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Going from Active to Passive.....

Discussion in 'Pickups & Electronics [BG]' started by magnusdeus123, Dec 15, 2007.

  1. Dec 15, 2007 #1
    magnusdeus123

    magnusdeus123 Guest

    Jul 2, 2007
    Mumbai , India
    I have an Ibanez GSR 390 . It's one of their newer range Active basses in the lower end segment . Thing is , I'm not really a fan of the actives , and I kinda like a straight P tone outgoing from my bass . I have been thinking of replacing the onboard pickups (which are crappy for active's anyways) with passive Seymor Duncans , and using them from there . Any suggestions on this ?? It's a P/J combo config btw . You can find the model on Ibanez's site .
     
  2. Dec 16, 2007 #2
    A9X

    A9X Inactive

    Dec 27, 2003
    Remove pickups and pre. Replace with SD's. Wire up as per passive 2 pickup wiring diagram, eg J bass. You'll need to buy 2 vol + 1 tone pot and cap plus a spare pot to fit in the 4th hole (if there is one) not connected to anything; it's just to fill the space. You may need a jack too if the original is connected to the circuit board.

    The wiring diagrams on the SD site are good.
     
  3. Dec 16, 2007 #3
    NorCal Dog

    NorCal Dog

    Nov 28, 2005
    415/707
    i have pretty much removed every active pre in most all my basses,,,, except in my Sterling...

    it''s simple to learn how
     
  4. Dec 16, 2007 #4
    magnusdeus123

    magnusdeus123 Guest

    Jul 2, 2007
    Mumbai , India
    So good idea to replace the pups even though their active ??
     
  5. Dec 16, 2007 #5
    A9X

    A9X Inactive

    Dec 27, 2003
    They're not active
     
  6. Dec 16, 2007 #6
    treebranch13

    treebranch13 Guest

    Oct 31, 2007
    a good way to go is to get passive pups with an active preamp, kinda blending the two, if you want passive tone, you keep the preamp flat or turn it down a little. Want active, crank the preamp.

    that is my $.02
     
  7. Dec 16, 2007 #7
    4Mal

    4Mal Gold Supporting Member

    Jun 2, 2002
    Columbia River Gorge
    If it's a 4 hole body, go with Vol/Tone, Vol/Tone. Essentially that is the 62 J style controls. It's a bit darker and maybe more powerful sounding as a result. More body, less zing. Works really nicely for a bass with rounds ... I have a PJ setup that way and dig it ... In my case I used stack pot's to retain the existing 2 hole config. It's the same thing though.
     
  8. Dec 16, 2007 #8
    notduane

    notduane

    Nov 24, 2000
    Location
    I found the attached pic Googlin' for "GSR 390"

    It appears to have 3 knobs topside so a V-V-T setup should work.
    V-V-T-T would work as well, with one stacked pot

    My concern would be string spacing over the pickups. IIRC, Ibanez'
    string spacing is kinda' narrow. Therefore, the strings might not line-
    up over the polepieces of say SD's, or a DiMarzio P+J set. I had this
    problem on a Yamaha RBX270F when I installed the DiMarzio DP126 PJ set.
    My cheesy solution was to get threaded bridge saddles :D (see attached pic)

    An option to avoid the possible string spacing issue would be pickups
    with "blade" style polepieces. There's DiMarzio's Split-P, Bartolini's, Delano's,
    the recently introduced Barden's (J types), etc. Or... a new bridge
    with side-to-side adjustments like Schaller's 463 or Hipshot type A.
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Dec 16, 2007 #9
    A9X

    A9X Inactive

    Dec 27, 2003
    That's what it is stock. Even with the controls flat, active does not sound like passive.
     
  10. Dec 16, 2007 #10
    Barkbuster

    Barkbuster Guest

    Dec 15, 2007
    Blue mountain
    IMO go passive with your stock pickups before buying new ones.
     
  11. Dec 16, 2007 #11
    magnusdeus123

    magnusdeus123 Guest

    Jul 2, 2007
    Mumbai , India
    And how do I do that ?? Just kick off the active preamp ??
     
  12. Dec 16, 2007 #12
    A9X

    A9X Inactive

    Dec 27, 2003
    Post #2 this thread. Do all except where it says "Replace with SD's".