modulus Q5: Bartolini's vs. Duncan NYC Soapbars by smarvelous on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
I'm effing thrilled. They're less noisy and have detailed mids and still have a nice low end. I have yet to try them in rehearsal/gig but I think I hit the jackpot here: this is very good upgrade for a Q5 with Barts.
Note: in the recordings I am using TI jazz flats. Really like these on the Q5, less string tension, no clacking. But it is quite different than round wounds.
Note 2: the NYC pole pieces are slightly off at the 1st and 5th strings (the pickups were designed for a wider string spacing) I don't think it affects the tone. You can see this in the bass player review that actually tested them in a Q5, which is how I got the idea to try it.
http://www.bassplayer.com/TabId/177/...ArticleId=4850
