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I’ve read threads in the past where people swap out the preamp but keep the Barts. It’s a shame there are no before and after side by side videos. I’d love to hear the difference.
there are so many good preamps out there, for not a lot of moola, I still can't believe that Lakland hasn't stepped forward on fixing this. it is so obvious that the preamp is not very good. I understand it is the lowest price Lakland offering, but gee, it's been on the market for how long now?
What’s the consensus on the old Bartolini pre in the 55-94 basses? I quite like the tone - fat bass and super high end sizzle. Very different from all my other basses. But it has no passive tone option which these days seems like a must have for all preamps. How does the Bartolini pre compare to the Aguilar OB3?
As for pickups - what’s the consensus on the Seymour Duncan Basslines? My bass has them. I know they were offered as an option in the early days. Not really keen to switch to Bartolini pups as I like the aggressiveness of the Seymour Duncan’s. Anyone have success with Nordstrand pickups? They have quite a few options for the MM style pickup these days.
As for pickups - what’s the consensus on the Seymour Duncan Basslines? My bass has them. I know they were offered as an option in the early days. Not really keen to switch to Bartolini pups as I like the aggressiveness of the Seymour Duncan’s. Anyone have success with Nordstrand pickups? They have quite a few options for the MM style pickup these days.
I’m a huge fan of the old Bart preamp and pickups that’s I’ve had in my 4-94s and 55-94s.... so much so that I have spare sets in my parts drawers (pups and preamps). I can’t speak on how the other brands sound in a Lakland. But, Nordies have sounded fantastic in some other basses I’ve owned.
I also like the bart pre, and I believe wiring a passive tone in to the circuit isn’t that difficult, at least on the newer versions anyways.
As far as pickups, the newer Bartolini pickups that are the successors to the Lakland ones (to my ears anyways) are a little brighter and clearer. I’ve never played/tried the “little Barts”, but the ones in my 2000 55-94 are darker, but not muddy. I think they’re more “Fender-y” than a lot of the other pickups (which could also be the preamp too). It’s a pretty passive sounding active bass, which is nice.
I have some Nordstrand 60’s wind jazz bass pickups in a Mike Lull 5 string jazz (with the Bartolini pre) and they sound great, so I’d imagine the j/mm combination would work well too (and they make a splittable mm, unlike a lot of other companies). But all imho/ymmv.
I would love to try a jazz blade version of the MM/J combination. One day perhaps. I’ve had 2 jazz blades in a bass. And a single BigBladeMan pickup in a different bass. I could see doing that to a used Skyline 44-02, but the pickups would cost as much as the bass.
Interesting! Yes I remember the old Bart pickups but haven’t played a bass with them for a while. I do remember them being a little dark. The newer Bart Classic pickups sound tempting as I like the added clarity. The Seymour Duncan Basslines are quite good as they are quite aggressive (so quite different to the old barts) , but I feel like I could find a slightly more “musical” sounding pickup. The newer barts or nord perhaps.
What are the benefits of blade pickups? I know they are bright / clear sounding.
I'll check in with a 'yay' on the old Bart setup. Certainly not about to leave my fantastic '98 4-94!
nordstrand makes two versions. Bright and clear. Warm and Wooly. I prefer the warm and wooly. Advantage to me is the tone, full bodied, not muffled like some jazz pickups (namely Fender and clones of those).
Although, I have to sorta disagree with what someone said above, about the sound of old barts. Mine weren’t and aren’t dark. Then again, I always played stainless rounds on em. And, I’m not super picky about tone, and I definitely have some hearing damage.
Nowadays, for the basses I put together, I pick my pickups based more on aesthetics and ease of install. EMGs are a favorite because of this.
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The BART pups and pre in this baby definitely had clarity, would not describe them as dark. Sad to say she is gone!
Me too. I was looking for a BigBladeMan for my 44-94 fretless but got a deal on a used Bigman. Still considering a Blademan for the neck. Someone had swapped in a 2 band pre so I have an Aguilar 3B to install as well.
Brookwood leather makes awesome straps. super comfortable. super quality.
Gecko makes all my straps. Maybe when I finish mod’ing it, I’ll get with John and come up with the perfect strap for it.
Switches are now gone. I routed, drilled, and soldered the night away...
A desire to do away with the volume drop when switching from a single lipstick to both got me looking at fixes. If USPS will hurry up and deliver some knobs, pots, and battery boxes, I can finish what I started!
