Ibanez sr405 elecs. upgrade

[BkCressida1718]

What's up folks. I've been doing a lot of searching and reading regarding swapping out my electronics. I've made up my mind on EMG elecs but had a question. I was going to replace the preamp first because of budget and I've read thats the weak point on the bass but on the EMG site, it says the preamps are only for EMG pickups. I've read some people have just replaced the preamp hence the question. Can I use the EMG preamp on the DX5s (stock pups)? I'm tired of having my volume maxed out to get decent sound.

 

[Crater]

.... but on the EMG site, it says the preamps are only for EMG pickups.

No, that's not correct. EMG sells preamps that have to be used with EMG active pickups, and they also sell 'normal' preamps that can be used with any brand of passive pickups. The "System" preamps are for EMG pickups; the "Control" preamps are for any brand of pickups.

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[BkCressida1718]

well now that poses another issue. i have 4 pods on my bass and there aren't any "control" preamps that offer a 4 knob configuration

 

[JustForSport]

The "control" preamps are just
w/o the vol/vol or vol/blend pots- they need to be 250k-500k for passive pickups.
The 'system' preamps have pots for EMG or other active pickups.
So there's 1 or 2 holes filled, and you can chose stacked vol/vol and separate bass, mid, treble,
or vol, vol, concentric bass/treble, and concentric mid control,
or vol, blend, concentric bass/treble, and concentric mid control.
Check out EMG site or BestBassGear for diagrams and what's avail.

 

[Crater]

well now that poses another issue. i have 4 pods on my bass and there aren't any "control" preamps that offer a 4 knob configuration

I put an EMG BQC control in my Ibanez Ergodyne - also a 4 knob bass. There's a volume control for each pickup - I re-used the stock volume controls - and then a stacked bass/treble control and a stacked mid/mid freq. control which replaced the old passive tone control and the Phat EQ control.

 

[BkCressida1718]

ok now i understand after seeing the diagrams. I want to keep my setup as a volume, blend, mids, bass/treble stack so although one diagram shows how to install in for a selection toggle switch, i would install using that diagram for my blend knob correct?

 

[JustForSport]

You can do as Crater did, just use the existing vol and bal pots if you already have them (if they're not part of a pc board).
If original, the pickups are DX5's (passive) and the pots are the ones you need-
just add the preamp after.
(Depending on the year of your SR405, it could have a large pot-mounted pc board).