Pickups & Electronics for Yamaha Attitude Standard 5, any suggestions please?

[Skitch it!]

I bought this Yamaha in '92 from Denmark Street in London and have tinkered with it ever since. It was defretted in '93, since then it has had a rewound and moulded Kent Armstrong back p/up (for extra out-put), an EMG concentric bass/treble active circuit (not exactly what I wanted) a pearloid plate and a Gibson nut.

Pros: I love the neck profile, the bass sustains & sings well enough for a fretless, and It's been with me a while ; )

Cons: The Pickup's are the weak point, very low output, I'd have to say the quietest I've played, you can see the split front pickup shape/retro-fit problem in the pic's. The EMG active circuit has no mid boost and is still quite low output, I was looking for mid/bass boost at the time but didn't have any other options.

I would change the pickup's out, but would I need to if I get the right active circuit? I'm looking for a high output dual concentric 2 band mid/bass boost but I haven't a clue as to what's on the market for this, can anyone suggest any options please? ; )

[BassmanAd]

This is where Yamaha stiff you. Great instruments but they're always using non-standard pickups so modding becomes difficult. If it was me (and bear in mind all my basses look like car crashes) I'd just put anything in even if it means routing the cavities out. I'm really not precious about my stuff but I understand that other people are.

[line6man]

Originally Posted by BassmanAd

This is where Yamaha stiff you. Great instruments but they're always using non-standard pickups so modding becomes difficult. If it was me (and bear in mind all my basses look like car crashes) I'd just put anything in even if it means routing the cavities out. I'm really not precious about my stuff but I understand that other people are.

Unless the pickups are epoxy potted, a good pickup maker could rewind them, or make a custom pickup to fit the existing covers.

[Skitch it!]

Originally Posted by BassmanAd

This is where Yamaha stiff you. Great instruments but they're always using non-standard pickups so modding becomes difficult. If it was me (and bear in mind all my basses look like car crashes) I'd just put anything in even if it means routing the cavities out. I'm really not precious about my stuff but I understand that other people are.

I see what your saying, that front p/up is..well, what it is. The back one was rewound and moulded by Kent Armstrong but still isn't that great in output, only a slight improvement really.

I think the key is getting the right circuit for it and maybe live with the pickups?

[line6man]

Originally Posted by Skitch it!

I see what your saying, that front p/up is..well, what it is. The back one was rewound and moulded by Kent Armstrong but still isn't that great in output, only a slight improvement really.

I think the key is getting the right circuit for it and maybe live with the pickups?

Bad pickups are bad pickups. The pickups are the first thing in the signal chain, so if they are not putting out what you want to hear, it would be pointless to try to fix them with a preamp.

IIRC, Yamaha has used pickups with blade style poles with ceramic magnets on some of their basses. Yamaha experts, am I incorrect?
Maybe you need a standard PJ set with two pole pieces per string?

[line6man]

BTW, my OCD is severely bothered by the fact that there are two triangular shaped gaps in the pickguard under the A and D strings.
Is that really how they designed the pickguard!?

[SteveC]

I have a Yamaha BB605 - 5 string jazz type bass. I replaced the stock single coil pups with Bartolini dual coils and 5.4 A/P preamp (I hated the hum, but kinda wish I had the original electronics back now) and had to do no modification at all. They dropped right in.

I agree, the neck and sustain are amazing on my bass. So much so that I prefer it to a Sadowsky, Modulus, Lakland, etc. - and I have tried them all.

It does suck that they use odd pups so modding is difficult - or maybe that's their way of saying leave it alone...

[Skitch it!]

Originally Posted by line6man

BTW, my OCD is severely bothered by the fact that there are two triangular shaped gaps in the pickguard under the A and D strings.
Is that really how they designed the pickguard!?

It's the first time I've noticed that actually, I'm not sure ; ) The guard the circuit and the back p/up were all made/fitted at the Bass Gallery in London years back.

The p/up's are very weak on output and mids unfortunatley, when I've used the bass live I've run it through a Boss GE7 to compensate but it takes a lot of mid boost to get Mwah : ( I was hoping a higher output mid boost circuit might beef it up?

[BassmanAd]

Originally Posted by SteveC

It does suck that they use odd pups so modding is difficult - or maybe that's their way of saying leave it alone...

Interesting that the pickups on their lower end intruments tend to be standard shapes. Maybe you're on to something there...

[Skitch it!]

Originally Posted by SteveC

I have a Yamaha BB605 - 5 string jazz type bass. I replaced the stock single coil pups with Bartolini dual coils and 5.4 A/P preamp (I hated the hum, but kinda wish I had the original electronics back now) and had to do no modification at all. They dropped right in.

I agree, the neck and sustain are amazing on my bass. So much so that I prefer it to a Sadowsky, Modulus, Lakland, etc. - and I have tried them all.

It does suck that they use odd pups so modding is difficult - or maybe that's their way of saying leave it alone...

How much difference did the pickup change make? If you don't mind.

[stickgabry]

Wow beautifull bass!! i'm looking for it for a long time.... someone sell it?

[Stealth]

Yes, Yamaha does tend to muck things up like that with pickup dimensions.
Have you tried wiring the pickups directly to the jack, bypassing the preamp? Maybe the tone and volume suckage is coming from the preamp itself.