Is a Lakland 55-01 good for upgrade?

[kucor]

Hi TB!

Currently I have cheap Ibanez btb405 which s***s big time, I tried with nordies, Barts, Delanos and all kind of preamps, but it's made of some cheapo soft wood, + has strange pickup positions, and no sound from it plugged neither unplugged. It sounds totally dead and unbalanced

yeah, I'm somewhat pi**ed off at the moment

So I'm looking for a budget bass with 19mm spacing, fast neck, decent B string, and good wood which I found to be very or most important for good sound.

I don't care for exotic woods, just want it to be quality piece of ash or alder

Currently looking at Lakland 55-01, so wondering is that good idea?

ps, I play modern pop, pop-rock and funk mostly, and thinking about Fat Stacks/U-retro deluxe combination, but that is a second part of the story

thanks!

[diglo]

I enjoyed the one I had. The pre was upgraded with stocked pups.

[datsaxguy]

It's a solid instrument, guys have modded them a million ways on the forum. I've had 2, loved them both.

[mmbongo]

Definitely. 1000% do it.

I put Bart MK5's and an Audere preamp in mine, and it's absolutely astonishing. In fact, it's a little too close to my $2500 USA Spectors for my comfort...and in some ways it's better! I acutally like the neck shape and body balance on the 5501 much better. The B string on the 5501 is way better than it should be. It's right there with my Spectors.

So basically, you simply can't get a better upgrade bass than a 5501.

[IPYF]

I'd be wary. Did your BTB ship stock with Bartolini pickups and preamp? I loved my BTB dearly and loved the sound. When I broke it and had to move on I had the choice of a Lakland (on special) or a Spector. I chose the Spector because I plan on fixing my BTB one day when I have the disposable income to do it and I felt that the Lakland sounded virtually identical to it when plugged in.

Mine is an older model BTB (the 450QM from 2006 with the Bartolini MK1s as stock) which might be different to the 405 you have; I dunno since I've never played that specific model. Stock though I couldn't split the tone of the two basses, so I went with the Spector which had a much different tone.

If you're going to just go ahead and mod it then you probably could do whatever you want. The Lakland are certainly a nice feeling bass to play and they look very handsome.

[kucor]

thanks for replies!

405qm comes with no name Ibanez pickups and preamp, but they aren't much different from MK1's. I tried with Nordstrand dual coils, big splits, Bart deep tone dual coils, Delano SBC drivers, OBP3, Nordy 3B-5a, Noll 3 band, Noll parametric, all kind of strings and amp gear, but no luck.....It has nice neck shape and setup, 19mm spacing and tight B, so I tried to work out something of that, but now I don't care for it any more..