The Official MTD USA Thread

[g4string]

Your MTD looks similar to mine !

Redwood top over mahogany body with a Macassar Ebony fretboard ?

MTD 535-24 by Eneade, sur Flickr

I love the redwood top. Man that’s beautiful. If you’re ever looking to sell….lol.

 

[DrGroovenstein]

Has anyone here installed a tone control in their MTD and were able to get matching wood knobs from MTD (either a new tone control with a new knob or turn a single knob into a stacked knob)? I would kinda guess that the knobs are built from the same stock as the top wood at the same time and what you get is what you get, but I haven't asked MTD about it either...

Daniel told me they can make knobs to match later, doesn't have to just be at the time of original order and delivery.

 

[red_rhino]

Been tripping down memory lane, doing the equivalent of online stalking my exes

They sound so much better after they've moved on. "Revenge tone" so to speak. The figuring improves, the grain gets tighter, and they don't think about you at all (if they ever did, you pathetic loser ).

 

[Avalon5]

Has anyone here installed a tone control in their MTD and were able to get matching wood knobs from MTD (either a new tone control with a new knob or turn a single knob into a stacked knob)? I would kinda guess that the knobs are built from the same stock as the top wood at the same time and what you get is what you get, but I haven't asked MTD about it either...

A friend of mine, had the tone control put where the treble control hole is and left the treble control in the cavity with it set to neutral i.e. the dent or as desired. I would cover the terminals so as not to short anything inside. No more high-end basis for me without a tone control.
I would try a Mike Pope or Norstrand preamp if I knew it be of benefit. But I think that it has been pointed out that the pick ups are low impedance or had an extra gain stage befor the preamp and I don’t know if that matters or not. Carry Norstrand has some Utubes with pickups and or preamps. If I knew the wireing diagram I would go for it.

 

[g4string]

How do yall compare your 35” and 34” scale MTD b-strings? Is there a noticeable difference in that you'd choose one over the other

 

[scubaduba]

How do yall compare your 35” and 34” scale MTD b-strings? Is there a noticeable difference in that you'd choose one over the other

On my current 534's I think the B string is every bit as good as the 35" scale B strings. And playability is even easier. MTD's have great B string fundamental in general.

 

[DrGroovenstein]

Same - no real difference to me, just ergonomics. I greatly prefer 34” just for ergonomics aspect. I’ve owned both and I have a 534 on order (going to take a long time).

 

[Benko]

Same - no real difference to me, just ergonomics. I greatly prefer 34” just for ergonomics aspect. I’ve owned both and I have a 534 on order (going to take a long time).

what is the lead time lately (on a 534-24) ?

 

[DrGroovenstein]

I got 18 months.

 

[frosty4d]

I'm at 17 months currently. I do not have an estimated completion date. Waiting as patiently as I can. Its a 532, however.

 

[Combinator]

There's been a lot of talk about tone & pickups here lately, so I thought this might be timely. As I've mentioned in this thread before, I also find the stock MTD pickups a little too wide ranging and flat in response for my tastes (and Bart CB pickups still slightly too extended up high when running through a buffer before the pre) and have taken to adding very small value capacitors across the pickup hot and ground leads. This lowers the resonant peak frequency, and adds a little boost at that knee in a way I really like and adds character!

I just recently wired up 5 capacitors and one "open/no cap" position to a two channel 6 position rotary switch, so I can switch between different cap values (a la ToneStyler or older VariTone) while keeping each pickup's output separate so they can run into the buffer from there. Some pretty cool sounds available!

 

[ThisYouCanTrust]

Yup, definitely the 560pf one

 

[Combinator]

Yup, definitely the 560pf one

It's just so tasty! I've actually been using 560pf caps in all my MTDs for some time - really easy to do with the Easy Uni Pre preamp, just bridging the pickup input screw terminals with the caps - but it's cool to be able to instantly compare other values. I always make this kind of video more for reference material for myself than anyone else

 

[thumbslapper]

It's just so tasty! I've actually been using 560pf caps in all my MTDs for some time - really easy to do with the Easy Uni Pre preamp, just bridging the pickup input screw terminals with the caps - but it's cool to be able to instantly compare other values. I always make this kind of video more for reference material for myself than anyone else

Combinator - great video!

Are the pickups in your MTD the standard Bartolini MTD pickups or hte dual coils you posted a few days ago? (& the rest of hte preamp/eq is standard MTD issue as well?)

I *think* you previously had 2 tone caps directly after your pickups wired to a dual-gang pot which then went to the preamp... which do you like more, that way or with smaller value caps hard wired (like in the video)? adding an additional pot to the MTD is intimidating in that you need a new hole in your bass (which probably lowers the value of your bass), and you might need a wood-matching cover, however having a real tone knob makes your bass tone that much more versatile and is a different sound then just rolling off your treble.

Last question - did you play around with different cap values for bridge and neck pickup?

I'm still trying to decide if i want a tone control or not - I'm trying to take @dirtbird 's advice to heart and really play with the 3 band eq to see if i even need a tone control, i've only had the bass 7 months and don't want to do something rash because it is a beautiful bass. I will say the pics of the 5 knob basses a few pages ago really look good tho...

 

[Combinator]

Combinator - great video!

Are the pickups in your MTD the standard Bartolini MTD pickups or hte dual coils you posted a few days ago? (& the rest of hte preamp/eq is standard MTD issue as well?)

