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Ibanez BTB Club, Part 2!

#621
datsaxguy said:
I've had 3 Audere's in other basses. They are a very natural sounding preamp. I had the classic with MK1 Bart's in a Lakland 5501 and American Bart's in the same bass. They are nice but are a little "tame" for my tastes. The classic is a Great pre for the money and a breeze to install.
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By tame do you mean transparent? I think the Gloc is similar in the transparency but the actual difference in sound I'm not sure about.

The Audere Classic is significantly cheaper and the only thing, on paper anyway, the Gloc has extra is the active/passive switch.

I really want a vol/vol setup rather than volume/balance so I can select solely either pickup.
 
#622
Gabriel51 said:
I find it strange (in a way) that a so called "boutique" style bass does not have a design specific pick-up. To me the bass looks like it has the wrong pick-up in it.
It's a really goofy cost saving effort to me.
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What I find strange is the MK2 pickups are quad coils, which is cool if you want that kind of flexability in your pickup, but the MK2s don't give you any flexability with that, its just a 2 conductor wire coming out the pickup. So why not just have a dual rail humbucker running the whole length?? Ah, well they must've thought of that because the NEW BTB6xx models have 'Bartolini BH1' pickups which are just that, dual rails, NO gaps.
 
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#624
MothBox said:
By tame do you mean transparent? I think the Gloc is similar in the transparency but the actual difference in sound I'm not sure about.

The Audere Classic is significantly cheaper and the only thing, on paper anyway, the Gloc has extra is the active/passive switch.

I really want a vol/vol setup rather than volume/balance so I can select solely either pickup.
Click to expand...

The Glock frequencies are set differently. The treble boost/cut turns up at 20k I believe which makes it different from most others on the market.

The audere is very transparent but I find them to be a bit hissy. I've never gotten much grunt or growl with them either. I'd rather do a Aguilar or Nordy if I had to choose between the 3. I'd like to do a U retro but I'd have to route the cavity to make it fit.
 
#627
datsaxguy said:
The Glock frequencies are set differently. The treble boost/cut turns up at 20k I believe which makes it different from most others on the market.
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At the moment i play with the stock EQ set flat (not sure if this simulates a passive tone) because i find small touches of the knobs give big reactions to the sound. I basically do all adjustments at the amp. I was thinking a better pre would give me more control.

However, I'm also thinking of taking the pre out all together and setting it up passive vol, bal, 2 tones, and pickup selection (neck, bridge, both, parallel, series). This may actually give me more usable options as I'm happy altering levels on the amp. If i did this id look into getting some Big Singles/Splits.

Two options, but ive got little experience of doing this sort of stuff so feel a bit daunted.
 
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#628
srvlives4evr said:
Ill try to keep it short lol. Well I bought a used Btb575mfm a few weeks ago. Played great, sounded great, great price, everything I expected, so took it home and set it up to my liking, that's when I noticed that my 'A' string was really quiet compared to the other strings. After searching and even calling Ibanez customer support, I found out that the MK2 pickups that were in it, were the 6 string versions. The MK2 shape (1.25" x 5.00") is the same on 5 and 6 string BTB basses, it's the inner coil design and layout that is different. They are a quad coil design which is 4 bar magnets inside that look like this ==. Follow still? :) well the gap between the bars on the MK2-6's runs vertical right in the middle where the 'A' string is on the 5 string, and it was that gap that was making the output super weak. Sooo now I have some Bart's on the way and I'm pretty excited. I actually liked the MK2 but it was a major problem.
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Which Barts did you get? I want to do the same to my 5 string btb. The only p5 barts I see are quad coil and will likely have the same problem.
 
#629
I'm really surprised that more folks have not modded the BTB675. Its an excellent platform. The lakland 5501 was all the rage for that at one time. Maybe if the pickups were P4 shape? Maybe it's the look? .... Or is it folks turning their nose to Ibanez?
 
