Replacing active MEC pickups with passive barts.

[Chaser1]

Hey I have a question and it may be kinda dumb but I have no idea and a bunch of googling hasn't helped. I am swapping out a set of active MEC pickups run through an Active preamp with a set of passive single coil bartolini classic bass deep jazz pickups. The only thing that is confusing on the wiring is what do I do with the red wire coming off the Active pickups that goes to the battery. I have attached a pic of the wiring. If you can make out the red wire comes off both pickups and then meets inside a black tube( I could cut it off but am wary until I ask.) Then out the other side one end goes to the pre and the other the battery clip. When I pull out and replace the pickup what happens with the two red wires off the pickup, do I snip them and solder them together to make the circuit? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[tubehead2]

Hmmmm....

With the old circuit, you should have 3 red wires.
Two from the pickup and one from the preamp.

What you should do is remove two red wires from the pickup
and keep the red wire from the preamp connected to battery.

Cut the two red wires off at the point where it meet with the preamp red wire and battery.

I am not sure but you should check if the pan pot in your bass is 250K?
Coz your new bart use 250K and I think MEC active should come with 25K.

And Please post the review of the tone change after ur succeed ^^
I am about to have pickup modify in my WW steamer stage 2 too.

 

[eukatheude]

Yeah you will also most likely need to change the pots.

 

[Chaser1]

Thanks for the response. I looked a little into it and I would have to switch the blend pot out. As far as I can see the others will be fine.

I am almost thinking at this point I might upgrade the preamp as well. Seeing as I am going bartolini pickups I had looked at the 3 band bartolini NTMB4.6. Which would add the push pull for active and passive and give me the ability to adjust my mids. Does anyone have any experience with a full Bart setup or is there another pre anyone would recommend looking at.

 

[eukatheude]

Look into Aguilar's OPB and EMG's BCQ, i think the price is pretty much the same. A version of the EMG also gives you sweepable midrange.

 

[DaveyM69]

Does anyone have any experience with a full Bart setup or is there another pre anyone would recommend looking at.

A couple of weeks ago I installed the NTMB 5.2, the bass already had stock Bart PUs, sounds great

The 250Hz mid setting (no cap) in particular is fantastic! The second setting, 800Hz, isn't as useful for me, I think it's aimed at slappers. Gonna change the .1uF cap out to a lower value (.033uF) and try 500Hz.

 

[tubehead2]

For me, Bart pu+ preamp are too warm and mid-bass boost.
I am afraid it will kill warwick unique, making the bass sounds polite.

I am about to have my WW steamer st 2 new pickup too.
The MEC pu+pre are too noisy, I can hear radio from my amp.
I think I go Delano and play it passive.