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How Can I Upgrade My Ibanez?

MycooLeeyun

MycooLeeyun

Supporting Member
Sep 26, 2009
1,667
697
Sedona, AZ
#1
Hi all! I've been using this Ibanez as my main bass with my band and I'm loving it for the most part. However, while the lows sound pretty good, the mids and highs don't sound great to me. I picked it up for a great price and wanted to get some ideas on how I could improve it tonally with pickups and/or preamp.

1997 Ibanez SR1200 Neck Through Made In Korea:
  • Body: Bird’s eye maple top, Mahogany back
  • Neck: 5-piece wenge/maple neck through, 24-fret rosewood fretboard with oval MOP inlays.
  • Pickups: Ibanez AFR-P and IBZ-AFR-J.
  • Preamp: Vari-Mid 3 band active Eq controls

Thank you so much for your input!

IMG_20230110_112553033.jpg
 
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#3
MycooLeeyun said:
Hi all! I've been using this Ibanez as my main bass with my band and I'm loving it for the most part. However, while the lows sound pretty good, the mids and highs don't sound great to me. I picked it up for a great price and wanted to get some ideas on how I could improve it tonally with pickups and/or preamp.

1997 Ibanez SR1200 Neck Through Made In Korea:
  • Body: Bird’s eye maple top, Mahogany back
  • Neck: 5-piece wenge/maple neck through, 24-fret rosewood fretboard with oval MOP inlays.
  • Pickups: Ibanez AFR-P and IBZ-AFR-J.
  • Preamp: Vari-Mid 3 band active Eq controls

Thank you so much for your input!

View attachment 5269808
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See the reply immediately above this one, but you might also ask @Isaac_James about his recent experience with swapping pickups in a similar model.
 
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#4
Strings can make a big difference. So can your setup. Changing the height of your pickups can make a huge difference in tone.

I’m not all that familiar with the electronics in your bass but Ibanez tends to use decent quality stuff in all but their least expensive models. I’m not saying there’s nothing better out there, but you should definitely try getting the best out of what you’ve got there before you give up on it.

As for replacement pickups and preamps, there are so many options. As @ctmullins says, we’d need to know more about your tonal goals.
 
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#5
Lo-E said:
Strings can make a big difference. So can your setup. Changing the height of your pickups can make a huge difference in tone.

I’m not all that familiar with the electronics in your bass but Ibanez tends to use decent quality stuff in all but their least expensive models. I’m not saying there’s nothing better out there, but you should definitely try getting the best out of what you’ve got there before you give up on it.

As for replacement pickups and preamps, there are so many options. As @ctmullins says, we’d need to know more about your tonal goals.
Click to expand...
I've been using this bass for about a year and it's great. It has great strings on it and a good setup. I haven't experimented with pickup height but I'm looking for a nice upgrade on this one.
 
#8
I've always heard that the proprietary pre's are the weakest link but that's painting with a wide brush. I'd start with this: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. That should add some sparkle to the stock pick-ups plus infuse some *ooomph* into the bridge J. If still falling short, swap-out the pick-ups but keep the Audere as they work well with virtually anything.

Riis
 
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#9
MycooLeeyun said:
I've been using this bass for about a year and it's great. It has great strings on it and a good setup. I haven't experimented with pickup height but I'm looking for a nice upgrade on this one.
Click to expand...
In that case the only thing you can experiment with is the pickup height. Try sinking the P pickup pretty far into the body and then adjust the J pickup so the output is roughly matched to the P (you’ll probably end up moving it much less than the P). The overall output from the bass will be lower but you’ll gain more clarity. If that doesn’t get you closer to what you’re after then it’s time to consider changing p’ups, preamp or both but it doesn’t cost anything to try the pickup height adjustment first.

As stated above, if you can give us a clear description of what you’re seeking, or examples, we might be able to help narrow down the myriad options.

