Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
The John East preamp club
- Thread starter datsaxguy
- Start date
Well after the “battery cooking/no sound” event. I pulled the pre from its cavity, double checked the jack/grounding wiring, and put another battery in it. No change in wiring, just removed the pre from the cavity. Now the bass works in passive mode, battery stays normal temp, but the moment you switch to active, no sound. The bass arrived missing the tone caps and a jumper, which I replaced, prior to the initial test. But for now, the vol, blend and tone control all function properly in passive mode. Active = Silence. Have asked the seller for a refund, awaiting response. I’m sooo saddened as I was really looking to pimp this baby. Ive even ordered a matching flamed maple knob set for it.
Hey folks! I just joined the John East club with a MMSR preamp. The bass I installed it in uses a rotary pickup selector switch, so I am on the hunt for a black John East knob to match the ones that came with the preamp. I've reached out to John, as well as getting some advice on other avenues to explore in another thread. But I stumbled upon this thread and thought I might as well ask here as well.
If anyone has some of these knobs in black kicking around that they aren't using, I would gladly buy one from you.
If anyone has some of these knobs in black kicking around that they aren't using, I would gladly buy one from you.
It's a custom 5 string bass I built for myself from scratch several years ago. I did everything except the finishing (Sent it to Vancouver Guitar Finishing) Delano MM pickup in the bridge position, and a matching Delano P style pickup in the neck position. Had been running a Darkglass Tone Capsule in it, but decided I wanted to go for a more Stingray style vibe.
Here's a couple crappy photos, prior to the John East preamp install:
And now theres three………
I ended up buying a UNI-4 from fatbasstone.com for the Ibanez single cut. Helped with the cramped cavity…..sounds better than the prior Sadowsky mid bump pre, More flexible, passive tone is more pronounced, and the mid sweep is more versatile than the sadowsky single +10db@ 500K bump. Not that the Sadowsky pre is not fantastic as well. Been a huge fan of that for years, but for this bass and its Sadowsky soapbars, the UNI is just a tad better.
Got the J-Tone in the Sire fretless…….
And was able to repair the UNI-5 and am installing in a recent lakland acquisition….just waiting on the copper foil. Very excited to hear how these Lakland Barts sound with the UNI. was concerned i could lose the vintage Stingray tone lakland baked into their pre, but i know the Jazz bass tone will be far better with the passive tone.
You know, its odd, but once you get used to the quality of these units, its very hard to use anything else.
I ended up buying a UNI-4 from fatbasstone.com for the Ibanez single cut. Helped with the cramped cavity…..sounds better than the prior Sadowsky mid bump pre, More flexible, passive tone is more pronounced, and the mid sweep is more versatile than the sadowsky single +10db@ 500K bump. Not that the Sadowsky pre is not fantastic as well. Been a huge fan of that for years, but for this bass and its Sadowsky soapbars, the UNI is just a tad better.
Got the J-Tone in the Sire fretless…….
And was able to repair the UNI-5 and am installing in a recent lakland acquisition….just waiting on the copper foil. Very excited to hear how these Lakland Barts sound with the UNI. was concerned i could lose the vintage Stingray tone lakland baked into their pre, but i know the Jazz bass tone will be far better with the passive tone.
You know, its odd, but once you get used to the quality of these units, its very hard to use anything else.
Last edited:
My main J (a Warmoth build) has a 3-hole plate and a side jack, which I don't care for all that much--prefer a top jack. Kept thinking about swapping to a new body, but decided to lean into the current body, grabbed a J-Retro Deluxe from FBT to install. Working fine now, but had a couple hoops to jump through to install it--all problems with the body, not the JEast. The side jack hole is undersize and is separate from the control cavity with only a drilled hole (1/4 inch?) connecting them. The preamp has nice screw connectors for attaching the battery clip and the bridge ground, but they are on the jack side of the jack wiring harness. These connectors would not fit through the hole from the jack cavity to the control cavity. Managed to disassemble the battery connector, but ended up cutting off the bridge ground connector. OK, so push them through...NOPE! The hole for the bridge ground goes right through the middle of the jack connection hole at right angles. (What were they thinking!?!) Had to take off the bridge, yank the bridge ground wire, and then could push the jack wiring through to the control cavity. Then, I had to wiggle the bridge ground past the jack wiring. After reconnecting everything, attaching the pickups to the preamp, reinstalling the neck and strings, works great.
Couldn't really hear any difference turning on the bright by pulling the treble knob. I doubt I'll use it in the future.
I think if I were to do it again, I'd just plug the side jack hole and use the J-Retro with the top jack. Have one of those in a player J, and it's great.
Couldn't really hear any difference turning on the bright by pulling the treble knob. I doubt I'll use it in the future.
I think if I were to do it again, I'd just plug the side jack hole and use the J-Retro with the top jack. Have one of those in a player J, and it's great.
EPIC FAIL on the UNI 5 install. Again, will not work in Active mode. Checked if voltages are reaching the Blend board and they are. Volume , blend, tone , all functioning in passive. Engage active. Dead. All jumpers, caps, connectors appear correct and in proper orientation.
I do not have the expertise to troubleshoot this other than the connectivity and voltage between modules. All grounds in place, cavity foil shielded.
I’m at a loss. Not a knew unit ( purchased used on reverb)
Sent a note to John regarding f he would consider diagnosing, when it initially failed to work on the first install back in Early march. Awaiting reply.
Sigh.
I do not have the expertise to troubleshoot this other than the connectivity and voltage between modules. All grounds in place, cavity foil shielded.
