The John East preamp club

[ctmullins]

John East can describe them for you: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[ctmullins]

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 !

For Sale - John East P-Retro

 

[wes stephenson]

John East can describe them for you: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Sure. I read that. I'm not super techy. It's not a badge of honor but a legitimate declaration of ignorance. I don't understand how the bass knob and the upper and lower bass freq "window" thing (combined with the wheels) work together. I'm honestly just asking for somebody to post a link to a video demonstration or a more detailed printed explanation if they have or know of one. Or if you can clearly explain it I'd love to hear that too. Thanks!

 

[Storius-GVA]

Sure. I read that. I'm not super techy. It's not a badge of honor but a legitimate declaration of ignorance. I don't understand how the bass knob and the upper and lower bass freq "window" thing (combined with the wheels) work together. I'm honestly just asking for somebody to post a link to a video demonstration or a more detailed printed explanation if they have or know of one. Or if you can clearly explain it I'd love to hear that too. Thanks!

So here are a few tech EQ words that are important to understand the bass window feature.
Shelf: can be high or low or whatever frequencies you want, it has a Frequency Value and then everything underneath or above is boosted of a decided amount (gain)
Example bass shelf at 40Hz with +4dB: everything underneath 40Hz is boosted at the same value, then after 40Hz, it goes back to flat.
This is the kind of EQ setting there's in most onboard Preamps and it's what makes the East so great to me, because all the preamps I've tested always had super low frequency for bass and it makes the sound very muddy.

Now there's another type of EQ setting it's called the Band EQ or Peak EQ:
Basically there's a frequency chosen to be boosted or cutted, and a bandwidth (also called Q) that's going to affect how you're affecting the frequencies around the selected one.
For example: 250hz band EQ at +4dB with a tight bandwidth: imagine a spike at 250Hz almost like a needle.
If you enlarge the bandwidth, you go from a spike to a wave.

So to come back to the East, the bass window settings are opening at 20 up to 80 Hz for the lower part of the bass window and closing at 40 up to 200 for the higher setting.
Lower setting controls when your bass window starts. High setting controls when it finishes.
(Technically there's an impossible spot like open at 80 and close at 40... )

So it means you have a band EQ for your bass with appropriate settings. You can go LOW at:
20 - 40 Hz (medium bandwidth) and then the knob you have on your bass for bass will control the gain of bass...
Or you can go super large bandwidth at
40 to 200 Hz, which comes into the lower mids area.
Or you can put a meaty solid bass setting without having sub-frequencies at: 60 - 100 Hz or 80 - 100 Hz.

But if anyone played with these settings could they tell us what settings they have chosen?

I hope my explanation was clear enough for you to understand this great East feature.

 

[DaveAceofBass]

So here are a few tech EQ words that are important to understand the bass window feature.
Shelf: can be high or low or whatever frequencies you want, it has a Frequency Value and then everything underneath or above is boosted of a decided amount (gain)
Example bass shelf at 40Hz with +4dB: everything underneath 40Hz is boosted at the same value, then after 40Hz, it goes back to flat.
This is the kind of EQ setting there's in most onboard Preamps and it's what makes the East so great to me, because all the preamps I've tested always had super low frequency for bass and it makes the sound very muddy.

Now there's another type of EQ setting it's called the Band EQ or Peak EQ:
Basically there's a frequency chosen to be boosted or cutted, and a bandwidth (also called Q) that's going to affect how you're affecting the frequencies around the selected one.
For example: 250hz band EQ at +4dB with a tight bandwidth: imagine a spike at 250Hz almost like a needle.
If you enlarge the bandwidth, you go from a spike to a wave.

So to come back to the East, the bass window settings are opening at 20 up to 80 Hz for the lower part of the bass window and closing at 40 up to 200 for the higher setting.
Lower setting controls when your bass window starts. High setting controls when it finishes.
(Technically there's an impossible spot like open at 80 and close at 40... )

So it means you have a band EQ for your bass with appropriate settings. You can go LOW at:
20 - 40 Hz (medium bandwidth) and then the knob you have on your bass for bass will control the gain of bass...
Or you can go super large bandwidth at
40 to 200 Hz, which comes into the lower mids area.
Or you can put a meaty solid bass setting without having sub-frequencies at: 60 - 100 Hz or 80 - 100 Hz.

But if anyone played with these settings could they tell us what settings they have chosen?

I hope my explanation was clear enough for you to understand this great East feature.

Are there any indication on the white wheels what frequency is selected, or do we do it by ear? I have a Uni-Pre getting installed on my bass.

 

[Storius-GVA]

Are there any indication on the white wheels what frequency is selected, or do we do it by ear? I have a Uni-Pre getting installed on my bass.

