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replacement PUs and Pre for Ibanez SRFF800

Punkbeard

Punkbeard

Feb 20, 2017
53
83
#1
Hi all just want to hopefully get some input and pick the large collective brain that is TB!

Title says it all really.
I own an Ibanez SRFF800 (4 string) which has been in a case in the cupboard for most of the year as i havent needed it and due to a new project on the horizon ive fetched it back out and dusted it off for some Drop tuning stuff only ive noticed a problem, namely quite strong microphonics, now this bass has always had a slight problem with that, i bought it used and its been heavily gigged. the guy i use as my tech has said its likely a loose coil in the pickup or similar and becuase im not a massive fan of the BH1s in this bass anyway ive decided to change all the electronics, plus theyre potted in and i dont think its worth the work to potentially fix them if im not a fan of them.

So... the rout size seems to be like 108mm x 34mm roughly and the knobs on the body atm are for the 3band EQ, volume, pickup balance and also 2 switches, one for mids freq and one for passive mode toggle, now thats a hefty amount of on board control, does anyone know of any decent preamps that I can fire in there and pickups to go with it that will all be compatible, ive had a look but its been slightly confusing as the only tech stuff ive done myself previously has all been on passive fender style setups and im not 100% sure if all those controls need to go through the preamp, if i need to make sure the pickups are passive compatible for the passive toggle switch etc?.

sorry if im confused about anything, like i say im just looking for some opinions and anyone with knowledge to chime in and shed some light so i can move forwards with a full rewire and full electronics replacement. im quite partial to both EMGs and the Bartolinis in my 5 string Ibby but theyre BH2s i believe.

Thanks for taking the time to read =D.
 
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#2
The SRFF800 isn't equipped with Bartolini BH1 pickups. The 5 and 6 strings SRFF805 and SRFF806 models do, but not the 4 string SRFF800 model. The pickups are the BH2s like the ones on your 5 string Ibanez.

I own a couple of Ibanez basses with BH1 pickups and AAOF I've been gigging with one of them in the last 5 years. And just early this year I got the latest Ibanez headless bass that came with the BH2s. Both BH1 and BH2 pickups are passive dual coils, but have a silght different tonality. Physically dimensions are also different, being the BH1 is fixed at 125 x 29 mm², regardless on how many strings need to be sensed on the bass, whilst the BH2 dimensions are varies according on how wide the sensing area needs to be. Like on yours, 108 x 34 mm² is basically an MK or a P2 size, which happens to have many pickup builders had already made pickups in the P2 or MK size.
 
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#3
Thanks for your reply, and you are right about the BH2s on my SRFF800, id always thought they were 1s but just today when scouring the Ibanez website trying to find out any info on the preamp that's in it I found out that yes they are BH2s, but either way I think it's the pickups causing the issue with the microphonics, and thanks for the heads up on the pickup info and size, just something that will fit nicely into the routs will do fine so I'll have a look.

How odd it is that my SR675 and SRFF800 sound so different having the same pickups, I'm gonna put it down to preamp possibly, the SR675 is leaps ahead in terms of overall tone and sound but then, it could just be that my SRFF800s pickups are battered, old and partly knackered =)
 
#4
Punkbeard said:
Thanks for your reply, and you are right about the BH2s on my SRFF800, id always thought they were 1s but just today when scouring the Ibanez website trying to find out any info on the preamp that's in it I found out that yes they are BH2s, but either way I think it's the pickups causing the issue with the microphonics, and thanks for the heads up on the pickup info and size, just something that will fit nicely into the routs will do fine so I'll have a look.

How odd it is that my SR675 and SRFF800 sound so different having the same pickups, I'm gonna put it down to preamp possibly, the SR675 is leaps ahead in terms of overall tone and sound but then, it could just be that my SRFF800s pickups are battered, old and partly knackered =)
Click to expand...
Believe it or not, but the preamp inside your SRFF is also the same Ibanez BEQ3 preamp as in your SR675. You can click the following links which go to hossinogakki website and click "Open Used Item List" link inside to learn that these preamp modules are the standards inside both of your basses:
Main PCB module
Volume / Balancer module
Bass / Treble module
Selectable Mid module

The only difference is the SR675 doesn't have preamp bypass switch and the one used on the SRFF is the following:
Bass / Treble / Bypass module
But it shouldn't affect the tone shaping, cause the Bass and Treble frequencies are the same as the one without the preamp bypass switch.
 
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