My Schecter

I have the same exact bass and I personally like the sound of the EMG's. Have you tried raising and lowering the pickups to balance out the volume differences in the strings?

 

i have a C-4 as well, and though I have thought many times about modding the electronics, I never got around to actually doing it. The EMG HZ pickups arent amazing sounding, but I dislike the preamp alot more than the pickpus. If I were to mod the electronics in mine though, I would put maybe an aguilar preamp in place of the EMG one, and either active EMG's or bartolini pickups in place of the EMG HZ pickups.

one thing the HZ does do well though, is that mine are COMPLETELY silent. no noise AT ALL. they just arent a very fat sounding pickup... very thin sounding. the preamp is worse to me though. I hate the nasally sound I get when I dont cut the treble out all the way, and i usually have to boost the bass all the way to get it to a decent level... Also, the blend put works horribly, its more of a pickup selector switch than an actual "blend" pot.

as far as the C-4 goes though, I love mine. I play an american deluxe jazz V now, but i have no intention to ever sell my C-4. It was my first bass, and a damn good one for the price at that. the neck is great on mine as well.

just remember the golden rule: if it aint broken, dont fix it.

before you actually get any work done on the electronics, make sure you REALLY want to spend that kind of money on changing the sound of the bass.

 

I think he was saying to try loosening the mounting screws on the treble side of the pickups a bit thereby bringing the pickup closer to the string and "thickening" the sound.

There are dip switches on the preamp (inside the control cavity) that you can use to select a few different center frequencies for the treble control. The EMG website has documentation for that.

 

Dude if you don't even know how to do that you probably don't wanna go switching those pickups by yourself, you might have to rewire it.

 

I actually modded my C4 at one point with Bartolini pups and pre and didn't like it at all. Ended up putting the EMG pups and pre right back in. I have found that it really depends on which amp/cab I use with it. Some work great, some don't. I've never been a huge fan of the C4 solo'd, but love it in a band mix. One of my favorite all time basses. Nice and deep with lots of punch and cut. And so comfortable and light.

That being said, my cover band recently did a 3 song demo, and I used the C4 just plugged straight into the board with no effects etc added to the bass mix. Just the bass plugged straight in. I was really pleased with the end result. Check it out if you want - hopefully not on laptop speakers www.thisistwisted.com

 

I like EMG's, but do not like their passive HZ's. I have a Schecter Stiletto Custom 5 and make do with the electronics. Mainly because I can make adjustments with either of my bass rigs to overcome the onboard electronics.

Here is a setup that I suggest will wake up that bass. We did this in my nephews ESP that came with EMG-HZs.

Get a set of Seymour Duncan SSB-4 pickups. You can get a pair for $116 (thats really cheap) Here

They have great tone - low end, mid and highs are all there.
They are paired with the stock ESP G & B 3 band preamp. I think this is a very punchy and versatile preamp. And you can dial in any thing you want. It is very low cost as well its $49.99 here.
Then you may want to find a local luthier to do an install. Shouldnt cost too muc.

You will enjoy this punchy setup. The 3 band EQ gives you a lot more versatility.

 

It sounds really good on your site. Plugging in to the board helps because they can really get any sound you want regardless. I think he wants a crisper overall sound. The EMG-HZ setup in the Schecters is bassy and nasally. The stock electronics package dont offer much in terms of "adjustablity"
Its OK if you can makeup for the onboard electronic shortcomings via your amp.
That being said Schecter makes great gear for the price!