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Music Man sound and pickups

#741
I have had an awesome experience with Nordstrand getting a custom MM5.4 to fit my now main bass - Dillion VMB-500. The bass is a clone of a '79 MusicMan 'Ray with an extra string in nearly the same dimensions as a 4 stringer! Love this bass.

BUT Love it more since getting the pickup in place. I'm shocked at how much this one change improved the overall balance and tone of the bass. The best way to explain it is that there is more of everything to work with. Clearly the original pickup (which wasn't all that bad to be honest) had a distinct tone that was missing clarity and definition in the mids that no amount of EQ would enhance. Now, WOW.

So as a benchmark through my build (should really post more details of it) I compared the sound to a 2009 'Ray 3EQ. I built a pre and used the stock pickup and the sound was really quite close to the "real deal", like really close. After the swap, well, I've sold the "real deal" as this ended up even better than it! Quite shocked actually, I wasn't expecting it to be "better" in the end, but soooo glad I did the work. I've had the bass out during all of the changes at various points (ie just a passive stock bass, then pre amp in, then pickup.). Each time before the pickup it was okay, drummer noticed it was different initially, but never really got tone compliments. Then, with the pickup, unprompted, was getting: "wow, what did you do to your rig? It sounds amazing!?" All the pedals and tweaks I've been through have not made this much of a difference.

Again, if you need something to really bring out clarity or need a custom fitted pickup, go Nordstrand. They were easy to work with and didn't charge a whole lot for a custom build. They squeezed a MM5.4 into a 4 string cover size, and set custom pole spacing. Couldn't be happier with the service or product!!
 
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#742
I am trying to put an 83 Cutlass back together so if someone has a blown or non working 2 band 70s to 80s Stingray pre I would be interested in it. Or a working one of course. Thankyou
 
#743
Rano Bass said:
EBMM Sterlings are not just wired in series, they have a 3 way switch for series- single coil- parallel just like the Stingray 5.

On two pickup basses they are wired in series for the Sterling 4 and 5 and parallel for the Stingray 4 and 5.
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also, on the newer USA Sterling's -- they have a ceramic pickup -- the EB MM Stingrays - USA have an alnico pickup - according to their website - I have both and I can tell the difference in both 4 and 5 strings
 
#746
Darkstrike said:
Good idea for a sticky! :cool:

FWIW, Seymour Duncan does a MM preamp as well(like the East you have 3 knob or 4 knob options) that's supposed to sound pretty dang good.

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Click to expand...
Just to bring some light on this SD-preamp, I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this in the previous 38 pages....

I have used this preamp in my '94 3-band Stingray. It sounds a bit mellower than the EB 3-band, and when speaking with SD tech support about the preamp, they said that their engineers took all the good stuff out of the EB 2-band preamp and created a 3-band out of it. This was perfect since at the time, I was looking to get some of the harshness out of the high end of the bass. It now, I have come to embrace the original again.

The preamp also has SD's proprietary mid-cut "slap" switch incorporated as a push/pull volume pot. The amount of mid-scoop can be adjusted via a trim pot on the main circuit board. There is also a gain trim pot right beside the mid cut adjustment. It can be ordered as a 4-knob or 3-knob with a stacked treble/bass pot.

Music Man Active Preamp

Music Man Active Preamp

Although this preamp is designed for a single-pickup Stingray bass, meaning it doesn't come with a blend pot for a two-pickup application, one can easily be incorporated.

The reason I was talking to SD tech support in the first place was that after the preamp was installed, I was experiencing a lot of noise in the signal. This is because the original Music Man pickup needed to have its pole pieces grounded. This was easily done by placing a strip of copper tape over the bottoms of the pole pieces of each coil and carefully soldering a grounding wire to the tape, then solder to ground. Aftermarket 4-wire pickups already use a bare grounding wire in the shielded group of color-coded wires.

Since I absolutely love the Stingray tone and try to install at least one MM-type pickup in all my basses, this preamp is a wonderful thing and costs about half of the John east preamp, if budget is a major issue...like it is in all of my situations...
 
