How Can I Upgrade My Ibanez?

[MycooLeeyun]

No, you’ve got this!

Remember what I said about impedance? Active pickups have low impedance output. So do all preamps. Passive pickups have high impedance output.

If any of your controls (volume or tone) come after a high impedance source, meaning passive pickups, use the traditional 250k or 500k pot values. If they come after a low impedance source, meaning active p’ups or a preamp, use lower pot values like 50k, 25k or even 10k.

You can add a passive tone control anywhere in the circuit, either before or after a preamp as long as you choose pot (and cap) values that work with the source. If you add one after the preamp it will be a low value pot with a larger cap (25k and .1uF, for example). If it’s between active pickups and a preamp it would be the same. If it’s between passive p’ups and a preamp you would use traditional values such as 250k and.02uF or .047uF.

Starting to make sense?

Yes, making much more sense! I'm going to have my guitar tech do the installation as well. Thank you again for your explanations

 

[MycooLeeyun]

Before you change the pickups, how do you install the strings? If I take a closer look at the bridge it looks to me that there's no "witness point" where the strings runs over the saddle. If you don't create this witness point the strings will sound boomy and lack snappyness. This is especially true for the E, A and D strings.

View attachment 5271895

What does that mean exactly? A witness point? I just string it like I've strung every bass for the last 15 years

 

[MycooLeeyun]

Pickup height can make a big difference. My Gibson EB bass (the weird-looking 2014 model) has two big humbuckers that sound great, and the bass is terrific overall, but I eventually noticed a problem with it. Specifically, the E string, played at the 12th fret, made a warbling sound resembling two notes a fret apart being plucked at the same time.

So I checked the setup, checked to make sure the string wasn't damaged or unraveling, etc. No obvious problems.

Finally, I tried reducing the neck pickup height. The starting height was close to 3/8" above the pickguard. I kept dropping the pickup lower and lower. The warble was finally gone with the pickup practically flush with the pickguard. The pickup is only barely quieter than it was at its full height.

It sounds as if you're determined to swap out your pickup and won't be happy until you do, but you can at least try adjusting the pickup height to see what effect it has on the tone. Maybe record before-and-after samples, because memory is notoriously unreliable as a guide for sound comparisons. You might want to do the same with the old pickup/new pickup.

I will try this!

 

[Arjank]

What does that mean exactly? A witness point? I just string it like I've strung every bass for the last 15 years

Here's a pic that should make it more clear

 

[MycooLeeyun]

Here's a pic that should make it more clear

Oh okay, so when I'm putting on new strings I should always do this? Never heard of this, crazy. So many little things!

 

[Arjank]

Oh okay, so when I'm putting on new strings I should always do this? Never heard of this, crazy. So many little things!

Yes, this is part of a correct set up. It's also improves intonation up the fretboard, disclaimer, you probably need to do some intonation adjustments after creating the witness points (especially for the E, A and D string).

 

[Isaac_James]

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

Beautiful bass! As @Riff Ranger mentioned I did a mod project on my 1999 SR800 - same pickups and preamp as yours came stock with this one, and I didn't care for the sound either.

The pickups and preamp here are pretty hard to separate since the battery powers both the preamp and pickups. Maybe if you're clever you can figure out how to keep one and replace the other, I am not that clever though. I ended up deciding that I don't really need an active bass so I went with a fully passive system, VVT control. But since I had an extra hole I decided to add a series/parallel toggle switch as well.

If you're familiar with soldering up pickups it shouldn't be too hard, the challenge I had with mine - and just looking at yours I am guessing it will be a similar challenge - was finding pots that were long enough to go through the top of the bass but also narrow enough to fit in the holes they drilled. A standard 3/8" pot is too thick. These are what I used. You might also be able to re-use the pots already in there if you carefully desolder the wires.

As for pickups I went with a Wilde P-46 and J-45 set - they're priced affordably but very well made and designed, and I think they sound great with this setup.

You could still add a preamp to this, though I can't offer any advice there as that's not what I ended up looking into.

Good luck!

 

[Isaac_James]

Your video sounds pretty good. Do the tone controls not respond at all? If they do, try lowering the bass a tad. I think lowering the P pickup will be beneficial. EMG will be a good upgrade. Try to get the Alnico plus X pre-amp

Invalid Link Removed and possibly this EQ Invalid Link Removed - That will drop right in to what you have.

