Upgrading Pedulla Rapture J 5 String

[12bass]

While the Bartolini pickups and preamp may be somewhat warm sounding, I tend to agree that it is unlikely that the electronics are faulty. Is it possible for you to record a clip so we can hear what you're talking about? What about the neck/bridge/pickup height adjustment?

The J2 low B in the first clip sounds great. FWIW, I've found that the best B string on my Rapture 5 is the 0.128" in the stock Pedulla PS5A set. A while ago I bought a couple of the PS5B (40-60-80-100-125) sets and the lighter 0.125" B isn't cutting it for me. Not sure if it is a bad string or if I just don't like the lighter gauge.

[socialleper]

These are two recordings of me doing a simple scale, the first with my Pedulla and the second with my Warwick Corvette $$. I'm playing with the EQ on both flat, pickups panned to the center (the Warwick is in single coil mode) going through a Tone Hammer DI, set flat, to a PreSonus Firebox into Cubase with no EQ or effects.
I tweaked the action on the Pedulla lower and tweaked the neck a little straighter, but you can definitely hear that the Pedulla is a little dark sounding.

https://soundcloud.com/jeffdclark/pedulla-scale
https://soundcloud.com/jeffdclark/warwick-scale

[12bass]

The Warwick definitely has more J single coil bite. Other than a somewhat dark sound, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The Pedulla's tone sounded pretty good to me. Some brighter pickups may be the solution. With my single pickup Rapture 5, I tend to boost the treble a bit if using the Bartolini NTBT preamp (also has an active/passive switch installed).

[GBassNorth]

Originally Posted by pickles

IMHO pickup swaps make a substantial difference, preamps are more subtle, neither will drastically change the character of the bass, is a subtle refinement and "upgrades" are often unsuccessful. That's said, I've done a lot of it and it can work well. For the rapture I've always wondered what it would sound like with sadowsky single coil Js and preamp. Or go with the maple body theme an Spector it up with some EMGs. EMJ-JVs could be interesting.

You can power pickups and pre from the same 9v.

+1 on the Spector it up route. I have both Spector JJ and Pedulla PJ basses among many others and I've always thought the EMG Jazz with an Aguilar OPB-3 would be a killer with the Rapture bass. It's about as different as you can get with the Jazz layout vs the Bart/Bart configuration that Pedulla uses. If the Rapture is solid maple the EMGs will really bring that thing to life. My Spector NS-2J has this configuration and it can play mellow old school passive type tones if you play light, but dig in and it goes from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde in a snarling growling warwick thumb sort of way. I love it.

[socialleper]

Originally Posted by GBassNorth

+1 on the Spector it up route. I have both Spector JJ and Pedulla PJ basses among many others and I've always thought the EMG Jazz with an Aguilar OPB-3 would be a killer with the Rapture bass. It's about as different as you can get with the Jazz layout vs the Bart/Bart configuration that Pedulla uses. If the Rapture is solid maple the EMGs will really bring that thing to life. My Spector NS-2J has this configuration and it can play mellow old school passive type tones if you play light, but dig in and it goes from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde in a snarling growling warwick thumb sort of way. I love it.

One of the options I was thinking about was the EMG Jazz pickups since both Ryan Martinie and Bryan Richie have gone that route. I was worried about the fit and worried if it wouldn't be too sterile sounding. I was thinking about the Delano pickups but I wanted to be sure since they are a little expensive.
I was contemplating swapping out the preamp as well. The Aguilar OBP-2 wouldn't require any drilling, or I could go with an Audere (which is a little cheaper) with a vol;balance; mids/mids; low/hi setup.

So the B string didn't sound a little anemic to you? I've got some Circle K .142 traditional strings on there now. The tapered B helps a lot, but it still sounds a little thin to me. I tried the Pedulla strings, which are nice strings, but I didn't dig the tapered E and A.

[socialleper]

Originally Posted by 12bass

The Warwick definitely has more J single coil bite. Other than a somewhat dark sound, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The Pedulla's tone sounded pretty good to me. Some brighter pickups may be the solution. With my single pickup Rapture 5, I tend to boost the treble a bit if using the Bartolini NTBT preamp (also has an active/passive switch installed).

Are the Bartolini preamps well balanced? Their pickups are known for being a little dark and nasal in the mids. I don't know if their preamps have a certain characteristic as well.

When I asked Pedulla about the model of pickups and preamp they said they have their stuff custom made for their basses, so I guess you can't compare them directly to the off the shelf versions.

[12bass]

Originally Posted by socialleper

Are the Bartolini preamps well balanced? Their pickups are known for being a little dark and nasal in the mids. I don't know if their preamps have a certain characteristic as well.

IMO, the NTBT also has a somewhat warm sound. With my Q-tuner BL-5, it sounds like the preamp is losing a little "transparency". Of course, the Q-tuner has a lot more extension up top than the original Bartolini C humbucker. From what I've gathered, the Audere would probably sound more open.

Originally Posted by socialleper

When I asked Pedulla about the model of pickups and preamp they said they have their stuff custom made for their basses, so I guess you can't compare them directly to the off the shelf versions.

Perhaps not quite "off the shelf", the original Bartolini C pickup in my RB5 had what I would characterize as the regular dark, low-midrange focused Bartolini sound. What seems unique about it is that the coil is a custom width. I don't think that the Rapture's preamp is much different than a stock 9 V NTBT, except that it does not have a gain potentiometer (I added one to mine).

FWIW, I'm not a fan of EMG pickups and tend to find them somewhat harsh and sterile, and not natural sounding, though I haven't heard their newer X series which are supposed to be more open sounding. If it were me, I'd lean more toward Delanos.

Interesting observation about strings. Haven't tried Circle Ks. However, I did try a few sets without tapered windings and found myself preferring the stock Pedulla PS5A set, finding the B more balanced with the other strings.

YMMV....

[inthebassclef]

I actually had a pedulla rapture for a while and agree it just lacked the punch of other jazz style basses. I think an alternative option my be to sell it and buy a used thunderbass. This is the route I went and never regretted it. The thunderbass plays just as good, honestly I think much better, and it is a great improvement over the rapture and the money you would spend on upgrading the bass you could close to buy a used thunderbass after selling the rapture. Hope this helps.

[pickles]

Agreed, thunderbass is pretty killer.

[inthebassclef]

Agreed sir