The John East preamp club

[DaveAceofBass]

Hi all, I have a few questions for the John East preamp club...
1. Will my J retro 01 deluxe preamp work with Aquilar/Nordstrand/Fralin split pickups (hum cancelling? Any opinions or stories?
2. Is it crazy to suggest using 18v for the preamp? Better to stick with the 9v factory requirement?

Thanks in advance!
Sheent

I have Nordstrand NP5/NJ5SE set in my Kinal MK5B custom with an East preamp setup with 18V. Sounds amazing!

Scored a good deal on a Uni Pre this weekend when they were on sale. I knew it was time to upgrade my Maruszczyk as I just am not happy with the sound. I'm looking forward to having an East onboard!

 

[Diddywah]

Hi all, I have a few questions for the John East preamp club...
1. Will my J retro 01 deluxe preamp work with Aquilar/Nordstrand/Fralin split pickups (hum cancelling? Any opinions or stories?
2. Is it crazy to suggest using 18v for the preamp? Better to stick with the 9v factory requirement?

Thanks in advance!
Sheent

I just put a pair of Nordstrand BigRigs in my Warwick Jack Bruce. I already had a East Uni pre in it. And I am on 9 volts. The John East Uni3 pre was a great improvement over the original MEC 2 band in every possible way! And now adding the Nordstrands and ditching the MEC single coils just opened new horizons sound wise.

 

[J.Wolf]

I love the J tone with my Nordstrand humcancelling J's. As for voltage, I'd stick with the voltage that John uses.

 

[J.Wolf]

I just put a pair of Nordstrand BigRigs in my Warwick Jack Bruce. I already had a East Uni pre in it. And I am on 9 volts. The John East Uni3 pre was a great improvement over the original MEC 2 band in every possible way! And now adding the Nordstrands and ditching the MEC single coils just opened new horizons sound wise.

OT: How do you like the big rigs? I just ordered a set for my 6, but the soundclips/videos dont really give me a great picture of how they sound. Bought some on the recommendation of a few cats I really trust.

 

[DaveAceofBass]

I love the J tone with my Nordstrand humcancelling J's. As for voltage, I'd stick with the voltage that John uses.

9v is fine...but 18v has more headroom. So when you boost frequencies the 18v sounds cleaner.

 

[J.Wolf]

I'd be curious to AB the Uni Pre at 9 and 18v

 

[murphy]

All right then! I am going to pull the trigger on it! And, if need be, i will pull the trigger on a nordy mm 4.2 aswell. Many thanks everyone

I put Nordy 5.2 pickups in my SR5ver....Fantastic pickups

 

[Diddywah]

OT: How do you like the big rigs? I just ordered a set for my 6, but the soundclips/videos dont really give me a great picture of how they sound. Bought some on the recommendation of a few cats I really trust.

The BigRigs compared to the MEC´s that were in the bass? It´s like night and day. I installed the Nordys with the series/parallel/single switching option too. So many tonal options; and all good or great
excuse my crappy cellphone picture..the right switch is for the preamp, the two on the left are for the pickups (and I made a piece of leather to cover the huge holes from the MEC´s)

 

[J.Wolf]

thats killer! PM'ing you

 

[sheeny]

Thanks for the input. Just ordered some Nordstrand splits for my Elite V!

Now to sell my Fender Elite V Noiseless pickups and matching preamp/plate assembly!

 

[DaveAceofBass]

I love the J tone with my Nordstrand humcancelling J's. As for voltage, I'd stick with the voltage that John uses.

I've used both 9v and 18v. Both work fine with no issues. The upcoming install on my Maruszczyk bass will be at 9v. However on my current Kinal and a previous one I went with 18v. The overall sound is the same but doesn't get as muddy if you boost the lows and low mids at the same time. There is more headroom at a higher voltage. Comparable to an amp with 400w vs. one with 800w. The sound is cleaner, but both work fine and it depends on the application to determine if it's necessary. The Maruszczyk has a single 9v battery and I don't want to route an additional battery, but if I had a choice on a bass that has space or is being built I'd suggest 18v. I had 9v on my Modulus I used to own, and have the 9v outboard preamp pedal, so I'm familiar with the difference first hand.

