CELINDER Victor Bailey Tribute 5

[Vic]

Chris has verified to me that he has never put a East U-Retro in a VB Tribute.

I wasn't talking about any East preamp. You mentioned he uses a modified Greengrove currently, whereas I'm pretty sure it's stock. That's the only thing I was referring to.

 

[JAUQO III-X]

I wasn't talking about any East preamp. You mentioned he uses a modified Greengrove currently, whereas I'm pretty sure it's stock. That's the only thing I was referring to.

Gottcha.

 

[Spinal Tap]

The preamp in all of Chris Celinder's J and P style basses in the last few years is the CELINDER CP-3.

This is not fully correct.
Celinder has made very recently a J Vintage 5 with Aguilar OB-1 + VTC.
You can order your Celinder with different preamp, but almost nobody wants that.
So you can find some Celinders with other preamps or pickups that aren't changed afterwards.

edit:
..doh!, this has already been mentioned!

About the VB
I've heard that Celinder made this bass for Bailey, and after that he got a deal with Fender and used the same specs and woods for his Sig-model. Don't know if this is true....

 

[JAUQO III-X]

This is not fully correct.
Celinder has made very recently a J Vintage 5 with Aguilar OB-1 + VTC.
You can order your Celinder with different preamp, but almost nobody wants that.
So you can find some Celinders with other preamps or pickups that aren't changed afterwards.

yes Chris was originally offering Bart and Aguilar pre's as well way before his use of Green grove pre's(the Aguilar and Bart pre's are still available as options).

I know.

 

[Spinal Tap]

I already made a 'doh!' edit about it earlier.

 

[SCT1422]

I have a lot of history with Celinder basses, I have owned 7 over the years and currently own 4. I have seen them passive, with Celinder pickups, with Bartolini pickups and pres, with Aguilar pres, only the more recent ones have had the Greengrove pres. So you can't assume that a Celinder is not original just bacause it doesn't have a Greengrove or Celinder pickups.

I've only owned 6 Celinders, so you have me beat by 1...
The current and only one I have now is a Vintage 5 with the Greengrove CP-3A preamp.. I did have a Vintage Sunburst Jazz 5 which came with a U-Retro preamp which was a replacement for the original preamp which crapped out.. I replaced the U-Retro (which I hated) with a Lakland/Bartolini 3 band and it sounded great... I'm thinking of getting an Update 5, or there was a Vintage 5 I use to own in Burgundy Mist which I may not mind getting back.. That one came with Dots and Binding originally and I had the Blocks installed.. That was a bit brighter sounding then the one I have now...

 

[JAUQO III-X]

For those who may be interested.

I just recieved this from Chris Celinder.


Hey Jauqo,

Ok. Here goes: The CELINDER CP-3 preamp is a
fully balanced active preamp designed to my specs by
my friend Kenneth "Greengrove" Hansen. This preamp
has no equal on the market. It is the fruit of a long collaboration
between Kenneth and myself as we have spent years and
years on perfecting it and getting to the final result. This
preamp is the one I use in my J and P - VINTAGE as well as
UPDATE - models. The CELINDER CP-3 preamp
is not offered in any other basses and is not commercially
available unless someone buys a Celinder bass.

On the basis of this preamp I asked Kenneth if we
could take the tone control part of the CP-3 preamp
to form a regular passive/active type of preamp with
conventional passive controls and Lo- to Hi-impedance
input. What we came up with is the CELINDER CP-2.
This circuit is essentially a 2-EQ tone circuit for retro-
fitting into any existing bass. It features practically the
same tone circuit as our balanced active circuit - the
CP-3, and will perform with anything from EMG's
to Duncans and everything in between. HOWEVER,
it will never sound the same as a Celinder bass with
Celinder pickups and the Celinder CP-3 preamp!!
Mainly because of the balanced active circuitry of the
CP-3 as opposed to the regular unbalanced circuitry
of the standard CP-2.

Now: There has been a short attempt to market the CP-2
as the GreenGrove GP-1 preamp (yes I know this is hairy,
but it has been partly out of my hands) That attempt has
also brought on the notion that the preamp in my basses
is a GreenGrove circuit and that people can go to
greengrove.dk to obtain my sound. This is entirely wrong
and I appologize for any confusion this may have created.

So to straigthen things out: The GreenGrove GP-1 preamp
(as advertised on the Greengrove website - and which is
basically the CELINDER CP-2 preamp) is NOT the
same preamp as in my basses.

