Looking for Electronics Advice on Carvin LB75 Swap

[adam_Fenton123]

Ive seen lot of Carvin fans in here swapping out their electronics for some higher priced $$ options to get a near boutique bass for a great price. I've just purchased this badboy: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/carvin-lb75-with-case-in-very-good-condition.1092208/

Basically I've heard there is a great combo of Nordstrand and Audere Pro Z, in terms of great tone choices from the Pre-amp and obviously the Nodrstrands wide range of PUP's available. How easy is making this transition from what is an active bass (maybe has a passive switch?) to this nordstrand/audere proz combo which is passive I believe?

In terms of sound I am going for- I don't want to lose that bottom end, but I'm not hellbent on having the warmest/fattest tone. I just like the versatility this aforementioned combo seems to offer. Heard good things about 'Big Splits' ruled out SDG for the obvious reasons noted in other forums threads.

All advice/help appreciated- I'll be paying someone to do the swap/setup for me. I'm also probably going to tune it E-C. It might seem a bit irrational to swap out the b string and the PUP's/pre-amp before I've heard it played, but I'm only in the states for around 10 days so seems like a good time to do it all in one swoop.

Cheers TB'rs

 

[Jared Lash]

I'm always in favor of playing an instrument with it's stock setup for a while before decided to swap out the electronics. That said, if you've made up your mind to do a swap you have a few options, especially since you have the 17mm bridge spacing.

The bass you've linked to is a J/MM setup so you couldn't do the Nordstrand Big Splits unless you were wanting to do a lot of routing and leave some open space around the bridge. That said, Nordstrand's MM pickup is really nice and you could pair it with one of their humcancelling jazz pickups in the neck. Then add either their normal 2 or 3 band preamp or even a modded version of their MM preamp. The switch that's already on your bass could switch the MM pickup between series and parallel.

Delano would be another one that I would check out. A JMVC 5 FE in the neck and MC 5 FE/J would give a nice modern/aggressive tone. Or a JC 5 HE and MC 5 HE would give you a smoother, thicker tone. I personally love the JC 5 HE pickups. You could pair them with Delano's Sonar preamp or anything else you choose. Maybe a Glockenklang for transparency or Aguilar for a bit more color.

Lakland sells their complete setup from the 55-04 basses with the J/MM setup and their preamp. I've always loved how those basses sounded.

Other options would be Aguilar, Bartolini, or EMG who all make either J/MM sets or separate J & MM pickups that you could pair together.

Probably the best thing to do is pin down the actual sound you want and then send an email to the guys at Best Bass Gear and they'll get you hooked up.

 

[adam_Fenton123]

Top Man! Awesome advice, really appreciate it. Yeh, I am thinking I may hold off on them and see if I can get the tone I want, it's just ideal as I am in the states briefly and your stuff is cheaper and works favourably with the UK sterling

It seems that Carvin electronics don't have a great rep, and for the outlay of labour and parts, I'm turning a great bass into a top, top bass.

I think the MM with Jazz will sound great too- it's almost fitting that was the original combo in place. The Nordstrand MM 5.4 looks top. I have heard about those Delano's so I'll dig into them too. I nearly bought a Lakland over the Carvin, but I prefer narrow spacing.

I'll let you know how the project got on. Just joined TB a month ago- awesome place!