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Upgrading a P Bass with a preamp
- Thread starter davisbass
- Start date
Turnaround
Commercial User
I put a preamp in my Precision. But I also wired it with a true bypass, which I highly recommend.
Hi davisbass 
Yep! But I don't know the Pope preamp
(I used a 2 band eq, a push pull volume pot and an extra passive tone pot)
A P bass on steroids can sound awesome!
have fun!
Wise(b)ass
Thoughts?
Modding a P bass?
And has anyone done this?
Yep! But I don't know the Pope preamp
(I used a 2 band eq, a push pull volume pot and an extra passive tone pot)
A P bass on steroids can sound awesome!
have fun!
Wise(b)ass
I recorded this on my Pbass with a preamp installed....Check it out!
https://app.box.com/shared/static/5ketg1iad5.wav
https://app.box.com/shared/static/5ketg1iad5.wav
My current project I'm working on will be a P5 and I'm planning on putting an Audere in there with Vol-bass-mid-treble controls. Kiesel makes a P bass model with active electronics.
BnB
BnB
I put a preamp into my Precision and found that I preferred it when it was passive!!
Sandberg makes a P style bass with a 2 band preamp. It's called the VS. There are some really good demos of it on YouTube if you search for Sandberg VS4. Not the same preamp but might give you an idea.
It's worth asking first... does what an onboard preamp can do give you something that an outboard preamp pedal can't?
In electrical principle, the answer is yes: remove any capacitance-related loss of fidelity and you've got a pristine pickup ready to get jacked. Esp with something like a Pope; I did a bit of demo listening and they're serious business.
But a lot of the inherent benefit is hi-fi clarity, aside from the obvious knobs at your hand and quality electronics stuff. If you play a P with zingy roundwounds, they're gonna shine! But if you have a Jamerson-esque dead & buried flats setup, well, there's just no high-frequency info for the preamp to preserve.
So I'd think about it based on how the bass is being used first and foremost. As noted up above, if you can include a bypass switch, that further increases the instrument's flexibility.
I wouldn't mind playing a Pope P. A PoPe. A Pope-urri. A PPope.
In electrical principle, the answer is yes: remove any capacitance-related loss of fidelity and you've got a pristine pickup ready to get jacked. Esp with something like a Pope; I did a bit of demo listening and they're serious business.
But a lot of the inherent benefit is hi-fi clarity, aside from the obvious knobs at your hand and quality electronics stuff. If you play a P with zingy roundwounds, they're gonna shine! But if you have a Jamerson-esque dead & buried flats setup, well, there's just no high-frequency info for the preamp to preserve.
So I'd think about it based on how the bass is being used first and foremost. As noted up above, if you can include a bypass switch, that further increases the instrument's flexibility.
I wouldn't mind playing a Pope P. A PoPe. A Pope-urri. A PPope.
I think he's saying the electronics cavity is just room for more tort.Upgrade a P Bass? What do you mean?
I've never tried a preamp in a P Bass, I find the outboard preamp/DI or amplifier give me enough control over tone that I never bothered to look further and the P Bass has a great basic tone so it doesn't really require that much tweaking. YMMV though and to each his own, I'm not against any modifications that will give you the results you desire.
I have one. Love the bass but not the pre-amp. The treble control is harsh but a tiny bit of bass bump is cool.
It may as well be passive for my needs.
Also have Spector NS2A which has a very signature sound HAZ pre amp.
Turns out I like my P basses passive.
If you do go active, I highly recommend you follow @Turnaround advice with an EQ bypass.
Thanks for the replies, I've got a few bass's like most of us. I recently upgraded a indo made yamaha bb with a Delano pre, wow, what a difference that made to my sound. My am Pbass was always my go to, but since l put the Delano in the bb, I've only been gigging with that. The pbass is much nicer to play but the sound of the bb through my rig is beautiful. If l install a pre on the pbass, I'll add a bypass switch so l can always go back to passive..
Exhibit A: Maru P bass. In-house Maru P pickup, Delano 3-band pre, active/passive modes.
Does it do anything that an outboard pre can't do? Yes and no IMO, depending on which pedal. It's a killer bass in active mode by itself, but into a drive pedal...
In my case, a Master Effects Super 800, or a ME Super Three Hundred.
Overkill? You bet! Standard passive P bass sounds?...Yeah, they're probably in there somewhere, but I may never find out.
Does it do anything that an outboard pre can't do? Yes and no IMO, depending on which pedal. It's a killer bass in active mode by itself, but into a drive pedal...
In my case, a Master Effects Super 800, or a ME Super Three Hundred. Overkill? You bet! Standard passive P bass sounds?...Yeah, they're probably in there somewhere, but I may never find out.
When I added a preamp (onboard or pedal) I found I needed better than the usual shielding.
I wrap-shielded my split coils, and replaced live wires with coaxial-shielded ones.
I also carefully adjusted PU heights for a more even output.
I could then crank more preamp gain without clipping, and in HiFi clarity.
I think it added presence and sounded less processed, whatever the preamp.
Marginal gains matter at the very start of an output chain.
I wrap-shielded my split coils, and replaced live wires with coaxial-shielded ones.
I also carefully adjusted PU heights for a more even output.
I could then crank more preamp gain without clipping, and in HiFi clarity.
I think it added presence and sounded less processed, whatever the preamp.
Marginal gains matter at the very start of an output chain.
