IB-5 Pickups Upgrade

[SIMpleONe89]

Attention IB5 owners! Has anyone upgraded their pickups before? I'm looking for a punchier tone. Thanks!

[ultpanzi]

If you want that Ibanez prestige sound and can fork out a lot, bartolini pups are what are in the prestige SR's.

[Brendan]

Have been looking at it, but have not found something suitable to date. If you find something, let me know!

[ultpanzi]

If you want a punchier tone and dont mind rewiring your guitar, EMG has some that fit and you could have a more precise tone depending on which pickup you pick.
http://www.emgpickups.com/bass/extended-series.html
Their 5 string pups should fit.

[SIMpleONe89]

Thanks guys. I'm on a tight budget but I chanced about these Wilkinson pickups.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251336860351?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
I tried finding reviews or demos but can't. I had good experience with Wilkinson guitar humbuckers though! They're very worth the money! Maybe someone can check it out? I'm considering ordering one first.

[dingobass]

On a tight budget, I would first look at upgrading your pots and caps.
In my experience, the Wilkinson pups are no better than the PBG supplied ones....

PBG has Bournes 250k pots and Orange Drop 047 caps so I would try these first... you may be pleasantly surprised :)

[Timsan]

Wilkinsons sound OK, but they're not outstanding.

The first thing you can do is upgrade your preamp if you haven't done that yet. The ToneMonster preamps are good value for money.

Maybe have a look at Gotoh p'ups if you can find them... they're a bit of a step up but not much.
Edit: It looks like Gotoh stopped making pickups and have focused on hardware.

The EMG Hz are a bit of a step up from the average "decent" Chinese pickup Pretty good value for money.

Otherwise you need to splash out on a set of
- Bartolini
- Delano
- Aguilar (if they do a 5-str soapbar)

These are expensive but outstanding. You get what you pay for! I want to upgrade my IB-6SL P'ups to a set of Delano quad coil a bit further down the track. It will cost a pretty penny but I've heard them in action before and I'm very impressed.

Most basses will have passive p'ups and an active preamp. So don't get too hung up on the idea of active p'ups unless you like the idea of routing out enough space for 2-3 9V batteries!

Have a browse through http://www.bestbassgear.com/ to get an idea of what's available.

[SIMpleONe89]

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from dingobass on June 4, 2014, 20:35
On a tight budget, I would first look at upgrading your pots and caps.
In my experience, the Wilkinson pups are no better than the PBG supplied ones....

PBG has Bournes 250k pots and Orange Drop 047 caps so I would try these first... you may be pleasantly surprised :)

I've tried the humbucker ones and I was really impressed with the price. To be honest I swapped out my PBG pickups to Toneriders so I've never actually used the stock one hahaha. I'll try the stock ones on my tele this time round first.

[SIMpleONe89]

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from Timsan on June 5, 2014, 05:35
Wilkinsons sound OK, but they're not outstanding.

The first thing you can do is upgrade your preamp if you haven't done that yet. The ToneMonster preamps are good value for money.

Maybe have a look at Gotoh p'ups if you can find them... they're a bit of a step up but not much.
Edit: It looks like Gotoh stopped making pickups and have focused on hardware.

The EMG Hz are a bit of a step up from the average "decent" Chinese pickup Pretty good value for money.

Otherwise you need to splash out on a set of
- Bartolini
- Delano
- Aguilar (if they do a 5-str soapbar)

These are expensive but outstanding. You get what you pay for! I want to upgrade my IB-6SL P'ups to a set of Delano quad coil a bit further down the track. It will cost a pretty penny but I've heard them in action before and I'm very impressed.

Most basses will have passive p'ups and an active preamp. So don't get too hung up on the idea of active p'ups unless you like the idea of routing out enough space for 2-3 9V batteries!

Have a browse through http://www.bestbassgear.com/ to get an idea of what's available.

Thanks! I installed an onboard preamp before but I think I might look at active pickups with preamps. I'm quite limited by the control cavity's space and I don't have the tools to route a battery cover. Maybe next time...

[lawry]

I'm in total agreement with Tim when it comes to good value-for-money preamps. I've used ToneMonsters quite a few times and never been disappointed. And they are very reasonably priced.