After owning two of these for a few years (fretted and fretless) i am considering moving on. i really don't like the tone on these. the low notes aren't punchy. i even play with the tone knobs all the way off and the selector on passive. when i turn up the tone it gets really muddy and the drummer can't hear my "1" on the low notes even with a compressor. ive kept them so long because i love their playability. ive got the fretted one with flats and the action is sweet with these medium frets. better than anything i can find. every other bass i have tried the strings are a mile away from the fretboard. we play our own brand of jazz and the bass parts can be intricate with a lot of chords (and i already have dupreyten's) plus there is noise coming from the fretted one. maybe worth rewiring as passive and new pickups? i am a terrible solderer.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Ibanez sr300 rewire to passive?
- Thread starter fnkyhd
- Start date
are you sure, the problem is the bass? do you have basses that work better for you?
if not -- it might be you have a tiny amp that's why the drummer cannot hear you.
if not -- it might be you have a tiny amp that's why the drummer cannot hear you.
At a distance it's hard to say what the issue is, but I have no problem with being heard or clarity from either of my SR 300 series, a 370 and 375. I have a number of other SRs and a BTB too. None of the 300s I've seen have a passive mode either, certainly not mine which are the later versions with the Powerspans (2017 and 23 respectively).
As you like how it plays, I would look at, set up and strings first as well as your amplification change. If you read the forums you'll hear people endlessly wank on about how this or that component sounds awful, especially Ibanez pres (which I don't think are bad at all) or that going passive is some sort of magically 'unsmotherer' of tone and I've found it not to be the case - more often it sounds worse in terms of detail and clarity to me.
What's the rest of your rig consist of? Which version of the 300 do you have (1st 2 digits of the SN give the year of manufacture) and what strings are you using?
I have two SRs, one is a SR370EF fretless, the other a SR Premium fretted. I think I understand what you mean about the lack of punch. IMO it is one of the shortcomings of the lightly built SRs, and their preamps. The neck is thin and the p'ups are closely spaced and close to the bridge. All these things combined seem to contribute to a thin sound, when compared to an FSO. On the other hand, the playability more than offsets the weaknesses. As already noted, the SR300 series, at least the modern ones, is "always active" so wiring it passive might not sound great.
If you want an Ibanez with more punch, you might want to look at the new Mode series. Those have a more robust build and much better preamp.
If you want an Ibanez with more punch, you might want to look at the new Mode series. Those have a more robust build and much better preamp.
OP seems to be referencing rolling off the tone boost. That SR series has bass and treble boost. Rolling it all off and you get flat, unboosted tone, and it does not sound great at all, at least on my SR370EF.
The SR Premium allows you to switch off the EQ, so you lose the boosts and the vari-mids control, but you are still going through the preamp. You then have one "passive" tone control.
Attachments
those are the only basses i have. it' snot so much a problem being heard as the the low tones are muddy not punchy
sr300E and 370EF Daddario medium flats fender rumble 100. (drummer plays with hot rods). i did find a supposed easy way to bypass the preamp. will try thet
I'm not fully convinced it's the bass...tell us more about the amplification and settings. The stock pickups and preamps are passable but frequently require some external compensation in the path. That was my experience with the MK1's and stock preamp which I did eventually swap-out...at a price.
Riis
i think my favorite tone lately is Anna Butterss but she plays a pbass mostly i think. i cant afford one of those
there must be a lot of threads on how to get that sound out of a cheap bass
I play with the same rig (R100) with my SR370EF, but I use D'Addario Chromes, ECB81, light gauge. I think you will get more punch out of the Chromes. Also, you might want to elevate the Rumble100 a bit off the floor, get it away from any walls or corners, and turn down the low bass a bit on the amp. If you do all those things and still have trouble getting punch, it might be time to upgrade the amp, to something with more power and a 2x10" arrangement.
I think your lack of punch is 50/50 your strings/settings and your amp. I don't think bypassing the preamp on the bass is going to solve your problem, might actually make it worse.
Attachments
Last edited:
thanks. i like the r100 but it is indeed less punchy sounding that a lot of other cheap amps. you might be right about placement. usually i have it up on a table in the practice space and last time it was on the floor and the lows bled all over the place. it seems like the eq on this bass needs another band between the low and mid
It's scooped. You have to turn down the bass and treble, turn up the low and high mids. I don't do this, but some say in a band situation it helps to turn on the OD a bit, just to get a little bite. It sucks when it's in a corner, unless that's the only place in the room you can fit it (like in my bedroom).
