info on EMG pickups / preamps

I'm not sure about sizes, but I recommend you don't mix and match pups from manufacturers. They sometimes have different outputs, so you may solo your neck pickup and be louder than soloing your bridge pup. Also, if mixed, because one is louder, the overall tone may display qualities towards the dominant pickup. A little careful sandpaper won't hurt your bass when you switch the pups, if it is needed. I'm not sure if Ibanez would go to the trouble of sizing their neck and bridge pickups differently to be honest, but if they have it's no biggie. There's always a guitar luthier around if you're that worried.

 

My only beef with Bartolini is $$$.

Fantastic electronics no doubt, but they have a waiting list and are definitely coloured. You can get them deep, bright or brightest, and they will all sound good(IMO), but EMG's motto is to try and get as uncoloured a tone as possible.

Put your bass next to your ear. Pluck the strings: is this the tone you want? EMG will give you this tone to EQ with. Bartolini will modify it slightly, depending on which pickups you order.

It all comes to personal choice, but if you go with all EMG, all Bart, or mix and match both, you'll end up with a sweet, versatile bass. I can almost gaurantee that your tone is in there somewhere, combined with amp settings of course.

 

Bartolini´s are Passive and use 250/500k pots, while the EMG´s are active and use 25k buffered pots.

I dont think you will be able to use them combined unless you do a lot of modifications to the electronics. Specially if you get the EMG electronics wich are designed to work only with active EMG pickups (or similar active)

 

Luis is right. Mixing and matching any pickups is a bad idea. It's either all Bart pups or all EMG pups.

I've seen EMG pre's used with other active pickups. My ideal choice on this project would be EMG pups and a Bart EQ, but this is probably out of the question $$$ wise. If you get an EMG pre, make sure you talk to EMG about compatible pickups.

 

You could get the PRE for about the same as the EMG. You have to contact them directly to get it.
Or www.basscentral.com I think they sell it.

In my experience with Bartolini preamps, I can say they are really noiseless (specially the 18 Volt Model) and sound very good.
What I dont like in the NTMB183G (18 volt model) is that the bands overlap to avoid honky midrange variance. It does give you better midrange control, but it takes a little on the bass and treble, either boosting or cutting.
YMMV

 

OK, an SR405 has Vol - Blend - Treble - Mid - Bass knobs. So, if you want to keep this existing control configuration, you are looking at a Bartolini HR5.2 or HR5.4. Both are Vol, Blend, Treb, Mid, Bass.

The 5.2 has a sweepable mid(push-pull mid knob). It's in the Bart catalog for $175.

The 5.4 has a mini-toggle switch for mid selection. Retails at $190. Requires drilling holes.

An alternative is the HR4.6. This has a stacked Bass/Treble knob, and push/pull mid knob. This is only available with the p/p knob; no toggle switches here. Retails @ $186. However, if there are five holes in your bass for the knobs, then you'll have a gap there if you get the 4.6, and you'll need to buy a stacked pot for the Bass/Treble. With the 5.x, you get all you need.

I don't know if you get the required push/pull pots thrown in. If you don't, Bartolini offer an extension to their packages: an Active/Passive push/pull volume pot. You could wire this as your push/pull sweepable mid pot if you want. That package is $186. You could probably wire a stacked pot as mid vol and mid freq. too though, like an Ibanez BTB.

 

The 250K or 500K pots wont work with the EMG´s.
Also, you wont have the option to run them Active/Passive.

To me, your best choice would be to get a set of Bartolini M45 Pickups in Split or Dual Coil Configuration (The split will be enough for your bass) in the "Bright" voicing
the CX magnet structures rensemble a good broad range pickup similar to Lane poors and sound very good.

 

My experience with ORDERING emg's is that no matter what the store tells you, it's gonna be wrong because emg told me that the pickups i ordered were in stock and then 3 weeks later Bassnw called to get the tracking number and they finally fessed up to giving me a line of crap, saying the earliest would be the week of xmas...

 

If I was to get any Barts, that combination is what I'd pick. Gonna sound sweet.

I'm more of an EMG guy, but I have to admit that retrofitting them is time consuming in terms of research and installation.