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Gary Willis sig. bass (black one)

#21
Beta, was the other bass a GWB35 as well (just with an Aguilar preamp)? If it was, how would you describe the differences in tone? I was thinking of putting an Aguilar OBP-1 or -2 into mine. I had excellent results when using an OBP-3 with active EMG's in a Spector NS-2A. I wish there was a way of fitting an OBP-3 in there without having to drill holes for the extra controls.
 
#22
No, it wasn't. I can't even compare the differences in tone because the other bass had a OBP-3, so I would have had to have known where his midrange frequency was set inside the control cavity, and then where he had the knob (boost/centered/cut), and it has two Bart jazz pickups. I didn't want to create a hassle.

I was just looking for a comparison in volume. Mind you, what I did was incredibly unscientific. I wasn't using a db meter to measure anything. All I know is what my ears told me, and they told me that the output on my bone stock GWB35 is lower than the output on a bass with an aftermarket preamp when played through the same amp with the same settings.
 
#24
hey guys
sorry it took so long for me to update the status of my bass. I just got the bass back with the new pickup and preamp 2 days ago. I installed the Bart NTBT pre amp and a BC5CBC pickup (ordered from Bestbassgear). I will describe the swap in as good of detail as possible below but I must just say after just getting off of my first gig...playing original material... with the new electronics and my new LM2 amp. WOWOWOWOW..... Talk about a huge difference. This bass smokes now. Best upgrade i have ever made.
Details
I got the bass back and plugged it into my SWR LA15...which is a pretty terrible amp IMO but suffices as my practice rig. First impression...volume and presence. Finally i can play this bass without having to jack up my amp volume and the bass boost on the bass. I rolled off the trebile a little, boosted the bass a little and set my amp flat. It had a very punchy mid range tone with ample bottom and not nearly as much trebile hiss. Sounds very good...the overall tone is definetly different than it was before. Much less hi fi, which i guess can be partially attributed to the classic bass pickup design. Very good trebile and bass controls. Still hissy at the very top end but there is really no reason to add that stuff in on a fretless anyways. bass boost is a little more subtle than before...which helps.
Passive mode is very cool as well. Kind of honky and lacks low end but some tweaking of the amp fixed that. The passive tone is actually very good as well. Not too much of a huge volume change between the two.
Now tonight out of my LM2 and SWR triad. This thing killed tonight. It sounded awesome all around. The B string was HUGE!!! The upper register really sang. I got a lot of compliments on the sound tonight...no P.A. support. Just Hands-Bass-Amp. :smug:
So i guess after all this rambling i would say if you are considering swapping out the electronics.....DO IT..and fast. I havent played the GWB1005 basses yet but i assume that my GWB35 now sounds much closer to the 1005. THe 1005 uses the NTBT preamp so that is the same and the 1005 uses a custom bart pickup which i assume cant be too different than what i got. Considering the 1005 comes in at $3000 dollars and mine now all together including the mods is around $800. .... its a no brainer. No problems at all with the push pull volume pot or dropping in the pickup. No routing needed. And now if my battery dies on stage and I dont have screw driver...no worries.
Hope this helps. PM me if you have any other Q's
 
#27
At this point, it's necro posting, but...

I finally did this mod (Bartolini NTBT preamp, active/passive volume pot push/pull, and BC5CBC pickup), and, like Tslice, I'm most happy with the results. I was going to look for a non-Classic Bass series BC soapbar, but I figured that if anything ever went wrong with it I wouldn't be able find a replacement of the same type, so I went with what's readily available.

The B string sounds, as he said, huge. There's much more low end present, and that's with the NTBT's bass band control set neutral (for disclosure, I'm running it through a SWR Grand Prix, with the bass set flat, a low mid boost at ~240 Hz, a high mid boost at ~750-800 Hz - both are boosted between the 1 and 2 o'clock position- and the treble also set flat). The high end sounds "smoother," less sharp than the stock electronics, and everything seems more defined.

I only played around with the passive setting a little, and the tone sounded a little less "wet" to me, but it wasn't horrible, and didn't cause a drop in volume such that you'd be looking to raise your amp gain.

At any rate, if anyone reading this wants to mod their GWB35 electronics, I think this is a good one.
 
#28
I finally got my new electronics in. The preamp has been installed for a while now, but it took forever for the pickup to come in.

The preamp I choose was a BeePre from Bee Basses. I chose this pre based on the massive tone that I have heard out of a few of his basses. While I new the pre alone wouldn't get me that sound, I was hoping it would get me a little closer. The controls are volume (with a push/pull for active/passive), mid cut/boost (with a push/pull for switching the mid frequency), a stacked treble/bass boost/cut, a mute switch and a series/parallel switch. Yes, in order to fit everything in, I did have to drill three additional holes for the controls, and remove some wood from the control cavity. I think the layout for the controls looks pretty good. Nothing sticks out and would suggest that the bass didn't come this way. The control cavity is a bit of a mess right now. Fred from Bee Basses pre-wired all of the controls for me and left all of the wirers as long as possible because at the time, I wasn't exactly sure where everything was going. Fred was a pleasure to work with. As busy as he was, he always replied to my emails and didn't have any issues coming up with the control layout that I asked for. Anyone looking for a new pre should consider the BeePre. It sounds great. It really opened up the sound of the bass, even with the stock pickup. What I like most about this preamp is that all of the settings are actually usable. From full cut to full boost, all you get are sounds that are musical and punchy. Not like some of the preamps out there that offer lots of range that you will never use. The BeePre is also extremely quiet.

