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The Pedulla Club!

#2,321
My MVP 5 is a tiny bit neck heavy, just to be perfectly honest... the upper horn is a little on the short side, only making it to the 14th fret. I've experienced way worse on other basses, however. For example, this bass is a dream to play compared to my old Thumb NT5.

I did a tuner swap to Hipshot Ultralights which helped... and Dunlop Dual Design strap locks add a little bit more length to the upper horn. I can get it to hang naturally at about 2 o'clock with a smooth leather strap and there's only a slight tug towards the headstock.

In fact, I played it for 4 hours on a gig last night and loved every minute of it.

:)
 
#2,322
So now that my Buzz looks and plays great, I have one more issue with it. The way it sounds. Acoustically, it's incredible. Very sweet sounding and resonant with mwah for days. The problem is when I plug it in. It all goes away.

I'm thinking it's the preamp. While on the surface it looks like a volume, blend, bass and treble, I'm afraid it's not. This bass has the Bartolini EZQ preamp. It's a frequency/Q knob and a gain knob. There are literally hundreds of sounds in there. The problem is, only about three of them are useable. I'm not sure what Mike was thinking when he put this in his bass or what Bartolini was thinking when they made it. And they still make it. :-(

Talking to Mike, he'll install the Bartolini that he specs. It has volume, blend, bass, treble and a mid boost switch. The gain on the boost is adjustable but not the frequency. Number one is I'm not comfortable with just a switch for the mids and number two, he wants a lot of money to add it.

For half the price, I can get a Bartolini NTMB which is volume, blend, bass, treble, mids with selectable frequency and an active/passive option. Seeing how good the bass sounds unamplified, I think the active/passive option will be a great addition.

Any opinions on which way I should go? Has anyone tried a Buzz with a standard Bart preamp instead of a Pedulla spec'd one?

Mike said the newer pickups are also a little more refined but I don't think the pickups are the weakest link here.
 
#2,323
Thanks for the input re: neck dive. To me, falling to horizontal *is* neck dive. The majority of basses do that, and it doesn't sound like these are worse than normal so that's good.

My NYC Sadowsky 5'er, due to a very light body, has extreme neck dive, but it's so light that's not too big a deal. I should just move the back strap button. Or they should've. I'd use Duncans but I really don't dig strap locks.

Back to Pedulla, I'm a bit interested in a used one from the early '90s that's f/s here. Anyone know if that plastic truss rod cover can be found after-market or easily made by a pick guard company or something if a tracing is provided? The one I like has a missing truss cover.
 
#2,325
Unless someone can tell me otherwise, that's what I'm thinking. Seems like Mike's rational for using the switch was that it was foolproof. Either way with the switch, you'd get a decent sound. Whereas with knobs, some folks were getting terrible sounds and blaming the bass.
 
#2,326

LeonD said:
For half the price, I can get a Bartolini NTMB which is volume, blend, bass, treble, mids with selectable frequency and an active/passive option. Seeing how good the bass sounds unamplified, I think the active/passive option will be a great addition.

Any opinions on which way I should go?
Click to expand...
Perfect timing my friend! At this minute I’m having my Thunderbass retro’d with I think that same set-up. I know two of the knobs will be push-pull, and that one of those is the active/passive option – maybe the other will be the midrange sweep, we’ll see. I’ll be picking it up in a week or two, I’ll let you know what I think of it compared to the stock set-up.

My TB I think is a 2007 model and from what my tech has found out, the electronics in those years had issues. I’ve never been happy with the way it sounded compared to my other bass with Bartolinis, and that one was made back in the early 90s. In addition to the lackluster sound, the volume control got something like 80% of its action in maybe the last 10% of knob travel, and it seemed like every time I plugged it in it sounded different – even in the same venue with the same knob settings!

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt


Administrator, Pedulla Club #45
Administrator, Tobias Club
Big Cabs Club #23
Pedulla Club #45

 
#2,329
WayneP said:


Perfect timing my friend! At this minute I’m having my Thunderbass retro’d with I think that same set-up. I know two of the knobs will be push-pull, and that one of those is the active/passive option – maybe the other will be the midrange sweep, we’ll see. I’ll be picking it up in a week or two, I’ll let you know what I think of it compared to the stock set-up.



My TB I think is a 2007 model and from what my tech has found out, the electronics in those years had issues. I’ve never been happy with the way it sounded compared to my other bass with Bartolinis, and that one was made back in the early 90s. In addition to the lackluster sound, the volume control got something like 80% of its action in maybe the last 10% of knob travel, and it seemed like every time I plugged it in it sounded different – even in the same venue with the same knob settings!



Regards,

Wayne A. Pflughaupt





Administrator, Pedulla Club #45

Administrator, Tobias Club

Big Cabs Club #23

Pedulla Club #45
Click to expand...


I'd like to know some details of that because I have the old 3 knob system on mine and I'd really like to change it up. My PentaBuzz has the newer system. But what you are describing sound better!
 
#2,330
I had to replace my old preamp as well. My 93 thunderbolt had the active treble boost and the thunder guts switch, but the preamp was having issues with low output and distorted sounds. I replaced it with a Bart 4.6 preamp and it works a lot better now. Volume and blend, bass treble and mid boost and cut, selectable midrange, and an active passive toggle.
 
#2,334
LeonD said:
...

I have no regrets about the entire process.

Here's what it looks like now.

IMG_1087_zpsa1dfae42.jpg
Click to expand...

Very nice! I just received my 1989 buzz back from Mike's shop last week. Sent in for neck refinishing, but decided to see what a new color would look like while at it. Had no idea it would come out so fantastic.

Before
buzz.jpg


After
dualie-vcsb.jpg
 
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#2,338
So after being tired of the Bart EZQ preamp, I ordered the NTMB preamp. In addition to having a mid knob instead of a switch (like Pedulla's stock preamp), it has two different mid center frequencies.

And IMHO, the best part is that it has an active/passive option. Unamplified, this has to be one of the nicest sounding basses I've owned. I wouldn't be surprised if the best sound from this bass is with the preamp in passive mode.

It should be here within a couple of weeks.
 
#2,340
StayLow said:
Thanks for the input re: neck dive. To me, falling to horizontal *is* neck dive. The majority of basses do that, and it doesn't sound like these are worse than normal so that's good.

My NYC Sadowsky 5'er, due to a very light body, has extreme neck dive, but it's so light that's not too big a deal. I should just move the back strap button. Or they should've. I'd use Duncans but I really don't dig strap locks.

Back to Pedulla, I'm a bit interested in a used one from the early '90s that's f/s here. Anyone know if that plastic truss rod cover can be found after-market or easily made by a pick guard company or something if a tracing is provided? The one I like has a missing truss cover.
Click to expand...


The truss rod cover can be ordered from Michael directly and dependent on what color of finish it is he should be able to match it. I had an issue with my Birdseye maple Thunderbolt 6 that was a teal color and I couldn't get it to photograph correctly so I ended up having a rosewood one made to match the fingerboard instead of the headstock. Looks pretty cool ! They are usually wood of the same as the top wood and colored to match the body and headstock finish.
 

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