Brubaker Brute Club

[Brad Johnson]

From the photos, this looks exactly like a Mediterranean Brute with the customary basswood body. I'm sure that Brad can verify that no Brute made so far has an ash body. You can also email Kevin Brubaker himself at [email protected]. Kevin is always quick to respond and will answer any questions that you may have. I'd say now that you are getting the bass, give it a shot. You may or may not dig it. Player's preferences vary as do the players themselves. However, provided the bass arrives in the condition specified by Brubaker, I can guarantee that the Brute is no cheap Squier.

As far as I know Kevin has made no replacement bodies for the Brute line. That would defeat the purpose... if he had to make the body if would cost more than the bass. Not sure why the seller would say that.


I was told early on that the bodies are Nato. Ultimately whatever it is sounds pretty good.

 

[a2zbassman]

Congrats.

With the Bart NTMB 3 band preamp I haven't seen a need or benefit going above 9v. That's more than enough headroom to blow up most amps. There's an internal gain pot that you can adjust to taste. I keep mine around 70-75% because I like it fairly hot. Excellent match for the Bart pickups.

Thanks Brad.

With the recent posts regarding preamps and other mods, I realized I hadn't posted on my final preamp choice.

First, I tried a used 3-band Bart (that I found for a steal), but in the process of trying to fit everything in the cavity, ended up breaking off one of the wires to the little internal gain pot. Then found out the Vol pot on the thing was fried (not able to turn it down . . . no wonder it was so cheap . . . it did sound great though!). Being it was a used item that didn't set me back much cash, and worried about possible future problems with the other pots, I decided to buy new.

So, after some research I thought I'd give an Audere 4-band (bass, lo-mid, hi-mid, treb . . . no z-mode switch) a try. Boy am I happy with my choice. Not only does it sound great, but it easily fit into the Brute's cavity (they really have a nice clean, compact, set-up). Anyway, in the end I'm sitting fat, dumb and happy with my modded and hot-rodded MJX-5!

 

[J. Crawford]

I miss my Brute.

 

[drpepper]

Hey Dave, have you tried pulling your midrange control up?

Let me know. You might be in for a nice surprise.

Haha...yeah, I want to hear about that too.

 

[drpepper]

I'm sure the Brubaker is a fine bass regardless of the body wood. I was not specifically looking for a Brubaker, just a bass with ash body and maple fretboard, preferably with 19mm spacing, when I found this eBay listing for a bass with exactly those attributes. I watched the item and it was relisted after not selling the first time. I made the seller an offer for less than the BIN and he accepted. At this point I was still (perhaps mistakenly) believing that it has an Ash body. The bass in the listing did not look like Ash to me, so I emailed the seller after paying for it and he told me it was specially made for an artist with an endorsement. I have not actually received it as yet, so cannot say that it is BS or not, but I'm thinking its highly likely. Gotta love eBay sometimes! I'm sure it sounds fine and at the price it's probably a good thing, but basswood is just something I have always associated with cheap squiers, etc, so it is not typically a body wood I put at the top of the list. TBH I'll probably hang on to it any way if it sounds good, but I might just get it repainted in solid colour, and hotrod it a bit. If I finally get it I'll join the club.

eBay listing

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130393525597

That looks like a purty one. Stop back and report on what you think of it when you get it. I hope your mindset doesn't color your experience too much, but I don't think it can possibly not impact your assessment at this point...too bad.

And dude, $450 AUD is like $380 USD the list is $600 USD. That's an awfully good deal.

 

[DaveTomasi]

As always, my thanks to Brad. "nice surprise" has been duly noted. It works just as Roy explained. It is good to be enlightened. I believe a slight tweak on that midrange will be explored on the next gig.

Now, if I could just get the bass to play itself.

Hey Dave, have you tried pulling your midrange control up?

Let me know. You might be in for a nice surprise.

 

[drpepper]

As always, my thanks to Brad. "nice surprise" has been duly noted. It works just as Roy explained. It is good to be enlightened. I believe a slight tweak on that midrange will be explored on the next gig.

Now, if I could just get the bass to play itself.

Aaahhh hahaha!!! You've gotta love that!

 

[zulujack]

Well finally got my bass in the end. What a drama though! It was sent to an old address even though I've updated paypal and ebay and the checkout screen had the correct address! The seller blames me, ebay blames paypal and paypal blames everyone. The shipping company just left it at the front door without a signature. No one lives there any more and its in the worst part of town so I expected it to be long gone. I raced back there this afternoon after finding out what had happened and as luck has it there was a man busy carpeting the place. He told me someone had left a box at the front door and he put it in the kitchen. Well there it was!

I've not taken it out yet, but had to have a bit of a peak. It does not look like ash or basswood, more like alder. Will report back later.

 

[drpepper]

Well finally got my bass in the end. What a drama though! It was sent to an old address even though I've updated paypal and ebay and the checkout screen had the correct address! The seller blames me, ebay blames paypal and paypal blames everyone. The shipping company just left it at the front door without a signature. No one lives there any more and its in the worst part of town so I expected it to be long gone. I raced back there this afternoon after finding out what had happened and as luck has it there was a man busy carpeting the place. He told me someone had left a box at the front door and he put it in the kitchen. Well there it was!

I've not taken it out yet, but had to have a bit of a peak. It does not look like ash or basswood, more like alder. Will report back later.

Good news! That's fortunate that it didn't walk off.

Maybe you could try to just not bother with what kind of wood it is?

 

[drpepper]

Dave / Brad

Okay [scratching head] my Bartolini NTMB 3 band ignorance just increased when I realized that my volume knob is push/pull also.

