Finally got my Mike Pope preamp installed in my 55-02. I liked the LH3 quite a bit but I longed for a little more muscle and midrange flexibility at my fingertips for this bass.
I got a great deal on a 5-knob 4-band preamp with active/passive switching and a passive tone knob. I kept the coil splitting switch of course for the bridge pickup.
So I now have Vol (pull passive)-Blend-Bass/Treb (stacked)-LowMid/HiMid (stacked), passive tone, bridge coil switch. The pre came with a set of Sadowsky style aluminum knobs too, which is nice.
The install was a little stressful, it's more complicated than it looks on paper. You have many available options with this modular preamp system. Making sure that all the connections are correct, fitting the modules in the order you want them in the cavity is a challenge. Verifying that all the jumpers for the configuration and frequency centers are where you want them is important because you cannot get to them very easily once installed.
With the added challenge of wiring up a new coil switch, jack and connecting the battery wiring harness to my battery box, there was plenty of soldering to do even though this pre has screw terminal connections for the pickups.
Once all the connections were made and I thought configuration was solid, I carefully installed the modules and flipped the bass over and realized I screwed up the placement, I had the volume and the mid stack mixed up which is a completely illogical layout so I had to pull the things out and reconfigure. How I managed to do that with all my preparations is a mystery to me. I had a quick thought of leaving it because it is a bit hair-raising to be fiddling with these expensive modules. Ultimately decided I would never be satisfied with the volume knob next to the output jack.
It was glorious to hear during my successful test run at home and I took the bass to rehearsal last night and was duly impressed with the tonal flexibility. It is quite nice and I highly recommend it for this bass. I am still running the Lakland pickups which were perhaps up next for replacement but I am so happy now with the way it sounds I don't think that will be happening soon.
I am running it at 9v rather than 18v and it sounds great with plenty of usable headroom for my needs.
Maybe I will post some pictures if anyone is interested.
tl/dr - I installed a Mike Pope preamp in my 55-02 and it ROCKS!
