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Ibanez Mezzo Upgrade Path

#61
focusbob said:
Hi, I'm thinking about putting a kickass on my mezzo and I was wondering whether you could speak in more detail about your installation? For example, did you have to drill all new holes to mount the bridge or could some of the existing holes be re-used? If the former, were the new mounting holes closer or further from the neck than the original mounting holes? Just trying to get a sense of how much work would be involved... Thanks!
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Hi, been awhile since I did that, and don't have it any more, but as I recall wasn't to much work, think I had to drill one more hole not sure. To make it easier I masked off the intonation settings before I removed old bridge then set the kickass so it matched. you have sideways adjustment on the kickass so that helps. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful but it will work and worked good. goodluck
 
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#62
Have just taken my Mezzo to have a Seymour Duncan SPB-2 Hot pickup fitted, I find the stock pickup a bit limp sounding and a bit scooped in the mids so am looking forward to having a hefty dose of low mids although I anticipate the bridge pickup will be much quieter than the P pickup after the swap, with the stock preamp being pretty hot it should be pretty loud.
 
#63
shoulderpet said:
Have just taken my Mezzo to have a Seymour Duncan SPB-2 Hot pickup fitted, I find the stock pickup a bit limp sounding and a bit scooped in the mids so am looking forward to having a hefty dose of low mids although I anticipate the bridge pickup will be much quieter than the P pickup after the swap, with the stock preamp being pretty hot it should be pretty loud.
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Did you find it scooped with the preamp eq pots at center detent, or to the extent where you couldn't dial it out? I found the former to be the case but not the latter.
 
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#64
Preamp definitely is scooped. I would personally go without one and find good sounding pickups with a great amount of mids which it seems you have found.

Currently looking into ripping out my Bartolini preamp that was Installed on my Mezzo to go fully passive with my DiMarzio PJ Pickups.
 
#66
shoulderpet said:
Hmm yes I was half considering that route, I'm hoping that by dialling back the bass and treble controls on the preamp I can hopefully get a nice mid heavy tone
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I think you can actually now that I recall. I had a Mezzo fully stocked before the one I have now had some decent mids when I strung them with GHS Precision Flats. I found those GHS Strings with the treble at center and the bass slightly rolled off to deliver a great amount of mids without it being too muddy.
B1FDCB95-EECD-4B3B-9EDE-962D3FC91489.jpeg
 
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#67
focusbob said:
Did you find it scooped with the preamp eq pots at center detent, or to the extent where you couldn't dial it out? I found the former to be the case but not the latter.
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I think it sounds scooped at the centre detent, I find with the bass and treble around the 8 o clock position it brings more mids but not really a mid heavy tone, lower than that gets more middy but also thinner, if I remember rightly the pickups are not wound very hot (around 6.5k and 5k if I remember rightly) so I think maybe the pickups are also to blame
 
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#68
And put the Seymour Duncan Spb-2 in the Mezzo, the scoop is definitely in the preamp, with the SPB-2 in this bass there is a tonne of midrange, more than enough available but there is a little less than when I had this pickup up in my Jaguar bass and the treble response is brighter than when I had this pickup in my Jaguar bass.

Overall I am really happy with the new pickup, it is nice to have my midrange back and the bass is sounding noticeably fatter, I may at some point in the future have an active/passive switch fitted for some more tonal variety.

The stock Ibanez pickups are the usual glued on ceramic magnets that you tend to see on cheaper basses, I will be trying them on my Jaguar bass just to see how they sound without the preamp.
 
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#70
sonojono said:
Glad you dig the beef from the SPB2!