Also worth noting is that P/J basses can be hard to balance so if you end up replacing the pickups, try to look for sets that are known to work well together.
 
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#10
Zooberwerx said:
I've always heard that the proprietary pre's are the weakest link but that's painting with a wide brush. I'd start with this: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. That should add some sparkle to the stock pick-ups plus infuse some *ooomph* into the bridge J. If still falling short, swap-out the pick-ups but keep the Audere as they work well with virtually anything.

Riis
Click to expand...
This is very helpful! Looking for this type of starting point advice. Thank you
 
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#11
Lo-E said:
In that case the only thing you can experiment with is the pickup height. Try sinking the P pickup pretty far into the body and then adjust the J pickup so the output is roughly matched to the P (you’ll probably end up moving it much less than the P). The overall output from the bass will be lower but you’ll gain more clarity. If that doesn’t get you closer to what you’re after then it’s time to consider changing p’ups, preamp or both but it doesn’t cost anything to try the pickup height adjustment first.

As stated above, if you can give us a clear description of what you’re seeking, or examples, we might be able to help narrow down the myriad options.

Also worth noting is that P/J basses can be hard to balance so if you end up replacing the pickups, try to look for sets that are known to work well together.
Click to expand...
I've always wondered about pickup height. My guitar tech likes to get the pickups pretty close to the strings. How is tone affected when pickups are pretty high up? I'm so curious about this and I'm not sure if I should be the one adjusting that. I'm pretty terrible with bass adjustments overall.
 
#13
MycooLeeyun said:
I've always wondered about pickup height. My guitar tech likes to get the pickups pretty close to the strings. How is tone affected when pickups are pretty high up? I'm so curious about this and I'm not sure if I should be the one adjusting that. I'm pretty terrible with bass adjustments overall.
Click to expand...
As the pickups get closer to the strings the tone gets punchier but also muddier. You begin to lose clarity in the highs and get a bump in the mids. A lot of people really dig that and the effect is very dependent upon the strings and pickups you’re using but, as a general rule higher pickups have more punch and less clarity, lower pickups have the opposite.

If you’re nervous about doing it yourself, just count exactly how many turns of the screw you’ve made (write it down!) and then you can always go back to where you started. You can also fine-tune your results by angling the pickups to get slightly different responses for each string.
 
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#14
Lo-E said:
As the pickups get closer to the strings the tone gets punchier but also muddier. You begin to lose clarity in the highs and get a bump in the mids. A lot of people really dig that and the effect is very dependent upon the strings and pickups you’re using but, as a general rule higher pickups have more punch and less clarity, lower pickups have the opposite.

If you’re nervous about doing it yourself, just count exactly how many turns of the screw you’ve made (write it down!) and then you can always go back to where you started. You can also fine-tune your results by angling the pickups to get slightly different responses for each string.
Click to expand...
That's interesting! I like the tone I get from my E string, but as I move up to especially the D and G I feel like they get pretty thin.
 
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#16
I had a 1997 SR800 and used Daddario XL's (45-100) and loved them.
I always felt the preamp was the weak link, but didn't upgrade it before I traded it. If you like the current control configuration, maybe look into an EMG system with the sweepable mids.
I don't know how good the stock pickups actually are, but they're active and should pair well with the EMG system. Might be worth trying out the EMG pickups too.

What kind of music do you play?

Definitely try the strigs first
 
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#18
AudioTaper said:
I had a 1997 SR800 and used Daddario XL's (45-100) and loved them.
I always felt the preamp was the weak link, but didn't upgrade it before I traded it. If you like the current control configuration, maybe look into an EMG system with the sweepable mids.
I don't know how good the stock pickups actually are, but they're active and should pair well with the EMG system. Might be worth trying out the EMG pickups too.

What kind of music do you play?

Definitely try the strigs first
Click to expand...
Thanks for the recommendation!

Here is a video of my band in action:


Our sound is pretty versatile and we tend to get pretty heavy but also jazzy and groovy.
 
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