Suggestions for Active PJ replacement

deekay911 · #1 07-22-2008, 11:15 AM

Guys - I recently pickup up an early 90's Fender Precision Lyte - great playing bass with active PJ pickups. Despite taking all the electronics out and shielding all cavities, I still get a fair amount of hiss and noise, expecially with the treble turned up. I am thinking a lot of this may be due to the ?crappy? Fender preamp..
Does anyone know of a good replacement for this setup? Should I look to replace both the pickups AND the preamp, or is either one alone worth keeping? Are these 'standard' P/J pickups?
I am sure there is some room for improvement here - all suggestions gratefully welcomed!!

badboy1984 · #2 07-22-2008, 12:37 PM

Before you do anything to the bass. You got to ask yourself,

1) Do the tone and sound you getting from this bass suits you?

If it does then the pickup don't need replacement unless you want something difrerent.

2) If the preamp that cause alot of hiss or noise then you may want to look into different preamp for the bass.

In term of what pickup or preamp is good you can do a search on the forum since their are many topics related to this issue.

kyral210 · #3 07-22-2008, 04:48 PM

The stock answer is EMG's. Traditionally EMG has focused soley on the metal genre, but not they are bringing out Alnico pickups to broaden their product range. Alnico magnets give a more traditional sound than the ceramics used in their traditional range.

I would say an EMG alnico based P/J pickup combo would go down a treat!

SERPENT865 · #4 07-22-2008, 05:10 PM

EMGs with Alnico magnets

deekay911 · #5 07-22-2008, 05:30 PM

and the EMG preamp with those alnicos? I guess the pickups govern the tone, and the preamp the hiss and noise..

4StringTheorist · #6 07-22-2008, 06:27 PM

You're sure that the pickups in that bass were active? I'm sure the preamp was active, but I've never heard of Fender putting active pickups in any of their instruments. You might be unnaturally limiting your pickup choices here.

Does a wire (usually red) from the battery go to the pickups? If so, the pickups are active. If not, you've got passive pickups.

Passive pickups work just fine with an active preamp. It's a common misconception that "9v battery = active preamp and active pickups".

In truth: "9v battery = active something. Maybe just active pickups, maybe just active preamp, maybe both active."

frankenp · #7 07-22-2008, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deekay911

Guys - I recently pickup up an early 90's Fender Precision Lyte - great playing bass with active PJ pickups. Despite taking all the electronics out and shielding all cavities, I still get a fair amount of hiss and noise, expecially with the treble turned up. I am thinking a lot of this may be due to the ?crappy? Fender preamp..
Does anyone know of a good replacement for this setup? Should I look to replace both the pickups AND the preamp, or is either one alone worth keeping? Are these 'standard' P/J pickups?
I am sure there is some room for improvement here - all suggestions gratefully welcomed!!

Does the hiss go away when you just have the P pickup on and the J off?

kyral210 · #8 07-23-2008, 12:18 AM

Personally I hate onboard preamps, but maybe thats just me

deekay911 · #9 07-23-2008, 08:17 AM

Good point - the pickups have the traditional 2 wires, one black one white, so I guess they are passive, and what I have is a passive bass with a pre-amp. That said, if the tone is OK for me with the current pups (and it is) then a new pre-amp may help here. I generally see comments that the Fender pre-amp is not so good...
So that then opens up all the usual suspects in the pre-amp area. Anybody got any favourites?
I guess I could also revert it back to a purely passive setup by taking out the pre-amp and wiring it up conventionally..

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4StringTheorist

You're sure that the pickups in that bass were active? I'm sure the preamp was active, but I've never heard of Fender putting active pickups in any of their instruments. You might be unnaturally limiting your pickup choices here.

Does a wire (usually red) from the battery go to the pickups? If so, the pickups are active. If not, you've got passive pickups.

Passive pickups work just fine with an active preamp. It's a common misconception that "9v battery = active preamp and active pickups".

In truth: "9v battery = active something. Maybe just active pickups, maybe just active preamp, maybe both active."

4StringTheorist · #10 07-23-2008, 10:44 AM

Re: the continuing hiss

Did you check your shielding job with a multimeter or continuity tester to see that the shielding got connected to the output jack properly?

Re: preamp replacement

There are lots of preamps that will fit your configuration. (four knobs, cavity routed in the rear of the bass, right?)

Some popular ones around here off the top of my head that can work. I've grouped them based on what I perceive to be popular opinion around here about them.

[transparent. i.e. The sound of your bass + EQ adjustability. Not as radical in sound alteration as the next group.]
Audere Classic
Bartolini NTBT (2 band) or NTMB (3 band)
Glockenlang 2-band

[powerful tone shaping. Colors the sound of your bass, though in a pleasant way. Serious alterations to your tone possible. Different contingents of slap fanatics swear by one or both of these two.

The Aguilar is actually quite transparent with the EQ knobs at center, by all accounts]
East U-Retro
Aguilar OBP series

[advanced concept. Non-standard (yet) and unique ideas in bass electronics. Powerful tone shaping without traditional EQ. Filter based tone shaping.]
ACG EQ-02 filter preamp

[some of all of the above. Transparent when set flat. Powerful tone shaping via the EQ and the Z-mode switch. Z-mode switch is a unique advanced concept feature of adjustable pickup impedence loading for tone change. ]
Audere 3ZB

What you need to tell the people here is what you're aiming for sound-wise. Then they'll have some good input on ones you should check out.

deekay911 · #11 07-23-2008, 11:20 AM

yes the shielding has zero ohms at all points. The hum is a little better after the shielding job I would say.
Thanks for the suggestions on thre pre-amps!! plenty of choice depending on which way I want to go! I think I want to keep the original tone as much as possible, I do like something more 'conventional' (whatever that is)

and the P and J combination seem to give a wide range of tones. I just can't stand the hiss. Of course it is all in the mind anyway - when I use this bass for a gig I don't 'hear' any hiss at all - only when I am playing solo in the bedroom (that sounds badddd hahaha)