If this bass is like my 1999 MIJ SR800 (which it may not be, different year, model, country of manufacture, but same stock pups and preamp) then the knobs that come with this won't fit. I had a heck of a time finding ones that would work without drilling out the holes.

 

[Isaac_James]

That's partly just the nature of split-coil P-bass pickups. The D/G coil, being closer to the bridge, is going to sound a little thinner than the E/A coil. Not a lot, but noticeably. So if you do get around to replacing pickups rather than (or in addition to) the other good suggestions in this thread, you might want to look into a P pickup that is somewhat overwound and has more heft in the mids and less airy highs, like a Dimarzio Model P or Fender PV 63. Which may or may not help depending on your exact concerns, but is worth considering.

OP's bass has a reverse P configuration, so the DG side is closer to the neck.

 

[MycooLeeyun]

Beautiful bass! As @Riff Ranger mentioned I did a mod project on my 1999 SR800 - same pickups and preamp as yours came stock with this one, and I didn't care for the sound either.

The pickups and preamp here are pretty hard to separate since the battery powers both the preamp and pickups. Maybe if you're clever you can figure out how to keep one and replace the other, I am not that clever though. I ended up deciding that I don't really need an active bass so I went with a fully passive system, VVT control. But since I had an extra hole I decided to add a series/parallel toggle switch as well.

If you're familiar with soldering up pickups it shouldn't be too hard, the challenge I had with mine - and just looking at yours I am guessing it will be a similar challenge - was finding pots that were long enough to go through the top of the bass but also narrow enough to fit in the holes they drilled. A standard 3/8" pot is too thick. These are what I used. You might also be able to re-use the pots already in there if you carefully desolder the wires.

As for pickups I went with a Wilde P-46 and J-45 set - they're priced affordably but very well made and designed, and I think they sound great with this setup.

You could still add a preamp to this, though I can't offer any advice there as that's not what I ended up looking into.

Good luck!

Thanks for sharing your experience! That's super helpful.

How does she sound passive?

 

[Isaac_James]

Thanks for sharing your experience! That's super helpful.

How does she sound passive?

Great, honestly. These pickups are thick and punchy - the poles are arranged in a way that the strings rest directly over poles instead of between them. I used 500k pots instead of 250k to get some extra clarity on the top end, but I can always roll that down with the tone knob if I want to.

Series mode is loud and gnarly on this bass. Not suited for every situation but it pushes my OD really nicely.

I use DR Low Rider strings FYI

 

[MycooLeeyun]

Great, honestly. These pickups are thick and punchy - the poles are arranged in a way that the strings rest directly over poles instead of between them. I used 500k pots instead of 250k to get some extra clarity on the top end, but I can always roll that down with the tone knob if I want to.

Series mode is loud and gnarly on this bass. Not suited for every situation but it pushes my OD really nicely.

I use DR Low Rider strings FYI

Thick and punchy is what I like to hear!

Do you have any soundclips?

I'm feeling like this might be a better option than EMG then since you said the EMGs don't fit.

I would get a preamp though, so that might change things a little bit. But would be good to have an active/passive switch.

 

[Lo-E]

I'm feeling like this might be a better option than EMG then since you said the EMGs don't fit.

Have you measured? You shouldn’t assume they won’t fit unless you’ve taken accurate measurements.

J pickups come in two standard sizes, one for neck and one for bridge, but if Ibanez chose to use the smaller size for their P/J you could still use a neck pickup in the bridge position if you wanted to. It would work fine. EMG offers dimensions on their website so you can just measure and see what will fit.

 

[Isaac_James]

Have you measured? You shouldn’t assume they won’t fit unless you’ve taken accurate measurements.

J pickups come in two standard sizes, one for neck and one for bridge, but if Ibanez chose to use the smaller size for their P/J you could still use a neck pickup in the bridge position if you wanted to. It would work fine. EMG offers dimensions on their website so you can just measure and see what will fit.

@MycooLeeyun Yes, I would measure - see what diameter the pots you have are. You will need longer shafts in any case since the routing is on the back of the instrument, and you're going through the top of the bass instead of a control plate or pickguard. But you should measure the diameter of your pots since being made in a different country, in a different year, and on a different model of bass might mean that they're different than mine.

