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The John East preamp club

Amazon has Guyker knobs that look just like the East knobs. I bought a set, but haven't used them yet.

They are a copy of East knobs, I bought some of each finish a couple of years ago. I contacted them and had a hard job convincing the supplier that they were my design!
 
They are a copy of East knobs, I bought some of each finish a couple of years ago. I contacted them and had a hard job convincing the supplier that they were my design!

Your knobs are my favorite knobs!

Guyker has become famous for producing copies of other peoples' work. I'm not happy about that in general, but I bought them just out of curiosity more than anything.
 
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Anybody have any John East black knobs they aren't using? I'm trying to locate some and seems like everyone is out of stock. I've emailed John a few times but he isn't responding.

I'm in the same boat!! Looking for 2 stacked and a single...
 
Your knobs are my favorite knobs!

Guyker has become famous for producing copies of other peoples' work. I'm not happy about that in general, but I bought them just out of curiosity more than anything.

I did the same, to find out what they were like.

Mechanically they were very good, but it was the quality of finishes and finish inconsistencies that let them down. If the finishes had been reasonable, I was going to ask them to quote to make some knobs for us. Ironically, the boss refused to quote saying, that they were someone else's design so they couldn't supply me. In the end, I sent the drawings to prove that they were my designs. (They'd copied earlier versions as it happens)
 
I adore my uni 5 pre.
I main an ibanez sr and if I'm being dead honest, I wouldn't be if I were restricted to the stock electronics.
The uni is an amazing sounding pre and does everything I want. I just wish the knobs weren't so tall. I totally get having the taller knobs fits the widest selection of hand sizes, but the knobs are so well made and textured I think we could easily get away with a half height top knob on the double stacks. On some basses the knob height doesn't bother me at all, but on that sr (it's a smallish, thin bass) the knobs sit about an inch or so from the bottom edge and it freaks me out. I won't even consider using a soft case due to this.
I dont know what it would take resource wise to build them with shorter knobs. May have to use different pots all together. I don't remember how much the post extends past the bottom knob , but I don't think we can just chnage the caps (if we can, I'd love to see some smaller top knobs released)
But if not, I wish there were a low profile version of the uni's. I'd buy in a heart beat. That's my absolute only issue with the uni pres and it's not enough to make me stop using them.
 
Hey John Easters ... I posted this separately and then found this J East preamp club thread, so I'll post my question here too. Thanks.

I have a 2004 MIM Jazz Deluxe. I like it ok, but it's pretty generic sounding and I have other J basses too that sound really great with more character ('84 Roscoe Beck IV, '07 Lull M4V).

I've never done a preamp change on a bass but these look farily straight forward. After reading a few reviews here on TB, the J Retro sounds like a solid option. When I look at the J East website I walk away a little confused as to the right option to pick. Can you more experienced folks give me a clue ? The original pre on the Fender is active only. I'd love to get something in there with a active/passive option too.

One more question. The Fender has it's stock 2000's "noiseless" J pickups. After putting in the J East pre, will I inevitably feel like the pups are not up to scratch ?

thanks for your input!
 
Hey John Easters ... I posted this separately and then found this J East preamp club thread, so I'll post my question here too. Thanks.

I have a 2004 MIM Jazz Deluxe. I like it ok, but it's pretty generic sounding and I have other J basses too that sound really great with more character ('84 Roscoe Beck IV, '07 Lull M4V).

I've never done a preamp change on a bass but these look farily straight forward. After reading a few reviews here on TB, the J Retro sounds like a solid option. When I look at the J East website I walk away a little confused as to the right option to pick. Can you more experienced folks give me a clue ? The original pre on the Fender is active only. I'd love to get something in there with a active/passive option too.

One more question. The Fender has it's stock 2000's "noiseless" J pickups. After putting in the J East pre, will I inevitably feel like the pups are not up to scratch ?

thanks for your input!
Don't own one. But I know this from the website. The J Deluxe has a passive mode. The photo shows enough knobs for passive tone control. Very useful on my uni pre. You'd need to drill a hole to side mount the jack. The J Retro has passive mode with "limited control" and no drilling

To hear the stock pickups you could take out the preamp and pots and drop in a standard jazz harness. Because only you can decide how much you like them.. I got that done on my Heartfield and played it passive for years. Then I installed a Uni Pre. I believe, with no backup data, that the new passive sounds better than the old passive.

No question Mr East made those old, passive EMGs sing in active mode. Growl for days.
 
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Don't own one. But I know this from the website. The J Deluxe has a passive mode. The photo shows enough knobs for passive tone control. Very useful on my uni pre. You'd need to drill a hole to side mount the jack. The J Retro has passive mode with "limited control" and no drilling

To hear the stock pickups you could take out the preamp and pots and drop in a standard jazz harness. Because only you can decide how much you like them.. I got that done on my Heartfield and played it passive for years. Then I installed a Uni Pre. I believe, with no backup data, that the new passive sounds better than the old passive.

No question Mr East made those old, passive EMGs sing in active mode. Growl for days.
thanks. The bass in question already has the side mounted jack so that should not be an issue, and it sounds like both the J Deluxe and J Retro both can switch to passive.
 
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Has anyone ever put the bass internal pots both on the lowest setting and used the bass knob sort of like a hi pass filter?
You could make the bottom frequency of the bass knob 20hz and the upper frequency 40 hz.
I habeny tried it yet. Curious if anyone else has considered this method for an onboard hi pass
 
I also have a question. It seems like the more you boost the highs, the more bass you "lose " . Is this a design of the pre or just my imagination? If boosting highs does reduce lows, how does that work?
 
Has anyone ever put the bass internal pots both on the lowest setting and used the bass knob sort of like a hi pass filter?
You could make the bottom frequency of the bass knob 20hz and the upper frequency 40 hz.
I habeny tried it yet. Curious if anyone else has considered this method for an onboard hi pass
Only can speak for myself, but I like a HPF with a frequency control front and centre. So I can set it as low as it'll go with no rogue frequencies to worry about.

Also, apparently there are subsonic bumps and thumps that would get past your low cutoff, straining amps and triggering compressors.
 
Only can speak for myself, but I like a HPF with a frequency control front and centre. So I can set it as low as it'll go with no rogue frequencies to worry about.

Also, apparently there are subsonic bumps and thumps that would get past your low cutoff, straining amps and triggering compressors.
Im not sure exactly how the east works. I will run it through a spectrum analyzer this evening and see how it behaves. I do agree a variable knob up front is a better option I'm moat situations, but that bass will very likely never leave that room again except for studio time and I can get use in ears there and let them do the high passing on the desk.
 
Im not sure exactly how the east works. I will run it through a spectrum analyzer this evening and see how it behaves. I do agree a variable knob up front is a better option I'm moat situations, but that bass will very likely never leave that room again except for studio time and I can get use in ears there and let them do the high passing on the desk.
Not to say you shouldn't do it. But I'm wondering, if you've got your high pass needs covered by something presumably well specced, why not just use the preamp bass for tone shaping?

As to your other question, my old ears haven't noticed any treble drop off from boosting the bass. Obviously the overall tone will be more bass centric, but I assume you already know that. I like to leave a large gap for the swept mids to work their magic so it's easy for me to hear highs and lows as separate bands. But your spectrum analyzer might know something I don't.
 
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