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The John East preamp club

#61
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Mine is a Warmoth J with J-Retro, a Seymour Duncan Antiquity Jazz pickup and a Nordstrand MM4.2 single-coil. I also added a 3-position switch to have Series/single/Parallel option on the MM puckup (but it turns out I usually like the sound of series). Hipshot tuners (drop-D) and bridge.

Dan
 
#65
Over on another thread, I just learned that the East mid stack (read: secret weapon) can be added to other existing circuits. Thats a seriously cool way to make any bass 83% more awesome. Link Removed
 
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#69
Sorry if this isn't too relevant but has anyone tried the EMG Geezer Butler p-j pickups with an East retro preamp? The pickups come with a solderless pot rig but I'm guessing the pickup wires could be detached and fitted to the East preamp?
 
#70
Brisbeard said:
Sorry if this isn't too relevant but has anyone tried the EMG Geezer Butler p-j pickups with an East retro preamp? The pickups come with a solderless pot rig but I'm guessing the pickup wires could be detached and fitted to the East preamp?
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I've been waiting for the same thing. A couple of years ago I dropped a spare East preamp I had into a Squier Jag SS. Sounds great with the stock P/J set but I've heard so much hype about the Geezer set I've kinda wanted to try them.
 
#72
I put a J Retro in my '76 Jazz and love it! Sounds great and very helpful to have such control in a live setting. Only thing that I didn't like was the knobs. While they're high quality, they looked too small to my eyes so I modded Fender Deluxe knobs. Looks more at home on my bass but the top stacked knob is hard to grip with sweaty fingers. Does anyone know where to get black metal knobs like the ones that come with the East but are the size of stock Jazz knobs?

ImageUploadedByTalkBass1413057491.778892.jpg
 
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#73
J.Wolf said:
I'll play!

My Wood&Tronics has a custom East SP2 circuit. It has the flatter tone profile that now is apparently available as an option on the Retro series. The SP2 has thumbwheels inside the cavity to adjust the freq point for each of the 3 bands of EQ, although mine has stacked mid knobs (vol/freq) for ease of use. Its a great sounding preamp, I really like it.

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What does that switch do?
 
#74
Trying to remember, I sold that bass a while ago. I think the switch was either series/parallel or a coil tap for the dolf-bass culture pickups. It ended being usable in only one setting so it stayed put mostly
 
#75
Bumpity Bump! Has anyone been able to get in touch with John East recently? My 2008 U Retro died, and I emailed asking him about servicing it a couple of times, and he hasn't responded. Normally he gets back to me pretty quickly. Has anyone else tried to contact him recently?
 
#76
Just installed a set of Nordy NJ5fs pickups in my Am. Std. Jazz V. Really nice pickups. My J Retro should arrive tomorrow. I'm working on a recording stock, NJ5s, and soon NJ5s with J Retro. The difference between the stock pickups and the NJ5s pickups are pretty subtle. The Nordys have a cleaner top end and due to the radiused pole pieces make for very even volume string to string. The biggest benefit is that the split coil Nordys are DEAD QUIET. Soloed or otherwise...just silent.

I can't wait to get my J Retro in and I sincerely hope it makes the bass rise up and want to eat small children. I watched a video of John East who was demoing a universal preamp for a guy who said he wanted his bass to "sound dangerous". Yes! That's what I want....when I want it. But when I just want a passive Jazz I can flip the switch.
 
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#78
My J Retro arrived today and I promptly installed it, noodled around a bit, and recorded some samples.

DISCLAIMER!!
The recordings are made running through my "normal" pedal board rig. I have some compression and EQ settings that I should have turned off, but I didn't, so I recorded all the tracks with the same settings. So please keep in mind that these recordings won't be an accurate representation of how the pickups and pre-amp sound "flat". But you can get a good comparison.

I also did not want to squish the files by making them MP3s so I used an uncompressed format. Sorry, you can't preview them off Dropbox. You'll need to download them and listen with a nice set of headphones. Your iPhone speaker won't do them justice. :)

So here's the Dropbox link....and yes....it's an Abba song...but only 34 seconds. I had to find something with no bass in the track to record over.

Dropbox - Bass
 
#79
Here's my JRetro on my 72 Jazz. Bought the bass in 92 with EMG J set in it. Around 2003, I decided it was time for a major change up to the bass for no other reason than to change the bass up, I had no problems with the EMG sound. Got the East and a set of Bart 9J1. Very different sound, can get a little more traditional tones as well as modern tones.
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