Anyone familiar with MAESTRO basses?

[FulturnJones]

I purchased a Jazz 5 string version with a MM bridge pickup. I’ve been a 4 string purest for over 20 years and with some of the session work I’m doing now (and two years of jokes from the engineer) I finally broke down and started shopping for 5s’. I actually stumbled across my bass on a Reverb.com add on FB. After seeing on FB and the list price I immediately thought Russia.. but after finding said listing on reverb.com site I was like hey why not it’s 130 bucks and free return shipping.
Pulled the trigger on it and couldn’t be happier with the bass. The electronics are pretty “tinky” so I bought a JRetro drop in preamp and poof pretty solid five string and still under 300 bucks.
My only con with Maestro is they’re virtually non existent on the internet other than their listings. I made the mistake of contacting “Maestro guitars” based in Singapore. That guy needs to remove the truss rod from his @$$ ( whole different story) basically was trying to find a wiring diagram before I dropped the Preamp in, and after many failed attempts of contacting sellers seeking information on the company, who you buy them from yada yada I just gutted the guitar and started from scratch. Oh I sanded the Maestro off my headstock as well. Don’t wanna accidentally promote that guy in Singapore. Overall though I’m personally satisfied with my Frankenstein bass. You definitely get whatcha pay for but with a little tweaking here and there you can have a nice quiet bass

 

[bassically_eli]

I purchased a Jazz 5 string version with a MM bridge pickup. I’ve been a 4 string purest for over 20 years and with some of the session work I’m doing now (and two years of jokes from the engineer) I finally broke down and started shopping for 5s’. I actually stumbled across my bass on a Reverb.com add on FB. After seeing on FB and the list price I immediately thought Russia.. but after finding said listing on reverb.com site I was like hey why not it’s 130 bucks and free return shipping.
Pulled the trigger on it and couldn’t be happier with the bass. The electronics are pretty “tinky” so I bought a JRetro drop in preamp and poof pretty solid five string and still under 300 bucks.
My only con with Maestro is they’re virtually non existent on the internet other than their listings. I made the mistake of contacting “Maestro guitars” based in Singapore. That guy needs to remove the truss rod from his @$$ ( whole different story) basically was trying to find a wiring diagram before I dropped the Preamp in, and after many failed attempts of contacting sellers seeking information on the company, who you buy them from yada yada I just gutted the guitar and started from scratch. Oh I sanded the Maestro off my headstock as well. Don’t wanna accidentally promote that guy in Singapore. Overall though I’m personally satisfied with my Frankenstein bass. You definitely get whatcha pay for but with a little tweaking here and there you can have a nice quiet bass

So you're still using the stock pickups? How do you like them? Also, was the bass originally active or passive? I'm wondering what kind of results passive rewiring might yield, as that's an even cheaper option. Jazz bass wiring is pretty darn simple, although I have no experience wiring MM pickups if that changes things.

Looks like that MM pickup is close to the bridge, basically in the jazz bass position rather than the Music Man position. Is that right?

 

[FulturnJones]

So you're still using the stock pickups? How do you like them? Also, was the bass originally active or passive? I'm wondering what kind of results passive rewiring might yield, as that's an even cheaper option. Jazz bass wiring is pretty darn simple, although I have no experience wiring MM pickups if that changes things.

Looks like that MM pickup is close to the bridge, basically in the jazz bass position rather than the Music Man position. Is that right?

That’s correct, Honestly the only way I can describe the original pickups is sounding “cheap” and by that I mean like a Sterling by MM though the crappiest amp at The guitar store. So definitely nothing wrong with the sound if that’s whatcha want. And yes I kept the original passive pickups. The JRetro-01 preamp runs of a 9V and has a “passive” dip switch in case of emergencies mid show or whatever. So it basically acts as an onboard SansAmp pedal is how I would describe it.
As far as the wiring conundrum, I’d definitely agree that a J is about as strait forward set up as you can get. However when I opened this bad boy up I quickly saw that I’m not working with a Jazz haha. I basically tracked where things were soldered and between the old jazz diagram and a MM diagram I was able to get noise coming out. And a nice warm adjustable buttery noise it is!
I can’t find many things wrong with mine now. It’s kinda funny that my drop in preamp cost about the same as the bass did with shipping but it’s a head turner now. For the money you really can’t say to much negative about it.
I think if you want a good looking bass and don’t wanna drop 5-6 hundred just to get outta squire starter box basses you can get one that looks like it and make it cool for half the cost.