I don't have any sound clips unfortunately! Unlikely that I'll be able to get any tonight either but I'll try to remember to get some so you can hear what they sound like.

Adding in a preamp shouldn't be too hard, the cavity is already large enough to hold the Vari-Mid preamp which (on mine at least) wasn't particularly small.

Can you get a photo of what it looks like inside your bass right now? I'm curious to see how closely it resembles what mine looked like.

 

[MycooLeeyun]

@MycooLeeyun Yes, I would measure - see what diameter the pots you have are. You will need longer shafts in any case since the routing is on the back of the instrument, and you're going through the top of the bass instead of a control plate or pickguard. But you should measure the diameter of your pots since being made in a different country, in a different year, and on a different model of bass might mean that they're different than mine.

I don't have any sound clips unfortunately! Unlikely that I'll be able to get any tonight either but I'll try to remember to get some so you can hear what they sound like.

Adding in a preamp shouldn't be too hard, the cavity is already large enough to hold the Vari-Mid preamp which (on mine at least) wasn't particularly small.

Can you get a photo of what it looks like inside your bass right now? I'm curious to see how closely it resembles what mine looked like.

Ok so I need to measure the pickup cavities as well as the diameter of the pots. When buying pots, can you just find ones with longer shafts?

The pots comes with the EMG pickups I believe, but they do not come with the Wilde pickups.

I don't have the bass open to take a pic right now but let me see what I can do

 

[Isaac_James]

Ok so I need to measure the pickup cavities as well as the diameter of the pots. When buying pots, can you just find ones with longer shafts?

The pots comes with the EMG pickups I believe, but they do not come with the Wilde pickups.

I don't have the bass open to take a pic right now but let me see what I can do

The AFR P/J pickups are standard split precision and bridge jazz sizes, you shouldn't have any issue dropping others in unless they're unusually sized. But it never hurts to check.

One appeal of EMGs is that they send you the whole kit & kaboodle you need to swap everything out. Usually you don't need to solder anything, they have plug in connectors. However, I suspect your bass has a barrel jack - EMG only ships standard jacks, so someone would have to solder the lead and ground to the jack in that case.

Other pickups won't come with knobs but a preamp might; if in doubt you can call or email the manufacturer about the diameter and length of the shafts on those and they can probably tell you what you need.

If you're taking it to a tech they should also be able to help you sort it out.

 

[MycooLeeyun]

The AFR P/J pickups are standard split precision and bridge jazz sizes, you shouldn't have any issue dropping others in unless they're unusually sized. But it never hurts to check.

One appeal of EMGs is that they send you the whole kit & kaboodle you need to swap everything out. Usually you don't need to solder anything, they have plug in connectors. However, I suspect your bass has a barrel jack - EMG only ships standard jacks, so someone would have to solder the lead and ground to the jack in that case.

Other pickups won't come with knobs but a preamp might; if in doubt you can call or email the manufacturer about the diameter and length of the shafts on those and they can probably tell you what you need.

If you're taking it to a tech they should also be able to help you sort it out.

Thank you! This makes EMG that much more appealing. But a part of me really wants to try out the Wilde pickups with a preamp I haven't decided on yet. I like simplicity though so those EMG's do sound great.

 

[Isaac_James]

Thank you! This makes EMG that much more appealing. But a part of me really wants to try out the Wilde pickups with a preamp I haven't decided on yet. I like simplicity though so those EMG's do sound great.

A lot of people love EMGs - I haven't used them myself but I think you'll be making a fine choice either way.

 

[MycooLeeyun]

A lot of people love EMGs - I haven't used them myself but I think you'll be making a fine choice either way.

I wish the Wilde pickups didn't have the pole pieces showing. The Ibanez looks good with the completely black covers

 

[Isaac_James]

I wish the Wilde pickups didn't have the pole pieces showing. The Ibanez looks good with the completely black covers

I actually considered going with EMGs for this reason, I wanted to maintain the look of the instrument as much as possible. But I compromised on that to get the sound I wanted without paying through the nose. I'm pretty happy overall.

The Wilde pickups are resin potted (I think it's resin anyway) so it's not just a matter of putting on a solid cover either. I don't think I could remove the covers without damaging the pickups.