I *think* you previously had 2 tone caps directly after your pickups wired to a dual-gang pot which then went to the preamp... which do you like more, that way or with smaller value caps hard wired (like in the video)? adding an additional pot to the MTD is intimidating in that you need a new hole in your bass (which probably lowers the value of your bass), and you might need a wood-matching cover, however having a real tone knob makes your bass tone that much more versatile and is a different sound then just rolling off your treble.

Last question - did you play around with different cap values for bridge and neck pickup?

I'm still trying to decide if i want a tone control or not - I'm trying to take @dirtbird 's advice to heart and really play with the 3 band eq to see if i even need a tone control, i've only had the bass 7 months and don't want to do something rash because it is a beautiful bass. I will say the pics of the 5 knob basses a few pages ago really look good tho...

Thank you! No, these pickups are standard Bartolini Classic Bass dual coils, used here in parallel, evenly blended. East Uni Pre preamp set flat, which also has a dual buffered input (like stock MTD).

Yes, I did formerly use (still have 2 of them) and make a video posted in here a while back about a dual-mono passive tone pot. I feel like it's not as much a question of liking direct caps more than a tone pot, but they're different purposes for me; for me, the direct wired tone caps as in this video are about selecting an overall voice for the pickups - tuning them, if you will. Whereas a tone pot is about variable reduction of high end. I actually use hardwired caps in my other two MTDs along with a passive tone pot, so best of both worlds!

You don't necessarily need to add a hole - as you may notice, my customs actually have 1 fewer control holes than normal. In the case of both of the above scenarios, I traded out a treble pot or something else to put anither type of control in that hole. MTDs tend to be so bright that after a few years with them, I found I never boosted the treble - only cut. And a passive tone knob works more like a variable low pass filter rather than a high EQ shelf (as treble controls typically are), which sound very different from each other when reducing high end.

That all said, I fully subscribe to the fact that MTDs are meant to use hearty twists of the EQ knobs to achieve different, perhaps more classic tones. That EQ is there to be USED. I was too shy in staying too close to the detents at first. There's a lot of crosstalk that happens between those 3 EQ bands when you start really boosting and cutting them, and a lot of different voicings in there.

Most of all - have fun! Nothing's sacred

 

[Combinator]

I woke up this morning to an email response from my man Doug at Bartolini, who wanted to hear these capacitor tones without a drum track - so what better way to test out the new A&H digital mixer connected to my phone than another little quickie (uh, video)?

Here's direct, HQ sound through a CQ-18T digital mixer - no other preamps or DIs involved, no percussion. Which voicing do you like the best? I'm still all in on 560 pf.

 

[thumbslapper]

I woke up this morning to an email response from my man Doug at Bartolini, who wanted to hear these capacitor tones without a drum track - so what better way to test out the new A&H digital mixer connected to my phone than another little quickie (uh, video)?

Here's direct, HQ sound through a CQ-18T digital mixer - no other preamps or DIs involved, no percussion. Which voicing do you like the best? I'm still all in on 560 pf.

I agree with you on the 560pf, the 1500pf was ok as well, but any higher rating then that took off too much high end at least for a full time sound. It was very cool listening to the differences.

I see you are using the new East Uni-Pre - on my Pedulla Thunderbuzz 6 (fretless) I installed the East EQ-01 filter based preamp where each pickup has its own low pass filter which has a variable boost at resonant peak - the breadth of sounds you can get out of it is crazy, but has a high learning curve and sometimes takes a while to get exactly what you want. Have you played with a filter based preamp? High end Alembic basses have them as well (even my EssenceV has 0/6db/9db switch for the Q filter which is really useful)

What other interesting preamps have folks installed in their MTDs?

 

[Combinator]

I agree with you on the 560pf, the 1500pf was ok as well, but any higher rating then that took off too much high end at least for a full time sound. It was very cool listening to the differences.

I see you are using the new East Uni-Pre - on my Pedulla Thunderbuzz 6 (fretless) I installed the East EQ-01 filter based preamp where each pickup has its own low pass filter which has a variable boost at resonant peak - the breadth of sounds you can get out of it is crazy, but has a high learning curve and sometimes takes a while to get exactly what you want. Have you played with a filter based preamp? High end Alembic basses have them as well (even my EssenceV has 0/6db/9db switch for the Q filter which is really useful)

What other interesting preamps have folks installed in their MTDs?

I have! I fact there's some more video content not too far back in this thread of my custom MTD 6 with a variable LPF/peak made by JTEX. Just a single filter though, rather than one per pickup, which I didn't feel I needed.

 

[iplay5strings]

I agree with you on the 560pf, the 1500pf was ok as well, but any higher rating then that took off too much high end at least for a full time sound. It was very cool listening to the differences.

I see you are using the new East Uni-Pre - on my Pedulla Thunderbuzz 6 (fretless) I installed the East EQ-01 filter based preamp where each pickup has its own low pass filter which has a variable boost at resonant peak - the breadth of sounds you can get out of it is crazy, but has a high learning curve and sometimes takes a while to get exactly what you want. Have you played with a filter based preamp? High end Alembic basses have them as well (even my EssenceV has 0/6db/9db switch for the Q filter which is really useful)

What other interesting preamps have folks installed in their MTDs?

I'm a diehard TCT guy (which I believe falls into the filter based category). Both my 535 and Beast MTD basses use it

 

[Combinator]

I'm a diehard TCT guy (which I believe falls into the filter based category). Both my 535 and Beast MTDs basses use it

Not filters in the way being discussed (low pass filters, adjustable peaks at knee), but still a great preamp!