 

[Storius-GVA]

Hi,
I'm a J.East fan already without having my preamp YET!
I'm looking forward to buy it and to add some headroom I'd like to wire it in 18V even if it's a luxury, it's just to avoid any distortion or compressing.

So my question is, how should I wire the batteries to the power input on the uni pre?
Should the batteries come in parallel or in series ?

Great thread,

Keep it alive!

 

[Diddywah]

Hi,
I'm a J.East fan already without having my preamp YET!
I'm looking forward to buy it and to add some headroom I'd like to wire it in 18V even if it's a luxury, it's just to avoid any distortion or compressing.

So my question is, how should I wire the batteries to the power input on the uni pre?
Should the batteries come in parallel or in series ?

Great thread,

Keep it alive!

Parallel 2x9v = 9 V (+ connects to + and - connects to - all the way)
so you are still on 9v but you will have twice the lifetime (about)
Series 2x9V = 18v (+ connect to - on next battery and - to +......)

 

[Eugene.thomas87]

Anyone own both the J-retro 01 and the J-retro deluxe? Currently have both installed. I've always loved the 01 but with the deluxe is another story. Sounds great once I get it dialed in somewhat, but I feel like I'm always tweaking the knobs. I honestly think it's the flat response feature on the deluxe that's the culprit lol. Anyone experienced this?

 

[Eugene.thomas87]

 

[wes stephenson]

Hey guys forgive me if this has been asked already but have any of y'all had to rout out your bass to fit the circuit board for the Uni pre? I just got a really awesome bass but I'm not in love with the stock pre. I bought the JE and it's just not going to fit. FYI It's top routed not rear. I guess my question is did cutting into the bass change the inherent sound of your instrument? Thanks in advance for any help! Also, the John East Pre is the best sounding onboard pre I've ever used!

 

[Diddywah]

Hey guys forgive me if this has been asked already but have any of y'all had to rout out your bass to fit the circuit board for the Uni pre? I just got a really awesome bass but I'm not in love with the stock pre. I bought the JE and it's just not going to fit. FYI It's top routed not rear. I guess my question is did cutting into the bass change the inherent sound of your instrument? Thanks in advance for any help! Also, the John East Pre is the best sounding onboard pre I've ever used!

Hi Wes; the JE Uni is great isn´t it?!
That must be a small cavity if you can´t fit it. I don´t think you´ll notice any difference if you take out a couple of mm of wood on your bass.
I did mine this year, without removing any wood.
You can get a very tidy install with the JE:
Warwick Jack Bruce PS and John East preamp
After this I put in a pair of Nordstrand BigRigs and added two switches for the series/parallel/singel switching they offer. All in the same cavity. All great on my main player now. Still looking for a Callowhill....what bass are you loading with the JE?

 

[Graham Horner]

Hi Guys,
I have been wanting a P retro for a long time and John has said he will build some more, but I guess he is so busy with the new eq's the P retro is way down the list. Has anyone got one they don't want? Ideally it should be the gold finish as my fiesta red P bass is one of the 62 re-issues with gold scratch plate and knobs.
Yes I sold a 1962 fiesta red in 1969 for £40 to,by a pram for my new daughter !

 

[wes stephenson]

Hi Wes; the JE Uni is great isn´t it?!
That must be a small cavity if you can´t fit it. I don´t think you´ll notice any difference if you take out a couple of mm of wood on your bass.
I did mine this year, without removing any wood.
You can get a very tidy install with the JE:
Warwick Jack Bruce PS and John East preamp
After this I put in a pair of Nordstrand BigRigs and added two switches for the series/parallel/singel switching they offer. All in the same cavity. All great on my main player now. Still looking for a Callowhill....what bass are you loading with the JE?

Yeah the routing is in the top and not on the back so it's pretty small. Way smaller than a typical back routing. I'm loading it into a Performance YB 5/24

 

[wes stephenson]

Also, can anybody describe the upper and lower bass freq control wheels on the circuit board? Have any of y'all fooled with those? Or do any of y'all have a link to somebody demoing the circuit board in detail?