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Tobias Growler PUP ?

M

monroe55

Mar 17, 2009
421
4
#1
I have a Tobias Growler @12 years old. I always liked the way it felt( thin, light) but it sounded kind of korny for the most part. It has all these knobs and switches contolling several aspects of each pickup ( Bartolini soap bar looking thing)and wide varieties of tone control but, each sound it "claims" to be producing is just a compromised version of the real thing.
Anyway I was wondering if its possible to do anything with this bass to make it usable. Is there a simple pickup i could get so I can replace all the crap that comes on this? IOW, I dont need a lot of "tonal" options. Just want to bypass all the knob choices on this bass by using one preferrable pup that sound decent without a lot of tweeking.
 

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#2
Last year my preamp blew in my Growler and I went thru a long and winding road to get it fixed. One option that was presented to me if I couldn't get the original parts was to basically put a Musicman setup in there, and to by-pass the preamp. I don't know why you would do it though. 98% of the time i play with everything flat.
 
#4
I pm'd you because I have been looking for a growler pickup & a harness for a project that I'm working on. Seymour Duncan makes a really nice Musicman style pickup (as does Bartolini), as well as two or three band pre-amps that would most likely be just what you need. If you decide that you want to get rid of your current p/u & electronics, please let me know. Thanks!


Moonshine :bassist:
 
#5
i also have that bass and the pre amp blew. i have EMG pickup and pre amp in there now and it sounds good. it is not very pretty from aesthetic point of view and because of that i looked into possibilities.

1) put a john east u retro deluxe pre amp
2) put an aguilar obp3 pre amp

both options will work with the bartolini you have there! i still have the emg, but i will eventually would like to put the original bartolini pickup.
 
#6
I also play a Growler, and have found that I can't find my tone out of all of the variations. I never thought to just replace the preamp.
How well would these other preamps fit in the cavity? Did you need to change any of the controls?
 
#7
Weighing in with my own experience: I had a 5 string Growler with the stock Bart pickup/Bart pre, and I wasn't pleased with it, either. I couldn't find a happy-medium between the 'boom' and the 'click'. I researched replacing the preamp and discovered that it was in fact 2-9volt preamps wired to the quad-coil pickup. I ended up replacing the pickup with a quad-coil offering from Delano, which I felt smoothed things out a bit (cheaper option than configuring two new preamps, but still, not cheap). In the end though, I traded the bass off on a Cirrus, which I like much better in terms of sounds that are usable for me.
 

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