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New Preamp for MTD KIngston Z6

M

mrTristan

Jul 9, 2008
40
0
#1
I recently bought a Kingston Z6 and absolutely love it. The feel, look and sound is awesome but i was thinking of upgrading the preamp for it. I have been reading around on here and it seems the general idea is that the electronics are the only thing letting a Kingston down and everyone seems to get Nordstrands put in instead which ends up massively improving what is already a great bass.
Im wondering what sort of Nordtrand preamp is the way to go, or if there is any other ideas anyone has. I'm after something possibly with a Passive/active switch and preferrably no stacked knobs. I like the single knob layout that the MTD already has.

Also, is it just as important to swap pickups for the bass as well? I was hoping to avoid it because i really like the wood cover finish on the ones that came in the bass, but if its worthwhile i guess i can put aesthetics aside :P
 
#2
The preamp i have my eye on at the moment is the 3b5b.
Volume (pull passive)
- Blend
- Passive Tone
- Mid (pull frequency selector)
- Treble/Bass Stack

i know its got a stacked knob but i figure the passive tone blend is a nice addition to sacrifice the look haha.
 
#3
The way to find out if your preamp is bottlenecking your tone is to wire your blend pot straight to the jack. If you find that your tone improves to your liking then a simple preamp change should do the job. Just find a preamp that has the features you are looking for, doesn't have to be a particular brand.

If you find that the passive tone of the bass still isn't that great then you will probably want to look for new pickups or a different bass. I've played a stock kz6 and they don't sound bad they are just not all that versitile.

I run a kz6 with smith pickups and and aguilar obp-3 and absolutly love it. Plenty versitile. I'm not sure if the stock kz6 pickups are dual coil but the parallel/single coil/series switches is a very worthwhile mod. As far as sacrifieced looks of the stock pup covers. IMO the kz's look a heck of a lot better with black pickups and hardware seems to contrast the finish better.

SANY0139-1.jpg
 
#4
Thanks for this, and yeah the series/parallel/single coil switch was something i was also wondering about. Is this a feature that comes with particular pickups or is it a seperate mod all together?
Im only just starting to get into this whole pre amp, pickup customising thing so im only just now beginning to get my head around it all haha
 
#5
The switches are something you can add to any dual coil pickups that have 4 or 5 leads coming from the pickup. Basically all it does is changes the way the pickups are wired. In my case parallel is clean and articulate very modern, single coil is more airy sounding more full range kind of j-bassy, and series is hotter less high end more lows and low mids. All of this happens before you signal reaches your preamp so you can dial in a nice array of tones just using the switches and blend knob.

In most cases switches are added separately. You don't have to try to do a complete overhaul of the electronics at once. Most people i've seen have been satisfied with a simple preamp change on the mtd kz's but others choose to change the pickups also. Nordstrand and bartolini seem to be the main two people choose in these basses but you can use any P4 shaped pickup.
 
#8
awesome thanks, ill look into that. I've been looking around and now have my eye on a Bartolini preamp with a set of Nordstrand DC's. The bart comes with an active/passive push pull knob and im going to talk to my local techy about getting the pickup switches and if possible a master one to control both. Ill see what he has to say
 
#10
For each pickups coils. So it will be like flipping both pickups' switches at the same time. I spoke to our local tech dude today and he says he'll be able to do it no worries.
For interests sake what would be the benefits of running the pickups in series and parallel? What are the changes in tone you can get doing that?
 
#11
I just had a thought: If there were two series/single coil/parallel switches, one for each pickup, and then a third 'master' switch to override and control both, would this work if i had, say, the bridge pickup switched to series and the neck to parallel? or would both switches need to be in the same position in order for the master to work?
If thats the case, would it be worth while only getting a single master switch in place of the other two?
 
#14
Well I put an aluminum hipshot B bridge on my kz6 mainly because I didn't like how the stock bridge didn't have any outer boundaries. I changed strings at the same time so if there was any tonal differences I wouldn't have noticed.

As far as tuning pegs there is nothing wrong with the original ones but I am planning on changing simply for aesthetics as most of my hardware is now black which is who It should be IMO. I want to get wilkinson open gears but I can't find treble side , so I might have to bite the bullet and get the hipshots.
 
#15
3506string said:
Well I put an aluminum hipshot B bridge on my kz6 mainly because I didn't like how the stock bridge didn't have any outer boundaries. I changed strings at the same time so if there was any tonal differences I wouldn't have noticed.

As far as tuning pegs there is nothing wrong with the original ones but I am planning on changing simply for aesthetics as most of my hardware is now black which is who It should be IMO. I want to get wilkinson open gears but I can't find treble side , so I might have to bite the bullet and get the hipshots.
Click to expand...

Well It looks awesome so far. I have that same finish in a 5 string. I actually am getting the Bartolini pickups/preamp and switches put in this weekend along with a brass black hipshot bridge. CANT WAIT. Only thing left will be the tuners and Im just not sure which ones to go with but my top choices are Gotoh or Hipshots, I will have to look into the wilkinsons. I will put up pics when im done! THANKS
 
#16
3506string said:
Well I put an aluminum hipshot B bridge on my kz6 mainly because I didn't like how the stock bridge didn't have any outer boundaries. I changed strings at the same time so if there was any tonal differences I wouldn't have noticed.

As far as tuning pegs there is nothing wrong with the original ones but I am planning on changing simply for aesthetics as most of my hardware is now black which is who It should be IMO. I want to get wilkinson open gears but I can't find treble side , so I might have to bite the bullet and get the hipshots.
Click to expand...



This is the Brass Hipshot I got put on
 

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