Upgrading my Yamaha

Since my Jazz pup on my Yamaha is shot I decided to replace it with a new pickup. I don't have a lot of cash to work with, so I ordered a Guitar Jones 5 String BRIDGE Pickup for a Fender Jazz Bass because dimensionally it fits the existing cavity though I'll need to make a new pickup ring for it (no biggee). It has ceramic magnets and large pole pieces that fit my string spacing.

Ideal? Won't know until I put it in, but any working pickup in the bridge position will be better than the non-functioning one.

I also ordered a Bass Mods 3 Band Active/Passive Bass Preamp with the 4 Controls and Chrome Knobs.

None of these, obviously are high end purchases and I'm sure don't compare to something like Bartolini pups or an Aguilar OBP et al, but oh well. I like the sound of my P-Bass pups in the Yamaha, but I'm really wanting more tonal versatility with the new band I'm playing in, and having more control over it on my bass will allow me to change the tone on the fly much easier.

I'll have to report back after I mod my bass and add to the mix on the these pups and preamps. I've already read a lot of the reviews and threads on them. Just have to see for myself. If I had unlimited funds I'd just buy different basses, amps and pedals, but for now hopefully this upgrade will get me where I want to go.

 

Recieved my Jazz pickup yesterday. Looks like a very nice quality build on it. Proof is in the pudding though.

Just finished my new pickup ring to replace the Yamaha one. The new ring is made out of craft plywood (less than 1/8" thick) painted black and poly'd. Can't even tell it wasn't stock.

Had to route out the cavity just a tad where the round mounting studs of the pickup cover are on the sides, but only about 1/8" into the body.

Obviously the stock pup will never go back in, but now if I ever decide to replace this pickup I can put in any standard size Jazz pickup.



Should get my preamp today. I'll have to do a little routing on the back to get the preamp module and battery in there, but I already had a place for my wireless that only needs a bit of tweaking.

 

Will do that later on. I'll show the old one too.

 

Here's a pic of my bass with the old stock Yamaha Jazz pup and ring on it. The stock Yamaha pup failed on me (broken coil wire from trying to salvage a disconnected lead...long story)...



And here's a pic of the new ring for the new Jazz pup I'm putting in (stock ring on left, new one on right). The old pup attached to the ring, not into the cavity, so although the new pup fits easily into the cavity, the side mounts on the new Jazz pup cover needed to be routed into the sides of the cavity and the wider ring needed to be made. Not too much work.

 

Pickup is all ready to mount.

Got my Preamp today and just figuring out the best possible layout in my cavity. Already have a battery compartment that also will house the Mid control pot. Just need to do a tad bit of routing to remove about 1/2" inside the control cavity to fit the module and the other pots.

I'll provide pics at some point. If anyone has seen how tiny the control cavity is on a Yamaha BB415, it's amazing how this preamp will fit so nicely.

 

Well, it's finally all installed. Jeez, that was a royal pain to get it in there. Tiny spot, LOTS of wires.

Anyway, I will write up a review after I get a little more work in playing with it.

In the meantime, I have to say that the OBP was definitely an upgrade. Like taking a blanket off the tone. So much control from my bass now. A very bright preamp. Not too noisy (the room I play in has a bit of electrical noise no matter what's being used, so I'll have to check it out in a more isolated room.

I ordered chrome knobs only because my options were limited to gold or chrome. They shipped me the preamp with black knobs...which is what I wanted all along anyway!

The Jazz pup is alright, nothing to brag about. It gives me some tonal flexibility, but I'd never run it soloed. The Yamaha P-Bass pup is VERY hot for a passive pup. The new Jazz one...not so much, but it's usable. I've always blended the old Jazz and P-Bass pups anyway.

OK...here's some obligatory pics. First off, there are no pics with the OBP in the cavity because all you will see is nothing but wires. I was lucky to get it all in there, even with some magic with the Dremel. It fits, it works and that's all that matters to me. Yamaha never designed this bass with electronic upgrades in mind and the cavity was barely enough for the three stock pots in there, much less three pots, a switch and a preamp module. As it was I had to put the midrange control pot in the battery compartment (which was already there back when I mounted my wireless transmitter onboard in that cavity).

Onto the pics...First one shows where I completely re-shielded my entire bass. I used aluminum foil tape and folded it where it overlapped. Tested it with my multimeter. The entire bass has a ground connection throughout and everything is grounded to a central screw into the aluminum.



Here's the pic of the front of the bass with the new Jazz pup installed. The knobs for the preamp are as follows (left to right)...

Push/Pull (Active/Passive) and Master Volume control
Pickup Blend control
Preamp Battery kill switch (while the preamp will allow me to play the bass in passive mode, engaging the passive function does not kill the battery while still plugged in. This switch kills the battery for me so I can play in passive and not drain the battery while leaving the jack plugged in).
Stacked Bass and Treble controls.
Midrange control




Anyone has any questions, ask away. I'll try to get a pic of the cavity with all the wires out of the way, but I didn't have time right now.

 

I can already tell I need to do A LOT of work with gain staging on my amp and Zoom B2 effects. Geez, I forgot how quiet passive can be. Been a long time since I had an active bass.

 

Here's a pic of the insides of the cavities.

On the left is the battery compartment (formerly my wireless transmitter cavity) that also holds the Mid control pot. On the right you can see how everything is jammed in there.

Believe it or not, the wires ARE moved out of the way for this pic! The cavity is only 2" at it's absolute widest and anywhere from 1" to 1 1/2" wide elsewhere. It's about 5" inches long. I had to do alot of work with a Dremel and the little drum sanders to clean out an area big enough for everything. If you look at where the preamp module is sitting, that entire area between the screw holes was all wood (the entire area where the module is now).

I tried to fit the module in with the battery but too many wires were too short to reach.

Sure as hell isn't the cleanest control cavity around but it all functions properly.

 

You know for $70 this is a pretty good Preamp. Set flat is is pretty bright. Seems to really open the tone up a lot. There also is quite a bit of tonal depth from one extreme (cut) to the other (boost). So much so that I really don't foresee me having to mess with my amp much anymore to change tone (save for my effects).

I play in a few bands with a wide variety of different genre's and I need to change my sound on the fly and this will work great, getting that slap tone, or that old school with flats kind of thing. I can't really boost the volume to the max with my normal amp settings, but when I did try it, I can get a very good, aggressive, grindy overdrive kind of tone.

I'm really digging the Bass Mods preamp so far. Together with my Jazz pup I now have a wildly varying tonal palette to play with. In hindsight, I should have gotten a hotter Jazz pup, but few passive pups compare to my Yamaha P-Bass.

So far, so good. Of course, this is just the honeymoon, bedroom review. I'll have to see how it sounds with the band (the only one that rehearses with any regularity). Hopefully we can get the band rehearsing in a couple of weeks. Drummer had bypass surgery July 1st and he's been able to play through our whole set by himself without any issues recently, so he's healing well and his doc gave him the green light.