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Music Man sound and pickups

#265
I recently saw a demo of the Hanson LH3 system (pickups and pre) Lakland is putting them in the 55-94 and 55-02's. They just about nail jazz bass and MM tones. Thinking about upgrading my Brute with this package.
 
#266
Very recently I wired a Aguilar OBP-3 and Delano Ferrite(ceramic) pickup into my Gadow, proper aggressive sound, which is what I wanted. Treble rolled back gives me the warmer MM sound though.

Fit my East MMSR to a Cort, with a Bassline ceramic pickup, it's a touch too close to the bridge, but the warmth of the East pre with the bass dial in it's centre detent counters it, so it does get quite the MM vibe too. Rolling the bass back 30-40% gives me the standard bridge pickup voicing options.


Have a Nordie 5.2 to spare at the moment, have to do something about that, something fretless I think....
 
#269
Ok, I finally got a chance to try out the Nordy MM4.2 comparing it to the stock EBMM pickup in the same bass.

All of this is wired in standard parallel in a standard 3-band EQ:

The Nordy MM4.2 has a more "refined" & "warm" sound, while still remaining 100% Stingray. No Bartolini sound - I don't mean refined like that.

The EBMM stock pickup has a bigger bottom end, and an accentuated upper mid & treble response, yielding a slight low mid scoop. The MM4.2 on the other hand has a thicker low mid, and a tighter (less bloomy) bottom end. The MM4.2 upper mid & treble response is still very much “Stingray”, but no over the top “clicky” and harsh as the stock EBMM. I was one that always had a love/hate relationship with Stingray’s for the overly hyped top end. Sometimes I thought it was awesome, but most of the time it was annoying and I always tried to dial it out with EQ. The Nordy MM4.2 dials that out just right, leaving the EQ flat.

Overall the MM4.2 is warmer, thicker sounding that is still pretty aggressive "Stingray Tone". It dials out that hyped, harsh high end and thickens up the low mids & tightens the bottom end. The bottom end isn’t as big/fat as the stock EBMM – but the overall pickup tone is more even. The stock EBMM pickup has a noticeable scoop… big bottom & hyped high’s.

Overall - I love it the Nordy MM4.2. Cured my love/hate relationship with the Music Man Stingray. :)
 
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#270
I was wondering what musicman replacement pickups have that aggressive tone with a somewhat harsh high end like a Sterling pickup. I quite like that tone that not alot of you seem to like. Also, is there a difference between the pickups and preamp they use in sterling ray 34's and the EBMM stingrays. I found that all the Ray 34's that I've tested sounds more aggressive than the EBMM stingrays at the same settings (treble and bass all the way up, mids slightly scooped) which I quite liked. The EBMM Stingrays are of the 3 band variety by the way. It's just something I am really curious about.
 
#273
Here's a Maestro Stingray clone that I bought. It is sort of like the OLP Stingray clones in that it is made in the far east and comes wired passive. I leveled and dressed the frets, added a string tree, and put in a 4 band Audere preamp. I wired the preamp so balance control goes from Single coil neck to humbucker to single coil bridge. When I set the balance to single coil bridge and boost the high mids, low mids, and bass, and cut the treble it gets an awesome Fender type tone that is to die for. It out Fenders my jazz and p-basses. It is one of my favorite basses to play these days.

mm5%20001.jpg
 
#276
Hi,i have a Stingray 5,year 2011,with alnico pickup and John East 2 band preamp
The bass sound so better than stock preamp version
But i hava a question...there's a pickup that sound better than stock pickup?
Has anyone ever put a Seymour Duncan pickup in alnico?
There are difference than stock pickup?
The g string sound fuller?
Thanks
 
#277
lukiluk said:
Hi,i have a Stingray 5,year 2011,with alnico pickup and John East 2 band preamp
The bass sound so better than stock preamp version
But i hava a question...there's a pickup that sound better than stock pickup?
Has anyone ever put a Seymour Duncan pickup in alnico?
There are difference than stock pickup?
The g string sound fuller?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Since MM is the perceived "desired" sound, anything you do to change that degrades the sound.
You can't make something better that is the already the best.
(If your idea of "best" is the MM sound)
 
#278
mcnach said:
You wire it as you like, parallel or series.
Click to expand...

Also, what preamp would go well with the ceramic pickup? Preferably a 3-band one. Aiming for an aggressive sterling/ray and a Tool type sound. Or would an ACG filter preamp get me close? I would like it to sound mean and aggressive when I hit the lower strings like Justin Chancellor's Lateralus/10,000 days tone, not sound all dampened and dead like the other basses (Ibanezes, Yamahas, P-basses, 2-band Rays) I've tried. I'm not aiming for exact tone, I'm aiming for close enough as I don't really want to buy a Wal and all JC's rig. This is also a project bass I'm going to start soon, so close enough is fine.
 
#279
I have a two different 3 band preamps in two of my OLPs. Both are copper shielded and have GHS round Bass Boomers.
OLP1.jpg

this one has the Seymour Duncan Basslines pickup and preamp setup. Also has the "Slap Switch" which I rarely use.
OLP2.jpg


this one has the Tone Monster 3 band preamp and I also added a Kent Armstrong pickup. Added a 3 way switch for Series, Parallel, and Phase Inversion. It's also ceramic.
OLP3.jpg

This one sounds exactly like my buddies EBMM. I don't know the year but it's a real Stingray.

Though I'm waiting on my new SUB to arrive I don't see me getting rid of either of these.
 

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