I don't think I'd want it on a table, you might lose a lot of the fundamental lows. Put it on some thick books, or a low stool. Keep it within a couple feet from the floor max.
I don't use a hi/low pass filter but as some others have said, that can really help too. Also, be careful about using too much compression, that can suck the tone, and your gain, and really make you sound dead. Like with everything, a little goes a long way.
Keep working with it, I think you can save this puppy.
my experience with R100 was it's unable to produce good fundamental lows on volume and it tends to sound boxy and boomy.
so the best that could be done is just removing this boxy and boomy part and making use of what the combo can produce otherwise.
this said, big 'fundamental lows' are something you want in a bedroom bass tone, but not in a band tone. this has been discussed over the TB, but I'll attach this video and hope that OP will find it useful:
and yeah, once more (but worth to repeat since the video refers 'flat'), Rumble is not flat when flat. the Rumble Club has come up with 10-2-2-10 with all switches depressed as a starting point.
Yes, 10-2-2-10 is correct. That's where you want to be most of the time with the R100, with the contour switches all "off."
BassBuzz also has a good video on his YouTube channel about how to get good bass tone, called "The Seven Dwarves of Bad Bass Tone."
I think OP's point is more in the area of mid-bass than low-bass. IME that's where the punch comes from, but it depends on the room.
Could be the bass....could be the amp....either way, there's a lot of garbage in the 250-400 hz region which may benefit from a PEQ attenuate & sweep. The stock MK1's and preamp on my 755 had a 2-way mid freq switch (250 / 600?) which cleaned-up when selecting 250 and rolling-off the mids a tad. I've done the same via a really nice EBS amp. Your observations are well-founded.
Riis
hey thanks for all the great feedback i mean it. i know i tend to obsess on things sometimes but it's good for my brain to try and figure things out. so the situation is band. i dont really care much otherwise. we are currently in my garage but it's a big detatched one with a high ceiling and some treatment (soon we may be in a new more prepared space but i love the way the room sounds and love to hear some of the room in my recordings). the group is alto sax, keys, bass and drums. i always record our live sessions, actually that's all we do and at least half of it is pure improv. anyway after moving the amp around from time to time i finally have it about five feet at an angle from the kick facing 90 degrees from the drums. this produces a lot less bleed (the drums are recorded with 3 overheads and one is an omni). bleed is ok by me, even a lot but not more than what i am trying to capture. the cab was sitting on a homemade table in this position about 2' from the floor but last time i put it on the floor under the table and there was too much bleed in the way down low end. there are so many variables though. mic placement etc. i play a lot of pedal tones and often they are the "1" and that is where we have had some issus losing the one...not that i am blaming the drummer. i lose the one all the time but this is specifically what i am trying to dial in. anywhere from an open A string up to Eb on that string (4 string bass standard tuining but also using capo a lot. i will try the 10,2,2,10 with the amp and work from there. my setting on it now is 12,11,12,11 with a bit of gain 7 oclock on the knob (6 being none). and all the buttons up
FYI also i opened the back of the bass yesterday hoping that i could easily bypass the preamp with pin headers. unfortunately the two connectors have different size pins. i stripped a tiny 22g wire and connected them. wow it sounds great without the battery but there was a new hum introduced probably from my janky connection. i put it back the way it was for now but in the future might try soldering a better connection but i am a terrible solderer and might wreck something. i see where people have done this though and changed the volume pot to 1000 instead of 500 (or is it 100 instead of 50?)
FYI also i opened the back of the bass yesterday hoping that i could easily bypass the preamp with pin headers. unfortunately the two connectors have different size pins. i stripped a tiny 22g wire and connected them. wow it sounds great without the battery but there was a new hum introduced probably from my janky connection. i put it back the way it was for now but in the future might try soldering a better connection but i am a terrible solderer and might wreck something. i see where people have done this though and changed the volume pot to 1000 instead of 500 (or is it 100 instead of 50?)
just messed with the amp settings quite a bit and it turns me back to the bass preamp circuit. i can't get anything i like until i eq all three knobs on the bass down all the way no matter where i set the amp. again i think there needs to be four like on the amp since those low mids are so critical...so i think the best i can do is dial them all the way down on the instrument and use the amp to set tone. unless there's a way i can rebias the bass pre? is there an aftermarket pcb perhaps?
