Warwick Streamer LX Pickup Q's

[tonymcbony]

Hey folks,
I have a Warwick Streamer LX 4 that I've had for yonks.
I love the feel and playability of it, and especially the unamped tone.
What I don't like is the tone coming out of the socket! It's indistinct, murky without a big payoff in terms of bass. Seems like there's a lot of low mid and little real bass, which I blame on the MEC setup.

Here's my idea; go passive.

As the Streamer is a P/J setup, I'm thinking of putting a Model J at the bridge, and either Seymor Duncan Antiquity I or II's for P Bass at the neck.

Get a Tone Hammer as an external Preamp; this means I'm more flexible if I want to change my tone later, plus I'd have a great DI to boot.

The two questions I have are

1. Which pickup is more suited to big round fat bass, Antiquity I or II for P Bass?
2. As the Warwick has 4 holes for controls, would it be usuable to go for vol/tone on EACH pickup?

[jazzmonk]

I have tried both Dimarzio P/Model J as well as Fender Custom Shop 60's P/J with passive electronics. It's been a while, but I remember it was just OK (thin sounding and needing a lot of EQ tweaks on the amp) and not leaving a lasting impression.

After a while, I installed a Bart 8S/9J and Seymour Duncan 3-band pre and I thought it was a big improvement - more flexible, more growl and thicker sounding. Unfortunately, output always seemed low even when I modded the pre to 18V.

So I installed an Aguilar 3-band pre, but kept the Bart pickups. Still low output but even more flexibility and transparent tone. Finally, I installed the Bart 3-band pre (NTMB?), and this is the magic combination that has made my LX4 a monster.

The Bart preamp has an adjustable gain that allows me to compensate for the Bart P/J's low output. The pre is so flexible that it is now possible for me to use the bridge pickup alone by dialing in the right amount of bass, treble, and lower mids. I could never use the bridge pickup alone with other setups without it sounding thin and unusable. Now I can get the fattest growliest tone from the bridge, the funkiest settings with both pickups, and a pretty good pbass tone from the neck. The overall sound is very smooth and refined in the highs. The bass can be wooly, so I primarily boost the lower mid and leave the bass flat or slightly boosted.

My intuition tells me that a Dimarzio P/J or Fender P/J with a Bart pre could be awesome too. But then again, maybe there's something magical about Bart pickups with Bart pre.

1. Sorry, no experiences with Antiquity bass pickups. But I would like to know what you think about it should you try it out.

2. I have tried this on a different bass and it worked well if you're switching between pickups, but with both pickups on I couldn't detect the interaction of each tone control. I assume it has something to do with the taper of the vol and tone controls. But on the Rickenbacker 4003, this worked out really well.