I’m at a loss. Not a knew unit ( purchased used on reverb)
Sent a note to John regarding f he would consider diagnosing, when it initially failed to work on the first install back in Early march. Awaiting reply.
Sigh.
Picked up a fresh UNI 5 used from another member and its STELLAR. Also, compared the non working UNI with this one and found the Active/Passive jumper was misplaced on the non working Treb/bass board. Moved the position and it works, but needs sorting on the freq select, pickup vol balance and has some issue on the harness that needs to be addressed. (Intermittance)
Re-installed the 100% working UNI 5 in the above and after ALOT of tweaking, it’s stellar. My initial objective in pulling the very good Bart OEM pre was to get the 44-02 to actually perform as Lakland had designed it, in that, I wanted a crispy stingray tone AND an accurate Jazz Bass Burpy bridge pickup tone. The bart pre had minor limitations on the bass freq, and treble freq. meaning even dimed, they were musical, but just didn't reach the levels I was looking for. No matter what, it sounded very close to a stingray, and really nothing like a jazz bass, to my ears. The “Always on” classic tone control along with .010uf caps installed has handled the J bass tone with aplomb, and I know have a razor slicing MM humbucker slap tone AND if i solo the coil right by the bridge, bring the hi’s down to a non “dog hearing” range, and roll that classic tone back 75%, oofah. Accurate burpy jazz bass bridge pickup jaco approved sound. I’m elated.
Another thing learned with this install is tweaking the many parameters the UNI offers. Your bass can really sound terrible if the pre isn’t tweaked to the settings you prefer. Especially the volume/pickup balance once the pre is engaged, along with the Bass top and bottom frequencies, and treble freq selected. And after trying both the flat and contoured settings, I favored the contour. All these variables, if set poorly will turn you off right away.
Also, I’m really surprised that it’s only been recently that builders have discovered a single freq treble cut does not emulate a classic tone roll off control. The only one I know that realized that a long time ago was Roger Sadowsky. And even he didn’t offer it for many years. But now, any pre that doesn’t offer it, is a lesser device.
Now I have 3 basses with East Pre’s, and I have this working but temper-mental UNI-5 in a box with chrome knobs I may list, but with the caveat that it’ll need to be handled gingerly, and most likely need to be installed by an experienced tech.
You can now consider me a 3-timer in John East land.
Last edited:
I had received some genuine sadowsky knobs with the used UNI as a bonus, put them on the J-Tone pre in my Sire fretless V5-24, The shorter profile looks a little less prominent than the taller chrome knobs that came with the plate. Had to shorten the center shafts on the stacked pots to flush the top knobs. Looks as I’d hoped. I am pleased.
Very good description of how adjust the pre and what the results will be if set correctly! Like you, my first pre was problematic and had some odd quirks. Decided to eventually just replace it with a new unit. Space inside the 44-02 is tight for this install. I don’t believe the first install was done correctly, but now it is working as it should!
Fat Bass Tone, are fantastic guys to work with. I also have the JE MMSR 3 band in a SBMM SUB RAY! Fantastic.
My 44-02 is the twin of yours.
Slightly different guard, but yea. The Natural with maple board and barts is a fantastic combo. The East is the cherry. Enjoy
Got a J Retro Deluxe Jazz plate preamp on the way. Gonna swap it into my Cobra Blue American Ultra Jazz. Can’t wait!
While I know I should email John about this issue, I figured I would try here first in case anyone had already run into this issue:
My bass currently has an East Uni-Pre in it. A handful of months ago when I last played it, everything worked perfectly; then it sat in its case for months. Fast forward to me playing it again recently and suddenly the active mode didn't work, but passive mode worked just fine. So I threw in a brand new Duracell, still nothing. Okay, so then I took it to my local tech who does amp work and amazing active wiring jobs for me (he installed the pre originally) - he looked at it for a week and couldn't find a single issue: battery is fresh, battery box is supplying power properly, he checked all wires that were screwed in, no luck.
So I finally get it back home, disappointed and plug it in: still works perfectly in passive mode, but I realize it has a very low output in active mode if I max out all controls and my pre gain on my amp (way louder than you'd want on any other bass) - so it technically works, but barely there active output.
Yes, I've checked the two red jumpers on the treble board per John's site as well, they look to be there and in place.
Any suggestions?
My bass currently has an East Uni-Pre in it. A handful of months ago when I last played it, everything worked perfectly; then it sat in its case for months. Fast forward to me playing it again recently and suddenly the active mode didn't work, but passive mode worked just fine. So I threw in a brand new Duracell, still nothing. Okay, so then I took it to my local tech who does amp work and amazing active wiring jobs for me (he installed the pre originally) - he looked at it for a week and couldn't find a single issue: battery is fresh, battery box is supplying power properly, he checked all wires that were screwed in, no luck.
So I finally get it back home, disappointed and plug it in: still works perfectly in passive mode, but I realize it has a very low output in active mode if I max out all controls and my pre gain on my amp (way louder than you'd want on any other bass) - so it technically works, but barely there active output.
Yes, I've checked the two red jumpers on the treble board per John's site as well, they look to be there and in place.
Any suggestions?
Got my J Retro Deluxe installed in my Ultra J as planned. Got to give it a spin today and it is outstanding. Great tone and EQ options. Hype was well founded.
Hello all, I just joined the John East club, adding this amazing machinery to my 2008 Yamaha TRB1006 and using the stock Yamaha pickups. Looking for some assistance, this preamp has so much configuration that it’s so daunting and overwhelming trying to understand it. One of the main questions I have is that my passive level and active level are significant different. Is there any way to get them closer together?
Attachments
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,002
- 1
- 31,688
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Have you read through John’s documentation? That’s the place to start.
