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Lakland Owners Group #54

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#24
natw42 said:
wvbass, I have a '99 4-94. How would you compare your current set-up with the old barts?

edit: and can I assume there's no need to route/modify the bass itself?
Click to expand...

Sound-wise, the barts were perfect. By that, I mean they were completely smooth and even sounding. The trade-off was that I thought they lacked personality. They sounded good, but in a generic kind of way. This left me wanting more tone-wise.

I put I Nordstrand NJ4 in the neck position and a 4.2 in the bridge position. They are single coils (at least when I split the 4.2), so I beefed up the shielding, adding copper foil in the pickup cavities. (I connected the pole pieces to the shielding too since they are exposed.) I swapped preamps and put in the OBP3. I wired it Vol-Vol-Tone with a push pull on the tone knob for passive. I put the bass and treble on a stacked knob with the bass on top because I find the top easier to grab and I'm more likely to tweak bass than treble. The mid knob is push-pull for the frequency shift feature of the OBP-3. The three-way switch lets me pick between either coil or both on the 4.2.

It still sounds like the same bass. I did get some more character out of the J pickup, some added midrange, but maybe not as much as I'd hoped. The NJ$ sounds a little scooped. The 4.2 is special, though, and using the neck coil and the J together gives me a good old-school tone. Favoring the bridge coil gives some nice bark (the barts did this very well too.) I like the round midrange of the humbucker soloed, too. Overall, I'd say it is still round and smooth sounding, but I did get a lot of the personality I was looking for.

The OBP-3 is a good preamp, but I barely touch the mids or highs. I usually just add or cut a little low end to suit the situation. (I live and die by the passive tone control, though.) When I do add a bit of mids, it is to solve a problem with the acoustics of the room or stage. I only ever adjust the treble be accident. This preamp can get crazy on the low and high end, but the mids are confined to a very musical range.

Passive mode sounds like a good jazz bass should. Volume level between passive and active is a lot better. I think the barts are pretty weak in passive mode, and I would have had to dial the actives down a lot to equalize the volume levels.

I recently did a blues session with my 4-94. The last time I worked with this engineer/producer, it was a country session, and I used a Carvin SB5000. His comment on my Lakland: "That is a different bass than you brought last time. The last one sounded good, but this one is phat!"

As for mods that can't be reversed, I'll just say its a tight fit. I don't think I have a picture, but I squeezed two regular pots, two push-pull pots, a stacked pot, the preamp, the output jack and two 9 volts into the control cavity. I did not have to route for a battery compartment, etc. BUT...the barts volume and blend controls connect to the preamp, while my new setup is passive VVT + the active circuit. I didn't anticipate this, but that little 25k volume knob (pretty sure it was the volume know) has an undersized shaft (tee hee). I did have to drill the hole out a bit to make the new pot fit.
 
#25
Who has a mint Skyline guard they would like to sell off to me? My 2004 Skyline has a white guard (made by Jeannie's) that I would like to swap off. I just would like to see it with more of an aged look. Plus the mint is the stock color. I would happily trade off my white one too if someone is interested.
 
#26
wvbass said:
Sound-wise, the barts were perfect. By that, I mean they were completely smooth and even sounding. The trade-off was that I thought they lacked personality. They sounded good, but in a generic kind of way. This left me wanting more tone-wise.

I put I Nordstrand NJ4 in the neck position and a 4.2 in the bridge position. They are single coils (at least when I split the 4.2), so I beefed up the shielding, adding copper foil in the pickup cavities. (I connected the pole pieces to the shielding too since they are exposed.) I swapped preamps and put in the OBP3. I wired it Vol-Vol-Tone with a push pull on the tone knob for passive. I put the bass and treble on a stacked knob with the bass on top because I find the top easier to grab and I'm more likely to tweak bass than treble. The mid knob is push-pull for the frequency shift feature of the OBP-3. The three-way switch lets me pick between either coil or both on the 4.2.

It still sounds like the same bass. I did get some more character out of the J pickup, some added midrange, but maybe not as much as I'd hoped. The NJ$ sounds a little scooped. The 4.2 is special, though, and using the neck coil and the J together gives me a good old-school tone. Favoring the bridge coil gives some nice bark (the barts did this very well too.) I like the round midrange of the humbucker soloed, too. Overall, I'd say it is still round and smooth sounding, but I did get a lot of the personality I was looking for.

The OBP-3 is a good preamp, but I barely touch the mids or highs. I usually just add or cut a little low end to suit the situation. (I live and die by the passive tone control, though.) When I do add a bit of mids, it is to solve a problem with the acoustics of the room or stage. I only ever adjust the treble be accident. This preamp can get crazy on the low and high end, but the mids are confined to a very musical range.

Passive mode sounds like a good jazz bass should. Volume level between passive and active is a lot better. I think the barts are pretty weak in passive mode, and I would have had to dial the actives down a lot to equalize the volume levels.

I recently did a blues session with my 4-94. The last time I worked with this engineer/producer, it was a country session, and I used a Carvin SB5000. His comment on my Lakland: "That is a different bass than you brought last time. The last one sounded good, but this one is phat!"

As for mods that can't be reversed, I'll just say its a tight fit. I don't think I have a picture, but I squeezed two regular pots, two push-pull pots, a stacked pot, the preamp, the output jack and two 9 volts into the control cavity. I did not have to route for a battery compartment, etc. BUT...the barts volume and blend controls connect to the preamp, while my new setup is passive VVT + the active circuit. I didn't anticipate this, but that little 25k volume knob (pretty sure it was the volume know) has an undersized shaft (tee hee). I did have to drill the hole out a bit to make the new pot fit.
Click to expand...

Hey wv - thanks for the comprehensive post! Really appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Yeah, I sometimes find I'd like a little more 'personality' from the set-up. For the most part I actually pan more towards the front PU to try and get a P-bass ish kinda hollow/round tone. I juice the mids (@800hz) and the bass to help it cut through but still sit nice and fat in the mix.

The results you got for the MM pu sound more to my liking, but not necessarily the front pu. Hmmmm. Oh the tone-chasin! What to do, what to do? :help:





and... undersized shaft... tee hee hee.
 
#27
wvbass said:
I've got all the bart guts for mine intact and tucked away, just in case I ever want to put them back in.
Click to expand...

I have a spare "old" Bart 5 string pickup setup (yr 2000 and earlier) in a box, and another set (pups and pre) installed in my fretless 55-02. Definitely worth holding onto!
 
#29
Whew! #53 went by faster than any Lakland theads have in a while. Wonder why, let's look at the post count.:D


Mrfstop 211
basspraiser 124
MarkusBass 87
Kinetic Shadow 86
JEDI BASS 52
Johnny Alien 44
GregC 39
roadkill2309 36
sifi76 25
thehess 25
denchiq 24
Holdsg 18
sj_bass 18
ShowKing 18
madbassplaya 17
projectapollo 16
3toes 14
76Dub 13
natw42 13
BigBeatNut 11
afroman 10
Texan 10
nervous 10

I cut the list off at 10 posts, because Explorer screw up the formatting.
 
#31
In!
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20110813-20-50-53.jpg

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