John East
Commercial User
LowEendLobster totally on the money with his answer, greatly appreciated!
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The John East preamp club
- Thread starter datsaxguy
- Start date
LowEendLobster totally on the money with his answer, greatly appreciated!
Just installed a John East J Retro in my Classic Vibe 70's Jazz bass. Wow....pretty blown away at the tonal options right there at your fingertips. I was afraid I wouldn't find all that many useful tones but I've found so many great ones so far. Installation was ridiculously easy. Almost went with an Audere but I'm glad I chose this one.
BTW, those are Duncan Apollo p/ups...what a combo!
BTW, those are Duncan Apollo p/ups...what a combo!
John's preamps are somehow 'musical' no matter where you put the dials.
Yeah, I've got his MMSR in my Ray4 and it's pretty great also. Now I just need something for my PJ bass.
I bought my J Retro used. It looks brand new but is there anyway of telling whether it's the newer design with the flat response vs the old design?
You are in for a treat!
I installed mine in a Jazz Bass and was *BLOWN AWAY* by the vast amount of sounds I could suddenly get from it.
And quality is top notch, absolutely creme de la creme.
Working on getting my Unipre5 installed into my Lakland 55-94. It's replacing the stock Bartolini preamp. Having a weird issue, but so far I think this will be exactly what I was after for the sound of this bass.
I found that if I connect a bridge pickup I get alot of buzzing sound, like a grounding problem. I've tried 3 different ones just to make sure it's not the pickup itself. It goes away mostly if I touch something metal on the bass. I do not get this buzzing at all in passive mode, or if I roll the blend towards the neck pickup, or if I install a plain "jumper wire" instead of a pickup in the bridge position.
I emailed John East, but I wanted to see if anyone else has some insight while I'm waiting (I'm not the most patient person
).
I found that if I connect a bridge pickup I get alot of buzzing sound, like a grounding problem. I've tried 3 different ones just to make sure it's not the pickup itself. It goes away mostly if I touch something metal on the bass. I do not get this buzzing at all in passive mode, or if I roll the blend towards the neck pickup, or if I install a plain "jumper wire" instead of a pickup in the bridge position.
I emailed John East, but I wanted to see if anyone else has some insight while I'm waiting (I'm not the most patient person
).
Did you use a ground wire to bridge?Working on getting my Unipre5 installed into my Lakland 55-94. It's replacing the stock Bartolini preamp. Having a weird issue, but so far I think this will be exactly what I was after for the sound of this bass.
I found that if I connect a bridge pickup I get alot of buzzing sound, like a grounding problem. I've tried 3 different ones just to make sure it's not the pickup itself. It goes away mostly if I touch something metal on the bass. I do not get this buzzing at all in passive mode, or if I roll the blend towards the neck pickup, or if I install a plain "jumper wire" instead of a pickup in the bridge position.
I emailed John East, but I wanted to see if anyone else has some insight while I'm waiting (I'm not the most patient person
Working on getting my Unipre5 installed into my Lakland 55-94. It's replacing the stock Bartolini preamp. Having a weird issue, but so far I think this will be exactly what I was after for the sound of this bass.
I found that if I connect a bridge pickup I get alot of buzzing sound, like a grounding problem. I've tried 3 different ones just to make sure it's not the pickup itself. It goes away mostly if I touch something metal on the bass. I do not get this buzzing at all in passive mode, or if I roll the blend towards the neck pickup, or if I install a plain "jumper wire" instead of a pickup in the bridge position.
I emailed John East, but I wanted to see if anyone else has some insight while I'm waiting (I'm not the most patient person
East preamps are excellent but will get noisy if the shielding and grounding aren't 100%. Need to have your cavity well shielded with tape, have the shield grounded, bridge grounded (to shield), and connect that green wire off of the jack to the grounded shield as well. Grounding the poles on the pickup doesn't hurt either. The say this at the very end of the manual, it's kind of hidden haha.
Yes, the cavity is nicely shielded with tape, right from the factory I assume. I soldered the green wire from the jack to the shielding, and I'm pretty sure everything else is grounded well. I checked with my multi-meter for continuity between all pots, bridge, shielding, and jack and didn't find any disconnect.
Most excellent demo video! It plainly shows why the J Retro Deluxe is my go to forever preamp for Jazz-style basses. Being a retired pro audio guy and now a recording engineer, his explanation of the EQ controls was spot on.
I wanted to mention something about the bass tone control. As I understand the owner's guide, the bass tone control is a boost-only control, even though the tone pot has a center detent. I didn't realize this at first and I would set it to the center position (I keep all the tone controls at center detent and the passive control at 100%, unless I need a mellow tone for something). It made for a fairly bass-heavy tone, which I compensated for at the amp or the mixer channel. When I finally got around to the owner's guide, I thought, hmm, then I started running the bass control all the way down. This was actually more to my liking for the tone of the bass. And that's how I run it to this day. I don't know why it's set up like this. And I wonder if @LowEndLobster noticed this or that was his impression of the bass tone control. He didn't mention anything about that in the video.
I'm not at all looking to pick bits or quibble with anything in the video. I thought it was great!
I didn't realize this until after someone commented about it... and I'd been running a J retro standard on my old daily driver jazz for nearly 8 years! You're 100% right, the bass is indeed boost only. Thank you for the kind words!
Have you done a review of the East MMSR preamp? I'm considering it for an MM-style build, if I can ever get around to it.
I wish I had discovered the J Retro Deluxe a long time ago. I've spent some money checking out others, even considering the East unit a time or two, but balking at the price. Finally glad I went the East way…
Have you done a review of the East MMSR preamp? I'm considering it for an MM-style build, if I can ever get around to it.
I wish I had discovered the J Retro Deluxe a long time ago. I've spent some money checking out others, even considering the East unit a time or two, but balking at the price. Finally glad I went the East way…
Yes! I did one in my Ultimate Stingray Mod Guide paired with the stock Ray24 pickup in parallel. It was a surprisingly good matchup, though I ultimately gutted that bass and used the MMSR in my Dingwall NG3.... now let me tell you, THAT is THE combo! The NG3 is so much more neutral and open, but also much more sculptable and flexible. It's a double edged sword as the controls are more complicated (I did a 6 way rotary too), but IMO that combo is the BEST 'do it all' bass.
Here's both vids-
This was a revelation here, too. I got a J Retro around 2004. Saw that the bass control had a center detent and assumed that setting was "flat." However, my ears said it wasn't. Read the instructions and found out that it was boost only. Cool enough, I turned the knob all the way CCW and was happy. Also noticed that there was a baked in mid cut, but that didn't raise any eyebrows.
I get that bass controls are rarely set (by the player) to cut on a bass. It's counter productive to what the bass brings to the mix. My basses and situations never see a bass cut, but do see a random bass boost (particularly when favoring the bridge pickup and needing some bass boost to add ooomph to the mid presence that the bridge PU has).
This made me more aware of the EQ choices of manufacturers. Same goes for the MM 2EQ circuit: the bass control is mostly boost, with a very small range of cut. Knowledge is power, the more you know, etc...
