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HELP!!! preamp dilemma...........

J

johnabasstool

Nov 15, 2008
26
0
Sunderland England
www.myspace.com
#1
Hi everyone, I'm brand new to this excellent forum and this weekend I've been researching which preamp to install in my '84 twin pickup Westone Superheadless to replace the EMG circuit fitted 10 years ago. I'm after Vol, Pan pot blend, bass, mid and treble cut and boost in an onboard unit. After trawling the forum I've exhausted my research and I've whittled it down to four different units - Aguilar OBP-3 which looks great but requires my own supplied vol and panpot and quite a bit of wiring - Nordstrand which comes wired and ready with minimum wiring required, John East which is similar, and Seymour Duncan STC-3, again minimum wiring on my part. Are any of these four preamps worlds apart or do I forget the Aguilar and go for one of the simpler three wired options? :hmm:

There's a lot of knowledgable folks out there and any feed back would be much appreciated... :help:

Johna

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#2
I've got the J-Retro in my Joe Osborn 5, and it's probably my favorite preamp. It not only has what you require, but adds a mid frequency control. If your bass has its output jack on the edge of the body, you can go to the J-Retro Deluxe, which adds a passive tone control. I have the Aguilar OBP-3 and Glockenklang preamps in other basses, and they're great, too, so I doubt you'd go wrong with any of them. Don't forget about Audere, either.
 
#5
johnabasstool said:
Ordered the Nordstrand preamp today :hyper: Chose vol, pan, treb, mid 400hz and bass pots. Got to be shipped from US so I've got a bit of a wait :crying: But I got some great help and advice from Mark Stickley at Bassdirect.com who is getting the unit for me :D Also getting capacitors to adjust the mid to 600hz if I need to, simple mod required.



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My Nordsrtrand has finally arrived after more than 9 weeks wait :hmm: I'll post up what I think once it's up and running for anyone interested. ;)
 
#6
johnabasstool said:
My Nordsrtrand has finally arrived after more than 9 weeks wait :hmm: I'll post up what I think once it's up and running for anyone interested. ;)
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After fitting this yesterday and trying it out at home before gigging with it last night I'm not as impressed as I hoped I would be.:hmm:
I also own a Peavey Cirrus, and I was expecting the Nordstrand preamp to at least equal but hopefully surpass the amount of tones I can get from the Cirrus.

It doesn't. :hmm:

Treble control is lethal and I have had to roll it off completely. Bass control does not have enough umph and is turned up full but is still nothing like the Cirrus.
However I cannot fault the mid, which seems just right.

I only have the Cirrus for comparison, but the difference between the tones of both preamps is marked, the Cirrus has a huge bass eq and a smoother more useable treble IMO.

The EMG treble and bass preamp I took out of my guitar also had more bass than the Nordstrand I have replaced it with :(

I now feel I have probably got to refit new pups to get what I'm after. :hmm:

:(
 

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