Wiring an active/passive switch might be a hard task at work but if you have the schematics, skill and patience for it then it’ll be worth it!
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yeah I think I will get a pro to do it, is a bit beyond my skills, the other option is to swap out the preamp for something more transparent to get closer to passive tone
 
#71
Ok one unexpected bonus with the new pickup, with the stock pickups if you have both pickups on the same volume you get the usual p/j mid scoop but since fitting the SPB-2 that p/j mid scoop has gone and you get the strong low mids of the SPB-2 plus the bitey mids of the bridge pickup
 
#72
shoulderpet said:
Ok one unexpected bonus with the new pickup, with the stock pickups if you have both pickups on the same volume you get the usual p/j mid scoop but since fitting the SPB-2 that p/j mid scoop has gone and you get the strong low mids of the SPB-2 plus the bitey mids of the bridge pickup
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I've been reading your posts. Am I correct that you replaced the neck pickup but kept the stock Jazz pickup? I've been thinking about replacing the pickups and preamp and going passive. I'm think of a V/V/T/T control setup.
 
#74
DJWhitJr said:
I've been reading your posts. Am I correct that you replaced the neck pickup but kept the stock Jazz pickup? I've been thinking about replacing the pickups and preamp and going passive. I'm think of a V/V/T/T control setup.
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Yes that is correct, I replaced the neck pickup and kept the stock bridge pickup as the P pickup in P/J setups does most of the heavy lifting although I may replace the bridge pickup in the near future as I found that the pickup swap actually made the bridge pickup more useful by getting rid of the scoop with both pickups on. I think if I was going to go passive I would go Volume,Blend,Tone, Series/Parrallel

I think maybe the scoop experienced previously with both pickups on was more the preamp than the pickups, do active basses generally have a scoop in the mids with both pickups on like passive basses do?
 
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#75
shoulderpet said:
Yes that is correct, I replaced the neck pickup and kept the stock bridge pickup as the P pickup in P/J setups does most of the heavy lifting although I may replace the bridge pickup in the near future as I found that the pickup swap actually made the bridge pickup more useful by getting rid of the scoop with both pickups on. I think if I was going to go passive I would go Volume,Blend,Tone, Series/Parrallel

I think maybe the scoop experienced previously with both pickups on was more the preamp than the pickups, do active basses generally have a scoop in the mids with both pickups on like passive basses do?
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I'm not sure. This is the only active bass I have.
 
#78
sonojono said:
No but I’m sure you can. The mezzos cavity has some decent spacing to fit almost any preamp as long as you’re not drilling additional holes... Are you?

Here’s a reference of my Mezzo with a Bartolini preamp installed:

View attachment 4184788
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I'm hoping to find a 3 band with stacked pots to keep the number of holes the same. I looked at some of the Emg preamps and one of them has dip switches to select the treble frequency and goes down to about 2khz which is technically high midrange so maybe that might be a good option.
How are the mids on the Bart preamp?
 
#79
shoulderpet said:
I'm hoping to find a 3 band with stacked pots to keep the number of holes the same. I looked at some of the Emg preamps and one of them has dip switches to select the treble frequency and goes down to about 2khz which is technically high midrange so maybe that might be a good option.
How are the mids on the Bart preamp?
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Mids are very punchy thanks to the Dimarzio pickups that are on the Mezzo! I really love the combination as I’m currently going through different strings
 
#80
shoulderpet said:
Yes that is correct, I replaced the neck pickup and kept the stock bridge pickup as the P pickup in P/J setups does most of the heavy lifting although I may replace the bridge pickup in the near future as I found that the pickup swap actually made the bridge pickup more useful by getting rid of the scoop with both pickups on. I think if I was going to go passive I would go Volume,Blend,Tone, Series/Parrallel

I think maybe the scoop experienced previously with both pickups on was more the preamp than the pickups, do active basses generally have a scoop in the mids with both pickups on like passive basses do?
Click to expand...
have taken my bass to have an active/passive switch fitted, the tone on the bass with the Duncan SPB-2 pickup is nearly there but I feel like the tone of the bass is being compromised by the sledgehammer subtlety of the preamp, it seems that the bass and treble are significantly boosted on the preamp even on the flat setting, fortunately the pickups are passive so the preamp is not an essential part of the bass
 

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