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Everyones opinion about Delano J pups

What wiring?

  • SD Bassline 3band preamp

    Votes: 9 8.7%

  • Passive setup

    Votes: 67 64.4%

  • Other preamp-please specify

    Votes: 28 26.9%
  • Total voters
    104
V

voodoo92

Jun 14, 2009
217
2
Brisbane, Australia
#1
Hi there, when I have saved enough money, im gonna get under way with my next build. Naural finish 24 fret shortscale Jazz bass tuned EADGC. Im goin to be using Delano pickups with it, thats the thing if deffinate about. JMVC 5 FE to be exact. The thing i cant make my mind up about though it what wiring to use..
Im torn between a Seymore Duncan Bassline 3 band pre, or another preamp, or passive setup with like 3 stacked pots for the most versatility. I dont want to use any more than 3/4 pots becuase itll just look messy.
what is every ones thoughts and opinions??
wanting to know if these delanos would go better with a
Bassline pre
Other active pre
or a passive setup. Cheers
 
#4
I'm quite fond of the Glock pre. It's very transparent and usable. Plus, it come pre-wired with a push/pull active/passive setup on the main vol.

Another great option might be something like the passive setup I had on a Cliff Bordwell. It had a set Delano H/S pickups wired vol-vol-mid cut for neck-master tone. Great electronics on a great instrument. I miss that bass.
 
#5
I have used the SD preamp (Steve Bailey model) and I loved it: Lots of control, and I was able to get some wonderful tones from it. The regular model has the slap contour instead of the fretless "boost." Very nice, but I wish it had a passive mode - maybe you could add that?

Good luck on your build!!
Ryan
 
#7
ACG/John East preamp w a bass and a treble filter and a volume blend pot maybe 4 knobs. I would attenuate the mids on my amp the way you want em and then you could use the bass and treble filters all day long to go from extreme Jazzyness to extreme modern high fidelity treble cutting ear splitting modern warfare bass!!! Here is what I would hook that up to: Hum canceling Bartolini Jazz pickups a copy of an Alembic Triple Omega body that sports a Cocobolo top/back with Wenge and Maple sandwiched in the middle w a Pao Ferro fretboard and a maple neck. Yummy!
 
#11
Make sure you can do a passive/active switch to go between the two. After having looked at those pickups (those pole pieces could be classified as deadly weapons if you hit someone with one lol) I have a hard time believing they wouldn't be fine on their own in a passive setup. Congrats man, those are some boss looking pickups...im sure your build will be great either way but a passive/active switch would be a great addition to either the SD, Bart or Audere preamp.
 
#13
lol staying right away from bartolini pres. bought one and biggest waste of money imo. sure it works fine, but its so terribly put together, and the knobs are in the wierdest positions and i can hardly change that because of the amount of wires n such.

i was thinking that the SD pre wouldnt be that good becuase of the price, and would love to be able to add a passive option to that. sounds great but then would i be able to use passive fully, with volume blend and tone for all?

For the passive setup, i literally have no idea. i just know i want the most amount of options available for awsome tone. All that i could think of atm is stacked volume, stacked tone, and god know whats else. haha. theres not really anything else is there lol. thanks for everyones opinions. keep em coming. getting alot of great advice :)

cheers from Down Under

Adam
 
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#15
I have a set of Delano JC HE 5s in my Fender right now and they are the best pups I've ever put in there. Those things have the absolute biggest bottom of any J pickup I've ever tried, period. Massive low end. I'd say they have a slight (not extreme at all) scoop to them but nothing that couldn't be compensated for by a teeny knob turn. From what I've heard (from other people) the JMVC 5 FEs have more of a scooped sounded to them.All that said, I recommend against buying any Delanos new unless you are 100% sure they will give you the sound you want. I only say this because in comparison to many other brands, a set of Delano Js could set you back around $100 more. Hell, for the price I got mine for (used) I could've have gotten a set of Bartolini Js brand new and still saved $10 and that was a good price for the Delanos, lol. Tonally, they were actually pretty close with the Bartolini not quite having the same amount of low end or top end (a more even sound overall but I wanted more treble, my Fender is naturally a bit dark).

As far as the Glockenklang pres, as everyone else said, they are very transparent. In the bass I had, passive mode sounded exactly like active mode set flat. No difference whatsoever. Personally, I like my preamps to have a little more flavor though. To be honest, the EQ itself isn't very powerful and the treble frequency center is just too high (18kHz) to be "practical" (completely subjective, of course). Basically, if you like the sound of your bass and don't feel the need to fiddle knobs but still want the flexibility of a 3-band EQ, go Glock. If you like playing with knobs and just messing with your tone a bunch, look elsewhere.
 
#16
voodoo92 said:
lol staying right away from bartolini pres. bought one and biggest waste of money imo. sure it works fine, but its so terribly put together, and the knobs are in the wierdest positions and i can hardly change that because of the amount of wires n such.

i was thinking that the SD pre wouldnt be that good becuase of the price, and would love to be able to add a passive option to that. sounds great but then would i be able to use passive fully, with volume blend and tone for all?

For the passive setup, i literally have no idea. i just know i want the most amount of options available for awsome tone. All that i could think of atm is stacked volume, stacked tone, and god know whats else. haha. theres not really anything else is there lol. thanks for everyones opinions. keep em coming. getting alot of great advice :)

cheers from Down Under

Adam
Click to expand...

Stacked tone is a bit overhyped, IMO, because each tone knob affects both pickups.
If you want a passive setup, you could have a lot of fun with push/pull pots.

Volume 1/killswitch, Volume 2(parallel)/series, Tone(cap 1)/Tone(cap 2), Bass cut(cap 1)/Bass cut(cap 2), Passive mid boost.

5 pots, no batteries, and a plethora of options.
 

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