Warwick SS 2 preamp/pickup suggestions?

[seanreiter]

Hello, I had to replace the stock pickups and preamp on my Streamer Stage 2. My tech advised an Audere preamp with Bartolini's. I have been using it for the past few years and am really unhappy with the sound. It has muddy lows and zero highs. I don't even play above the 5th frets on the D + G strings because the sound vanishes in the mix.
Also, the bass has very little sustain for a neck thru, probably not pick up related though. I sank a lot of money into "upgrading" this bass and it sounds like poo!

With that being said, I'm looking for a change. I have heard that Basslines sound really good in an SS2. What about preamps?

Thanks Folks!

[jazzmonk]

Mine had a very noisy preamp, so I replaced it with an Aguilar OBP-3. It still has the original active pickups. Very clear and articulate across the board, but still not as organic sounding as I would like - however that could be the active pickups' fault. Compared to the MEC preamp it replaced, the OBP-3 seems to have more output and transparency. The knobs are very sensitive but not overbearing.

My mid knob is also a switch to select either 400hz or 800hz. I find that when using the bridge only, I favor boosting the 400hz. And for neck only, I favor boosting the 800hz with a some treble cut. Sometimes I wonder what tone I can get by controlling both mid frequencies independently so I've also wondered about the Audere. If you take that route please update this thread - I'm sure many others are interested as well.

My SSII is a five string and it's not hard to find replacement pickups that will fit but it's near impossible to figure out if they have the right spacing of 16.5 mm. If you're in the same situation that I'm in and have found passive pickups that fit the bill, please let me in on it.