That I don't know but the factory settings can be found on the PDF (page 6):

-flat response
-mid control ON
-Bass window : 20-60Hz / boost and cut
-treble shelf frequency 4kHz

There's no mention about the wheels settings but I suppose CW would go up in frequency.
But as I don't have one yet, I don't know how they work exactly. Is there a limit to the wheel's angle?
There's letters written above the white wheel but what do they correspond to?
When seen in this angle on the picture:

 

[wes stephenson]

So here are a few tech EQ words that are important to understand the bass window feature.
Shelf: can be high or low or whatever frequencies you want, it has a Frequency Value and then everything underneath or above is boosted of a decided amount (gain)
Example bass shelf at 40Hz with +4dB: everything underneath 40Hz is boosted at the same value, then after 40Hz, it goes back to flat.
This is the kind of EQ setting there's in most onboard Preamps and it's what makes the East so great to me, because all the preamps I've tested always had super low frequency for bass and it makes the sound very muddy.

Now there's another type of EQ setting it's called the Band EQ or Peak EQ:
Basically there's a frequency chosen to be boosted or cutted, and a bandwidth (also called Q) that's going to affect how you're affecting the frequencies around the selected one.
For example: 250hz band EQ at +4dB with a tight bandwidth: imagine a spike at 250Hz almost like a needle.
If you enlarge the bandwidth, you go from a spike to a wave.

So to come back to the East, the bass window settings are opening at 20 up to 80 Hz for the lower part of the bass window and closing at 40 up to 200 for the higher setting.
Lower setting controls when your bass window starts. High setting controls when it finishes.
(Technically there's an impossible spot like open at 80 and close at 40... )

So it means you have a band EQ for your bass with appropriate settings. You can go LOW at:
20 - 40 Hz (medium bandwidth) and then the knob you have on your bass for bass will control the gain of bass...
Or you can go super large bandwidth at
40 to 200 Hz, which comes into the lower mids area.
Or you can put a meaty solid bass setting without having sub-frequencies at: 60 - 100 Hz or 80 - 100 Hz.

But if anyone played with these settings could they tell us what settings they have chosen?

I hope my explanation was clear enough for you to understand this great East feature.

That helped! Still not completely hip yet but I'll be reading your tutorial several more times to get my head around it. Thank you for taking the time to explain that!

 

[Sumaru]

Hi guys - first post here on Talkbass and as a huge fan of J East Preamps, I thought I'd kick off with a couple of photographs of the J Retro I have installed on my Maruszczyk Elwood 4p bass.

View attachment 3169438 View attachment 3169439

I'm a photographer - lucky enough to be able to combine my passion for all things bass with my job.

I can't speak highly enough about the J East pre-amps - they had an upwardly transformative effect on my Maruszczyk which was already a great sounding bass.

Jesus Murphy that's a nice bass.

 

[baszslap]

here goes, this might be non-sense so talk some sense into me ) All my basses are passive and also vintage so i don't really want to mess with them but i really want to try the filter based preamp (eq-01 i guess). Do you thing i can put it into a pedal and use it like this? any idea?

 

[J.Wolf]

This is very rare and discontinued and just happens to be available right now at a killer price. No affiliation with the seller.

For Sale/Trade - John East, Analogman, Fulltone, Demeter, Korg, Ibanez pedals for sale/trade

 

[desert_rain]

Hi J East fans. Uni pre doesn't work with 18v right?

 

[Storius-GVA]

Hi J East fans. Uni pre doesn't work with 18v right?

It does work with 18V
It's specified in the FAQ of the east UK website.

 

[J.Wolf]

here goes, this might be non-sense so talk some sense into me ) All my basses are passive and also vintage so i don't really want to mess with them but i really want to try the filter based preamp (eq-01 i guess). Do you thing i can put it into a pedal and use it like this? any idea?

To be clear, my post with that link was in response to your query

 

[Clark Dark]

here goes, this might be non-sense so talk some sense into me ) All my basses are passive and also vintage so i don't really want to mess with them but i really want to try the filter based preamp (eq-01 i guess). Do you thing i can put it into a pedal and use it like this? any idea?

I don't think the EQ-01 will work in a pedal form. Go to the AC Guitars website and look at the construction of that pre.

 

[baszslap]

To be clear, my post with that link was in response to your query

i saw it, thank you. i was interested in the filter preamps but at this price i think i wanna try it as well

 

[J.Wolf]

Oh right, the ACG style. my bad. I bet john would build one into a box for you. He's very cool about stuff like that.

 

[Andrew Future]

What did it have before?

Maruszczyk passive - Volume, Volume & Tone. And very good it was, too.

The J-Retro is akin to a bass on performance-enhancing drugs. Without legal issues or threat of sanction.

 

[5StringPocket]

Does anyone know the mounting depth required for a Uni-pre?

 

[Storius-GVA]

Does anyone know the mounting depth required for a Uni-pre?

You need minimum 3 cm of depth to be able to install the uni pre comfortably.
Also watch out the overall space you have.
For example in my ibanez SR5005 prestige, it is very tight.
I bit more and it wouldn't fit.
The EQ module is quite big and takes a lot of room.
But then once it's working, it's amazing and works like a dream.

Good luck

 

[SteveCS]

Well I've just arrived in the world of John East after installing a MMSR 3-band in my '91 StingRay.
Out with the old...

...and in with the new...