#630
Speaking of 675's, I just bought this one. Should be here by the end of the week.:hyper:

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#631
Ibanez is putting a new version of the Bart pu's in the newer 675s - the BH-1's. They allegedly use continuous blades to avoid the gap problem of the MK2's. I'm going to see if I can get a pair for a reasonable price from Ibanez and if they're the same dimensions as the MK2 so I don't have to do any routing or gap filling.
 
#633
Rob22315 said:
Which Barts did you get? I want to do the same to my 5 string btb. The only p5 barts I see are quad coil and will likely have the same problem.
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I got a used pair of Bart P45CBC soapbars from a fellow TBer. They are not as long as the MK2 which I expected as I looked into the P5 thing too and replacement MK2's which were more than new USA Bart pickups (I can only imagine how much the BH-1 pickups are..) I got them this weekend and these ones were a tiny bit wider (I'd say less than 1mm) so I had to sand open the cavities a little bit. But they work great, and best of all no more quiet string issues.
 
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#634
srvlives4evr said:
I got a used pair of Bart P45CBC soapbars from a fellow TBer. They are not as long as the MK2 which I expected as I looked into the P5 thing too and replacement MK2's which were more than new USA Bart pickups (I can only imagine how much the BH-1 pickups are..) I got them this weekend and these ones were a tiny bit wider (I'd say less than 1mm) so I had to sand open the cavities a little bit. But they work great, and best of all no more quiet string issues.
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Great, thanks. I contacted ibanez to see if they would sell me some of the new BH1's but I may give the ones you used a shot.
 
#635
srvlives4evr said:
I got a used pair of Bart P45CBC soapbars from a fellow TBer. They are not as long as the MK2 which I expected as I looked into the P5 thing too and replacement MK2's which were more than new USA Bart pickups (I can only imagine how much the BH-1 pickups are..) I got them this weekend and these ones were a tiny bit wider (I'd say less than 1mm) so I had to sand open the cavities a little bit. But they work great, and best of all no more quiet string issues.
Click to expand...

You mind posting a pic of the P4 Bart's in your bass?

Decided to go with an Aguilar OBP3, best bass gear had a 15% off sale.
 
#637
datsaxguy said:
You mind posting a pic of the P4 Bart's in your bass?

Decided to go with an Aguilar OBP3, best bass gear had a 15% off sale.
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I have them out right now. I am going to be shielding the cavities because the Barts are pretty noisy in the high end, that should help. Will post pics when all good to go.

Rob22315 said:
There's a 6 string dual coil bart in the P4 shape that shouldn't have a gap that I'm going to try if Ibanez won't sell me a BH1.
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That was going to be my initial route, but then I found the used P45CBCs. Ya I banez should sell them to you but they like to go through dealers. I called them and talked to someone in parts, they quoted me $140 each for the MK2s, at that price I figured I'd explore the USA Bart options.
 
#638
srvlives4evr said:
That was going to be my initial route, but then I found the used P45CBCs. Ya I banez should sell them to you but they like to go through dealers. I called them and talked to someone in parts, they quoted me $140 each for the MK2s, at that price I figured I'd explore the USA Bart options.
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The Ibanez dealers say Bartolini only authorized Ibanez corporate to sell the BH1 pickups as part of the bass, not separately. The Bartolini Florida rep didn't recognize the Ibanez model number. Also, the Florida Bartolini rep said the 6 string dual coil pickups on bestbassgear are still quad coil so there's a gap.

I ended up ordering the XXP25C (P2 soapbar) pickups from best bass gear. The first one cost $150, the second $98 so for an average price of $125 each, I thought that was a pretty good deal for top-of-the-line barts. I'm not sure why the price was different for one vs the other (bridge vs neck). Shipping was free.

Those pickups easily support the 19mm spacing found on the 5 string BTBs. They are also quad coil but the gap is designed to fall between the A and D string rather than directly under the A string.

I will still have to widen the current slots in the bass a little and fill the gaps at either end (probably some black epoxy putty) but at least the strings will all be equal volume and the proper tone.
 

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