Electronic upgrades for Brice HXB 406 Lefty???

[leftyjay]

Hi y’all!

I have just acquired a rather nice lefty Brice HXB 406 6-stringer, the one with the spalted veneer, and would like some advice on upgrading the electronics… I have read every thread imaginable (apart from the mystical Brice/Agile/SX megathread which I cannot seem to find!!!), and whilst there is plenty of good advice around, I have a more specific idea of the sound I want to achieve and more specific personal preferences, so if anyone can help that would be great!

Initially I am planning to upgrade the pre-amp, and then the pickups later if need be.

What I am trying to achieve is the best sound for this bass without a massive outlay. I was initially considering the alarmingly cheap Artec eq’s, but I’m wondering if this will be much/any improvement over the stock preamp?

The issues I have with the bass at the moment are:

a) it seems to be putting out a pretty low signal – granted, I still need to change the 9v battery and I have only just raised the pups as they were quite a way from the strings – will check the level again at full band practice tomorrow eve!

b) the pots really don’t seem to do much for the signal, the high just seems to mainly add hiss, and the low adds mud, plus they sound a bit crackly (yes I know I need to get the switch cleaner out!)

The sound that I like/want to achieve:
I currently own 2 1990’s Yamaha BB4NIII’s with passive soapbar humbucker pups and passive eq, and I love the sound of these basses!
I also own a Vintage Stingray copy, which is loaded with a Duncan MM replacement pup (the alnico model, not ceramic!), and stock passive eq. This also sounds incredible, although quite different from the Yams.
Generally I favour a warmer, ‘traditional’ sound, but I’d love the 6 string to have a Nathan East kind of growl on the low end, with nice smooth mid and top end, if it were a fretless I’d be looking for something approaching Tony Levin (not much of an ask!!!). The Brice sounds nice and warm and smooth with the eq mostly flat (the best setting IMO!), but lacks output and definition.

My personal niggles/preferences:
I am not really one to be doing a lot of fiddling with EQ on the bass (or the amp!) – once I have found “the” sound for the bass, I tend to stick with it, and just use the pup blend control to either give me a little more top or bottom, this works just fine for me.
I have an old (incredible) Trace Elliot Series 6 AH300 head with the GPX12 preamp, more than enough EQ control on there!
If it were possible, I’d like to get the fullest, nicest tone out of a passive setup – but after research it seems to be that a combination of passive pups and active eq is the best fit for me…
I play in a few bands, but the Brice is gonna be the main bass for my function band (we cover everything from Elton John & Ted Nugent to James Brown & Jamiroquai but we sound like us rather than the artists we cover – hence no need for a lot of tweaking).
Personally I am more interested in getting a great tone, the more of the instrument I can hear, the better, rather than having endless flexibility on the bass eq.

So I want more output (if raising the pups and changing the battery don’t help!), better tone, quieter & more effective eq but don’t need tons of flexibility (but a little bit is always good!)…

I put it to you TB’ers:

Bartolini or Audere preamp? (Bartolini seems good for the volume boost, Audere for the ‘passive’ tone, or Artec for cheapness!?)

Active or passive pups?

EMGs/Nords/Barts/Duncans/Carvin H50AS’s?

I was thinking that a combo between the Audere pre and a couple of EMG HZ45s might work without costing a fortune. I’m not in love with the ‘EMG sound’, but I figured the passive HZs with the Audere should be fairly transparent and hopefully the ‘passiveness’ of the Audere would counteract some of the brittle ‘hi-fi’-ness of the EMGs? Plus they are the passive EMGs rather than the active ones. Otherwise I have read good things about the Carvin H50AS pup but can’t seem to see them for sale individually…?

Also, anyone got an opinion on the stock pups in the Brice? I won’t bother swapping them out if I can get what I want with just a pre-amp swap.

Cheers people! And sorry for the mega-post!

Oh yeah – for reference this is my signal chain:
Bass>Zoom B1X (always on bypass for tuner!)>Behringer Autocom Pro MDX1400 rack compressor>Trace Elliot AH300 Series 6/1048 Cab
I don’t really use any overdrive or anything like that – I just like the sound of the bass and the amp, bit of compression to keep everything even and smooth.

 

[ian_s]

The stock preamp is an Artec, so no gain there.

 

[leftyjay]

aaah, i thought that may be the case! no point getting an Artec then! thanks for the info
any other takers for this thread?

 

[leftyjay]

so... pickups have now had extra foam stuck beneath them so i can get them a lot closer to the strings - volume levels seemed to be good on headphones last night, trying it with my Trace rig tonight at proper levels... will try to record some sound samples if anyone is interested!

and the on-board eq really isn't up to much, hardly any musical sweep, but the pups seem to sound nice - had a better sound switched to passive with the blend favouring the bridge just a fraction!

 

[leftyjay]

right, full rig test complete... i found the Brice needed the action raising on A and D strings due to some buzz on the first fret. other than that, not bad at all.

raising the pups and changing the 9v battery definitely improved things, but i'm not really sold on the eq - it works and isn't overly noisy, but doesn't really seem to be very controllable. The highs kick in almost immediately if you start to turn the treble knob, but then they do nothing much for the rest of the sweep. The bass knob has the other way round, nearly nothing then whoooomph, too much bass to be useable!

so, messed about with the active eq, switched to passive, and i can get a useable tone with the blend favouring the bridge a tiny bit, but a/b'd with my Yamaha BB4 i can say that the stock Brice pups are not great, the pups in my yamaha are stock soapbar humbuckers, and it is the lowest model in the range, but they sound great, so much more life and body, with better presence and definition right across the range.

so, as the eq on passive gave me a good idea of the (rather dull) stock pups i have decided to swap them out first and look at onboard circuits later if i feel the need. need to get the straight bass sound sounding better first, so as i have an EMG 45DC laying around i will stick that in the bridge with an EMG 45CS or P in the neck.

i'll record some samples of the Brice as it is stock, and some samples of my Yamaha to compare. once i've swapped out the pups i'll do another recording and stick them all on here for anyone interested in doing this.

peace.

 

[redbean]

right, full rig test complete... i found the Brice needed the action raising on A and D strings due to some buzz on the first fret. other than that, not bad at all.

raising the pups and changing the 9v battery definitely improved things, but i'm not really sold on the eq - it works and isn't overly noisy, but doesn't really seem to be very controllable. The highs kick in almost immediately if you start to turn the treble knob, but then they do nothing much for the rest of the sweep. The bass knob has the other way round, nearly nothing then whoooomph, too much bass to be useable!

so, messed about with the active eq, switched to passive, and i can get a useable tone with the blend favouring the bridge a tiny bit, but a/b'd with my Yamaha BB4 i can say that the stock Brice pups are not great, the pups in my yamaha are stock soapbar humbuckers, and it is the lowest model in the range, but they sound great, so much more life and body, with better presence and definition right across the range.

so, as the eq on passive gave me a good idea of the (rather dull) stock pups i have decided to swap them out first and look at onboard circuits later if i feel the need. need to get the straight bass sound sounding better first, so as i have an EMG 45DC laying around i will stick that in the bridge with an EMG 45CS or P in the neck.

i'll record some samples of the Brice as it is stock, and some samples of my Yamaha to compare. once i've swapped out the pups i'll do another recording and stick them all on here for anyone interested in doing this.

peace.

Update?

I just ordered a Brice HXB-406 northpaw.

Have you changed the stock strings? If yes, then what brand/set did you find that works for this bass? I'm planning on tuning it to EADGCF, if I can find strings for this combination and scale.