The pickup is a custom Nordstrand Dual Coil. It so happens that their standard 4-string pickup cover for the Dual Coil is the same size as the stock pickup. It wasn't cheap, and it took forever to get it, but all I can say is WOW. I think the stock pickup in this bass is it's real weakness. With the Dual Coil installed, the bass went from a low output, almost timid sounding instrument to a bass that easily cuts through with lots of output. The sound is punchy and clear. The exposed pole pieces look cool too.

I think if I had to do it all over again, I would have started with the pickup. I think it made the biggest improvement in tone and is a whole lot less work to install. Of course, I could have got the BeePre set up so that it only had a volume and stacked treble/bass to make my life easier, but what fun would that have been?

If I ever figure out how to record sound clips on my laptop I'll post some so you can hear the difference. It definitely does not sound like the same bass (which is a VERY GOOD thing).
 
#31
i HAVE THE SAME BASS AND I GOT A BARTOLINI WITH AND OBP2
before getting the bart I was thinking to get a kent armstrong
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did anybody try this

i would be cool to get som samples of all our GW35 so we could all compare preamps and pups.
 
#32
bassike said:
i HAVE THE SAME BASS AND I GOT A BARTOLINI WITH AND OBP2
before getting the bart I was thinking to get a kent armstrong
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did anybody try this

i would be cool to get som samples of all our GW35 so we could all compare preamps and pups.
Click to expand...

I actually bought the one with the beepre nordstrand dc. I'd be up for doing a recording of that.
 
#34
I also own one of those GWB35, and here's my story...

roundwound strings are really rude to the fretboard, so I use flatwounds (d'addario or ernie ball). the sound is a bit darker this way, but I think it should be, as the overall sound of the bass was a bit on the bright side.

acoustically - it's a bit weak, strings do not vibrate for more than 30sec at best. and the sound looses the punch very fast. I think the bridge is to blame - maybe mine is the black sheep (wait, it IS black), but the part where you hook up strings is not aligned to the body, although all of the screws are tight. it's actually a bit bent, equally with all strings, you could put a piece of paper underneath. I would replace it in a hartbeat, if I knew for sure that it would improve the sound.

my experience with the neck is "not so stable" - when I tune it, I need to let go of the tuning machine and not touch the neck in any way, it's that touchy. but it stays in tune well and other than 2 setups a year (1/8th of the turn for the truss rod) requires nothing more.

oh, the ramp - thank you, gary willis. 20min on this thing already improved my playing. it really helps preventing digging in, i.e. you learn to aim your energy into the string completely.

and now we come to the pickup and electronics - worst part of the bass, as many of you already mentioned. well, in search for fatter tone I installed flatwounds first. then, after some time, the onboard EQ began bothering me. so I replaced the opamp on it - TL062. I was recommended a TLE 2022. the result is - output is the same, but dynamics are a bit improved, and the hiss is gone. even with the treble cranked, there's hardly any. the bass control is not muddy anymore - before it just made something along WOOOOO to the sound, now it does what it's supposed to do. price? well, the new opamp costs about 10x as much as the old one, which goes for half a buck, I guess. plus the soldering, which I performed myself. be careful, it's surface mounted - do not attempt to do it if you are not really experienced in soldering.

the pickup was replaced with the custom wound stingray-wanna-be humbucker (wired in series). the dynamics improved vastly, so did the frequency spectrum. will put passive controls in it on monday, just to see the difference (250k instead of 500k for volume, treble bleed mod).
 
#35
Ian Perge said:
I *believe* there's also a trimpot in the internal circuitboard to match up the active to passive output, or vice verse. You might want to pull the rear plate off, check for one, and see if you can get some more gain out of the preamp.
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The Ibanez Gary Willis bass has a 2 band Bartolini Pre Amp that has a level trim pot. If you go to his site, it should explain how he sets his.
The pick in passive mode (pulling the vol. knob) has a low signal. That's why Willis put a pre amp on his bass.
 
#36
EZ9R said:
The Ibanez Gary Willis bass has a 2 band Bartolini Pre Amp that has a level trim pot. If you go to his site, it should explain how he sets his.
The pick in passive mode (pulling the vol. knob) has a low signal. That's why Willis put a pre amp on his bass.
Click to expand...
Actually, I asked Gary about it.
He said he loves the passive tone of the bass, that's his preference, but Ibanez felt that in that market segment, it had to be active, so he went with the Bart NTBT which he felt colored the sound least.
 
#38
FunkyZeit said:
Can someone confirm that these are the two components being mentioned? I am planning on grabbing this bass soon, and would like to make these upgrades.

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The preamp will work; the pickup size is correct but not the mounting hole alignment. The "4 string" version has the correct mounting hole alignment. I have an SGD-Lutherie pickup in mine and it's badass.
 

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