Small Upgrade to My MMB-4 Fretless.

[robin]

Hi Guys, just a quick upgrade I have done to my MMB-4 fretless. I’m only posting this in case it can help someone else if they are heading down the same track.

I was never satisfied with the tone of the original pickup. I think the standard kit probably has a ceramic pickup and it sounded tad thin for my “old school” mellow approach and I wanted something closer to my Fender Jazz. I can’t afford expensive boutique type pickups so I went with 2 Guitar Fetish pickups with Alnico 5 magnets.





To say I was disappointed with the outcome would be an understatement. This is not a criticism of the GF pickups but because I used the kit’s standard 250k pots. The 250k pots combined with the new Alnico pups made the bass quite dark and muddy. So I have replaced the standard pots with 500k ones and it now sounds closer to what I was looking for.

But I think that as the pickups are identical and as I extended the fingerboard to nearly 2 octaves I am not getting enough distance between the two pickups to make much of a tonal difference between them. So I might order a 1meg pot for the bridge pickup. That should brighten it up quite substantially and give me a greater tone choice between the two pickups.

I made a quick wiring loom that includes 3 ring terminals, so that if I do swap pots I will not have to solder an earth to the body of each pot and that should make changing and experimenting with pots a lot less painful. I have never been happy with my soldering ability and am always concerned about applying too much heat to the body of the pot.

This is the quick and dirty loom



And this is it all soldered up showing 2 of the 3 pots. So now to replace a pot all I have to do is solder the terminals of each pot and chuck it in the guitar. The ring terminals will earth each pot to the control plate. (The more astute among you may notice that I had wired the tone pot incorrectly. D’oh, I told you I have never been happy with my soldering abilities. Lol)



Conclusion:
I’m really happy with the update and the bass now has a lot more bottom end presence and a little more definition. Maybe I should have just tried an active pre-amp to the existing pickup, but for whatever reason I decided to go for twin Alnicos. I guess that as I have played my old Fender Jazz for 30 years I have grown accustomed to 2 pickups.

I should mention that I have changed the pot wiring from the standard kit’s V/B/T to a Jazz bass’ V/V/T. I have no idea if that makes a difference, but I thought I’d mention it just in case.

Cheers guys
rob

[wazkelly]

Good tips Rob.

Yet to hear the stock PUP in mine and probably 3 or 4 weeks away from the wiring stages of the build. This post serves as a reminder to check the values of the pots on Belcat pre-amp I will be using as 500k sounds like the way to go.

Cheers, Waz

[RalphH]

Nice bass there Rob...
I think the inclusion of a pre-amp is the best investment to be made to the tone of a kit and being much cheaper than upgrading pickups, perhaps the first option. I purchased a Belcat EQ B2T under NZ$30 including freight, and in my opinion more than makes up for any perceived shortcomings of stock PUPs.
With 3db of flat boost, and +/- 12db of boost/cut @ 85hz and 7khz, it was a real transformation to my old school (1980’s) passive Ibanez SR600, and consequently I’m installing one in my MMB 5 currently under construction. I'm configuring the humbucker for individual coil/parallel and series options, so in conjunction with the pre-amp it should cover pretty much all tone requirements.

Not too late to try one perhaps...

Cheers, Ralph

[robin]

@Wazza
No probs Waz.

I think you have the right idea to go with active pre-amp.

@Ralph
Thanks Ralph, like with Waz, I think you guys have the right idea. Unfortunately it didn't even occur to me. Hindsight is a wonderful thing isin't it? Its just a shame you don't have it before you do something stupid. lol.

I have 2 basses already, one being an Ibanez SDGR "something or other". It is an awesome bass with active pickups but I guess I was after something a bit different with the MMB-4. There is no way that a fretless with flat wound Chromes is going to have the punch of that Ibanez but hopefully it will find a permanent place in my arsenal.

Cheers guys
rob