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#747
I wouldn't trust any SD preamp. they use cheap junk crap Lelon capacitors then have the nerve to charge you $150 for the preamp. a top quality capacitor would cost no more than 25 cents. If they use capacitors that cheap you have to question the quality of the other components.
 
#749
Don'
TonyP- said:
Music Man sound and pickups

Just to address some of the many posts as of recent regarding Music Man sound and pickups.

I feel there are 3 main attributes that contribute to the tone of a Music Man.
1. The larger humbucking (or dual coil) style pickup
2. The ‘sweet spot’ placing of that pickup
3. The EBMM preamp

You can get the majority of the tone IMHO with pickup and placing. Some manufactures do offer models like this the Modulus Funk Unlimited bass (previously known as the Flea bass) ,ect.

On EBMM preamp and parts:

The EBMM preamp IMHO (and many others as well) feel the preamp is the icing on the cake of the “MM” tone. (Not that having the other pres are bad…this is just in reference to nailing the EBMM tone itself) and the preamps are proprietary.

In general EBMM preamps appear to have more an effect on the natural tone of the bass then say several other after marked preamps (Ex: Bartolini, Aguliar, ect)

Note: EBMM does not sell aftermarket parts (pickups and preamps) the do repair and if necessary replace original EBMM parts that where stock on instrument. Nor will they modify your original EBMM bass with anything additional (EX: The will not modify your original Stingray 4 H to a HH model).

Aftermarket parts:

Nordstrand makes a dual coil and a quad coil MM style pickups in both 4 and 5 string. These are my personal favorite since they use wire, magnets and DC resistance as the original Music Man pickups.
http://www.nordstrandpickups.com/bass-pickups/modern/

Seymour Duncan makes both alnico (Stingray) and ceramic (Sterling) replacements in both 4 and 5 http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/basslines/

John East makes some MM style preamps that where designed with the characteristics very similar to the original MM Stingray preamp (with and without the plates).
Invalid Link Removed

(There are others out there as well I just wanted to tip the iceberg of the most common post your experiences)

Additional information (various)

Some of this might be common knowledge to some players, so bare with me. This sticky is to address some of the common questions that do pop up.

Standard wiring and pickups are (with some exceptions with the wiring)

EBMM Stingrays: wired in parallel and use alnico pickup(s)
EBMM Sterlings: wired in series and use ceramic pickup(s)
H=Humbucking, HH=Dual Humbucking , HS=Humbucking&Single
Click to expand...

don't forget that the sterling uses a switch on the H model that allows it to go from series to parallel to coil tapped. That's another part of that model.
 
#750
Lachlan Legge said:
Don'


don't forget that the sterling uses a switch on the H model that allows it to go from series to parallel to coil tapped. That's another part of that model.
Click to expand...
Aghhh...I wrote this over 6.5 years ago and at high level geared more to Stingrays.
Have a great day.
 
#755
bdplaid said:
I'm looking for a MM 4 string pickup. Whose do you think is most close to the original sound, like RHCP's Aeroplane?
Click to expand...
Easy the regular winding Nordstrand MM replacmemt
 
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#757
TonyP- said:
Easy the regular winding Nordstrand MM replacmemt
Click to expand...

bdplaid said:
The Nord is at the top of the list, but looking to see what else is out there. Thx!
Click to expand...

I agree re Nordstrand....love my alnico mm5, .5.2?..that replaced my SR5vers ceramic

converted to an HS ...burying half neck pickup under the pickguard....
added pickup selector three way blade

but added a Nordstrand 2bMM preamp as my pre died

and added EMG vari mid....for fun.....Love it

IMG_2211.JPG
 
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#759
Does anyone know if the pickup in the old USA-made S.U.B. 4-strings were alnico or ceramic?

I've added a series/parallel/single coil mini-toggle on mine and find it a vast improvement. The series setting gets that extra growl in the midrange that I was lacking with the 2-band EQ.
 
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