Toby Deluxe V

[admh1972]

Well, I bought one of these today, arrives at the weekend and THEN I decided to google it, talk about impulse buying. I see a lot of people complaining about pickups and electronics.

I am thinking of buying a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz set before I send it to get set up and asking the luthier to replace the pickups for me with those.

First off is this just people having a moan about a low price bass or is there a real issue with the pickups? And secondly what are the dimensions of the pickups? No use spending $140 on SD pickups and they don't fit. I searched this question and most posts are a few years old now so would like some up to date information if possible.

I probably will never gig with this but would hate for it to sound the way people are saying all the same.

Thank you in advance for any help here

 

[Maxdusty]

Well, I bought one of these today, arrives at the weekend and THEN I decided to google it, talk about impulse buying. I see a lot of people complaining about pickups and electronics.

I am thinking of buying a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz set before I send it to get set up and asking the luthier to replace the pickups for me with those.

First off is this just people having a moan about a low price bass or is there a real issue with the pickups? And secondly what are the dimensions of the pickups? No use spending $140 on SD pickups and they don't fit. I searched this question and most posts are a few years old now so would like some up to date information if possible.

I probably will never gig with this but would hate for it to sound the way people are saying all the same.

Thank you in advance for any help here

I had the Deluxe 4 - to be honest, I thought the bass felt nice to play on, the neck is indeed comfortable but yes, the sound was the glaring weakness imo. Although when I had the bass and was checking on how to improve it (I didn't get to as I ended up trading it), I remember some mentioned it was the preamp that was the problem - I don't know if it's both the pickups AND the preamp that needs changing but the stock sound was definitely weak , so much so that I initially got a defective one - I bought this online so didn't try it beforehand . The Deluxe comes with that Tone Expressor Bass enhancement (yes, I had to google the name) - it didn't seem to do much or subtle changes at best.

 

[admh1972]

Yeah, I saw someone say that soldered the pre-amp out of business and kept the pups so it may just be the active preamp, got a Boss Bass Driver so I don't really need a preamp anyway, might ask my set up guy to do this first then if that is nee good get the SD's. I really like the SD's though, had them on an old Ibanez once and loved the sound.

 

[Chad Michael]

Had one of these for several years, loved the feel, tone, and look. The tone had big booty with the original electronics..... Tone well above the price point. Many compliments on the sound of this bass. Sold it because narrow string spacing isn't my thing.

 

[Chad Michael]

Maybe there was a different generation with different electronics, but this ^^ cheap bass moved ass.

 

[chris_b]

Well, I bought one of these today, arrives at the weekend and THEN I decided to google it, talk about impulse buying. I see a lot of people complaining about pickups and electronics.

Are you complaining about the electrics?

Have you discovered any problems?

 

[Reedt2000]

I've got an epiphone-made Toby Deluxe V. Personally I thought the electronics were by far the weak point. I bought the bartolini set from this listing

For Sale - Seymour Duncan 5 pickups/Barts

And they are a good fit. They're 59j long/long

 

[Robscott]

So if I've got this right you bought a new bass, now you worry that other people didn't like the sound of it, but you haven't played it yourself yet, also haven't got it set up, and anyway you aren't gonna gig it........ quite difficult to respond to that to be honest

Well, I bought one of these today, arrives at the weekend and THEN I decided to google it, talk about impulse buying. I see a lot of people complaining about pickups and electronics.

I am thinking of buying a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz set before I send it to get set up and asking the luthier to replace the pickups for me with those.

First off is this just people having a moan about a low price bass or is there a real issue with the pickups? And secondly what are the dimensions of the pickups? No use spending $140 on SD pickups and they don't fit. I searched this question and most posts are a few years old now so would like some up to date information if possible.

I probably will never gig with this but would hate for it to sound the way people are saying all the same.

Thank you in advance for any help here

maybe you should play it first ...... just sayin

 

[dpaul]

The preamp in theses basses was a Mighty Mite MM114, which is the Korean clone of the HAZ Labs preamp, commonly found in Spector basses. The pickups were usually rebranded passive pickups. These were great basses for the money.

 

[madmanmerc]

I have this bass. The passive 4 string. Bang for the buck it's a great little bass. Light weight also. Try it, you will be suprised

 

[Zoobiedood]

I will say the dimensions of all of the SD pickups are on their individual pickup pages.

 

[admh1972]

Yeah, it's true I haven't even got it yet and I worry already because I read people moaning online, I will try it and see when it arrives at the weekend. Maybe I am just a worrier

 

[Bass V]

imo the PUs kick ass, but on the Deluxe models the 'upgrades' were a step down vs the Standards.
as mentioned, rewire and it'll be badass. I tried 1 5er and didn't like the fretboard, my 4 is great.

 

[Hounddog409]

Well, I bought one of these today, arrives at the weekend and THEN I decided to google it, talk about impulse buying. I see a lot of people complaining about pickups and electronics.

I am thinking of buying a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz set before I send it to get set up and asking the luthier to replace the pickups for me with those.

First off is this just people having a moan about a low price bass or is there a real issue with the pickups? And secondly what are the dimensions of the pickups? No use spending $140 on SD pickups and they don't fit. I searched this question and most posts are a few years old now so would like some up to date information if possible.

I probably will never gig with this but would hate for it to sound the way people are saying all the same.

Thank you in advance for any help here

Doesnt it make sense to actually play it first and decide for yourself?

Who cares what people say or write on the interweb?

If you like it great. You didn't waste any money. If not you can use a tape measure to measure the pickups yourself, then decide on a replacement.

 

[sprekik]

Its tone can't be equaled to a Fender Precision nor Jazz bass, but it can come close to both if you try to pan the pups balance control only towards either front or bridge pups. Find the right mix between tone controls and the Tone Xpressor plus a little midrange frequency EQ boosts.