What does that do? Pulled out, it's greatly attenuated.

 

[Kipaste]

The initial decision was to offer fours and fives, it plays into the economy of scale of working with that market sector. So far six string demand doesn't seem that high so I'm not sure when or if it'll happen.

Of course he does offer six strings, just not in a Brute. Speaking of which, my JXB-6 Custom Jazz 6 string should be done soon. Should be very cool... as usual.

Yup, I understand that "budget" basses and six strings don't really go together so well, if the company was mine I'd probably do just 4's and 5's also.

But still the idea.. An affordable six that actually sounds good.. And looks nice too. The only competitors at that field are basically ibanez sr506, peavey grind, schecter riot and a couple of others. Those options aren't horrible, but nothing to write home about either. I'd personally buy a six string brute in a heartbeat if the possibility came along. Oh well, gotta keep saving for a cirrus.

So this upcoming bass of yours is a jazz? Very interesting to see how it turns out. Or did it already?

 

[DaveTomasi]

OMG Roy!

Not another Bart easter egg.

Now, I can't wait to get home to see if I have that one too.
Could it be an active/passive mode switch?

Calling Dr. Johnson.

Dave / Brad

Okay [scratching head] my Bartolini NTMB 3 band ignorance just increased when I realized that my volume knob is push/pull also.

What does that do? Pulled out, it's greatly attenuated.

 

[drpepper]

OMG Roy!

Not another Bart easter egg.

Now, I can't wait to get home to see if I have that one too.
Could it be an active/passive mode switch?

Calling Dr. Johnson.

Okay, I did some reading in the pickup subforum (too bad reading the Bartolini site doesn't do the trick). It appears that there are two versions of the NTMB, one with push/pull volume for active/passive and one without (for active pickups).

So, my next question, what would be a basis of selecting passive mode where you have both?

 

[drpepper]

It's at the very bottom of the page on the Bartolini site "Push-Pull Active/Passive switch option (on the Volume control) is available at extra cost."

 

[zulujack]

So, my next question, what would be a basis of selecting passive mode where you have both?

I run that configuration on some of my basses. If the preamp has boost and cut you can use the preamp on your rig to get one sound and then the preamp on the bass to get another by cutting or boosting some of the frequencies. This is handy when you swith between finger style and slap for example.

 

[drpepper]

I run that configuration on some of my basses. If the preamp has boost and cut you can use the preamp on your rig to get one sound and then the preamp on the bass to get another by cutting or boosting some of the frequencies. This is handy when you swith between finger style and slap for example.

Thanks. Not sure I follow though. My amp has memory presets, so I can store things that way.

 

[zulujack]

Thanks. Not sure I follow though. My amp has memory presets, so I can store things that way.

In that case you probably won't need it then.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Okay, I did some reading in the pickup subforum (too bad reading the Bartolini site doesn't do the trick). It appears that there are two versions of the NTMB, one with push/pull volume for active/passive and one without (for active pickups).

So, my next question, what would be a basis of selecting passive mode where you have both?

Kevin pretty much always uses the NTMB with switchable mids (two bands with a push/pull pot or three with a toggle) and active /passive on the volume control.

A couple of reasons to run it passive, first as a bypass if you have a drained battery. In that mode only volume and panpot function. The second is because you like the tone with everything passive. It's definitely not simply a limp home mode... I have a couple of basses I use in passive mode becuase it sounds so good plus it matches up better with some amps that don't like as big a signal as the Brubaker can put out.

One of the things I enjoy doing when I let people check out my basses is hand it to them set passive. Mine sound great in passive mode and when you kick it into active it floors people. It's the same tone just BIGGER and tweakable. People don't associate the aggressive tone I can get with a passive bass. It's understandable.

A fun setting on just about any Brubaker, US or Brute with the NTMB is soloing the bridge pickup (JJX or MJX), pull up the mid control (that usually selects the lower 250hz range) and bump it a little and maybe bump the bass a tad. Play hard close to the bridge and get a pretty ridiculous uber Jaco-esque vibe. Great for fusion or mimicing a synth.

For such a simple setup (4 knobs with one stacked and one, two or no toggles) it's very versatile. Experimenting with it is fun and don't be afraid to max any of the controls, the electronics stay clean even maxed... just watch your amp volume when you do, some settings hit particularly hard.

On the toggles here's how they're typically wired: if you have push/pull mids there's no toggle for that. If you have non-single coil pickups you have a toggle to split the coils on the US basses. So...

no toggles is usually push/pull mids with single coils.

One toggle could either be 3 way mids with single coils or coil splitter with dual/quad coils (humbuckers) coils and push/pull mids.

Two toggles is coil splitter and 3 way mids with humbuckers.

Once you get used to the setup it's pretty easy to tweak consistently. Repeatability is probably my favorite thing about the setup, after having other basses with parametric EQ that force you to chase tone from day to day if anything's tweaked.

Kevin does a similar setup with the Aguilar OBP-3 preamp.

 

[Brad Johnson]

I run that configuration on some of my basses. If the preamp has boost and cut you can use the preamp on your rig to get one sound and then the preamp on the bass to get another by cutting or boosting some of the frequencies. This is handy when you swith between finger style and slap for example.

This is true and I would note that both Brutes and US Brubakers are very easy to go from slap to fingerstyle without tweaks.

With the NTMB you can match the internal gain with the passive output and be able to switch from passive to passive with tweaks without a drastic change in volume.

 

[Brad Johnson]

A good habit to get into on any bass you're not familiar with is seeing if the pots pull up. That's actually fairly common with higher end basses.