Thumb Bass 5 Owners - Preamp Replacement

[bigdoug1053]

All hail the Glorious Peoples Revolutionary Thumb Bass Cadre!

I have an 89 Thumb 5 NT with EMG J pickups and the preamp is getting sick. Too much treble - I have to choke the darn treble pot to keep from hissing and cutting off heads with piercing high end. Here's some background information about the bass that may or may not be relevant to your calculus:

Pickups: stock Warwick for 88-89
Current Control Layout: 3 knobs front to back - 1 volume-pull passive, 2 blend with center detent, 3 stacked bass and treble (inner).
Strings: DR High Beams round wound, Medium 5 45-65-85-105-125
Playing Styles: mostly popping and slapping, touch bass, harmonics - but also loud metal and quieter jazz and folk accompaniment
Amps: GK 200MB, 400RB+SWR Goliath Jr, MB500/GK Neo 410, Sans Amp Bass DI

So... Replacement pre amp suggestions?



PS - tengo tres cabezas - una de cabra, uno de bagre, y uno hombre feo.

[pickles]

That's pretty odd. What's the make on the pre? With EMG Js I'd probably tend to go with an EMG 3-band system (BQC or BQS). But I wonder if it might just need to be cleaned or something? A preamp from '89 should be going strong for quite a while yet. I'd take it to a tech and see what they can do with a fresh battery, clean pots, and shoring up any loose wiring.

[bigdoug1053]

That's a good suggestion, Pickles. Thanks. I will pop the hood tomorrow and give it a once over and see if cleaning pots and contacts helps.

[jazzmonk]

I have a 4-string Thumb bolt-on with the Bart 3-band pre configured as vol/vol, mid with 400/800hz switch, and treble/bass. I compared it to an Aguilar OBP-3, the Bart seemed easier to dial in the tone I was after. The OBP-3 was brighter when set flat compared to the Bart set flat - I had to always cut the treble with the OBP-3.

The last thing I did was to replace the MEC pickups with Fender Custom Shop 60's. This was much warmer/organic sounding and significantly more usable than the MEC.

With this setup, it was easy to dial an upright tone, a pbass tone, a funky stu zender tone, and a fat Jaco tone.

Best of luck to you.