Thanks for listening. Please pass this on to anyone who is
confused.

 

[vision]

And there you have it!

 

[Vic]

Ok, so if I have this straight, what's actually in my bass is a CP-3, not a CP-2, though the internal adjustments on the CP-3 are the same as the CP-2, which is why I was confused, and also why the GP-1 documentation on the greengrove site is applicable. THIS IS CONFUSING, but now I understand.

ow. my brain hurts.

Thanks Jauqo III-X for finally officially setting the record straight!

 

[JAUQO III-X]

Thanks Jaquo III-X for finally officially setting the record straight!

No problem Vic.

 

[tombowlus]

Hey, Jauqo, since you seem to have a means of contacting Chris, can you ask him if he will ever offer his preamp with the active/passive option? I was supposed to have that on my J Update 5, but was later told that it was not ready yet. Is it ready now?

Thanks, Tom.

Oh, and I don't care what preamp it has in it, I think that VB model looks hawt! Mahogany and flamed koa. Mmmmmm.... Sounds kinda familiar, too.

 

[JAUQO III-X]

Here you go Tom.


The Celinder CP-3 which is the fully balanced active preamp will
not be able to be passive since it wouldn't be possible to switch
between balanced and unbalanced wiring of the pickups.

The Celinder CP-2 is for passive/active wiring since it only consists
of the
EQ circuit from the CP-3 and doesn't have the buffer preamp section and
the battery switching power supply of the CP-3 which allows the CP-3 to
run at 15V with the added headroom. The CP-2 consequently doesn't
sound quite as clean as the CP-3 and is not completely noiseless as is
the CP-3.

 

[KJung]

Cool info. This is somewhat different from what I was told when speaking to the Greengrove guys somewhat recently, so who knows. Given my dealings with Chris compared to my dealings with Greengrove, I tend to believe the Greengrove guys... but that would be a totally different discussion The GP-1 seems virtually identical to the pre in Chris's bass, and does not have an active/passive function (as far as the documentation states, anyway).

What is clear is that the stock Celinder pre (which is some form of the Greengrove pre) is just the most wonderful thing I've ever heard for an aggressive J tone

 

[JAUQO III-X]

Hey ken have you ever thought that maybe the Greengrove guys might not have wanted to reveal to much info in a nice way(and I'm not being sarcastic)?

 

[KJung]

Hey ken have you ever thought that maybe the Greengrove guys might not have wanted to reveal to much info in a nice way(and I'm not being sarcastic)?

Could be, but they seemed totally cool to me, and they were VERY helpful when I had a small problem with one of the pots on one of my Celinders. On the other hand, quite a few of us have been taken around the block by our friend Chris Celinder. I love his basses, not too impressed with his business model.

However, it's all a moot point. The GP-1 documentation (of course, Chris doesn't provide any with his basses ) matches the controls on the 'CP-3' perfectly. If it is 'tweeked' by Chris... all the better. It sounds GREAT!!!!!

K

More importantly.... I'm more interested in how to really pronounce Chris's name. Is it 'SELL-inder' or 'sell INder'??

 

[JAUQO III-X]

quite a few of us have been taken around the block by our friend Chris Celinder. I love his basses, not too impressed with his business model.

I fully understand.

 

[KJung]

I fully understand.

Thanks for the info... that finally explains why there is no passive/active option for Chris's basses. That always confused me, since it seemed that you could just put a switch in and be done with it. Per the email Chris sent you, it's more complicated than that, obviously.

The only thing that confused me is that the GP-1 cannot be installed with an active/passive switch either, which is why it seems more similar to the CP-3 (the 'stock' Celinder pre) than the CP-2 that Chris is talking about.

Anyway... cool stuff, and GREAT basses, even if Chris is somewhat flaky regarding customer service.

Thanks for taking the time to get this info

 

[JAUQO III-X]

Anyway... cool stuff, and GREAT basses, even if Chris is somewhat flaky regarding customer service.

I honestly don't know why Chris isn't better with his customer service and for what ever reason I have never encountered any problems at all.

Thanks for taking the time to get this info

You're welcome Ken,I'm just trying to help out if I can.

 

[tombowlus]

I honestly don't know why Chris isn't better with his customer service

+1 This is very frustrating. I am very fond of the three instruments I have from Chris, and I'd be a very enthusiastic supporter if I had been shown even one iota of customer support (or at least been told the truth, and not lied to repeatedly, regarding the cause for delay on my bass).

 

[Vic]

Careful folks... this could go very wrong...