Suggestion please for upgrade to Std PGB 5 String Bass PUP's?

Been playing a few different axes one after another and find the standard PUP's in the EX-5 sound OK but very low in volume and not as much punch as I would like.

Just wondering if anyone has upgraded their standard PBG 5 string Bass PUP's and if so what did you choose and what difference did they make?

Been looking at some Seymour Duncan SSB-5 5-string Passive Phase II Soapbars as they look like they might fit the holes and hopefully sound OK and improve out put levels.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I've got the same comment on my IB5 and wouldn't mind updating the pups too!
These Seymour Duncan look pretty cool and only 1-2mm smaller than the stock one based on specs... humm... interesting!

Saw some passive EMG & Bartolini's too that might do the job but they tend to be a bit more pricey. Reviews on Wilkinson's was quite poor and it would seem they are not much better than stock PBG's.

Hey Wazkelly I have EMG 40hz on one of my basses not a big fan pretty dull and lifeless. Someone suggested putting the pre amp in, which I haven't done yet. I have some Bartolini II's on an Ibanez bass they sound amazing. and John Bensons Custom wound on a precision Bass,they sound fantastic too.
http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2010/11...ng-your-sound/


Just saw these on Facebook the best of both worlds John Benson Pickups with Bartollini preamp. These are a 6 string version.
https://www.facebook.com/johnandheat...889863622405:1

Honestly SD's are $100 pickups with a $200 name on the covers..
Bartolini are great.
But for the money you could get two or three sets of Bensons wound to your specs and they will eat any name brand pups..
EMG HZ used to be awesome but they have gone off in recent years kinda forcing you to buy the pre amp in order to get any punch out of them.

Thanks DB & Kimball.

Must admit I was tempted by the SD's on the left for USD $125 and the EMG's for USD $109 each also appeared reasonable value. The Bartolini's are the priciest coming in at USD $175 each which works out around AUD $470 for a pair.....ouch!
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Hopped on the John Benson website and sent an email asking what he could come up with. Will post his response to this thread in due course as I am most likely not the only one considering such upgrades.

Be keen to see what JB can do for you.
Another great custom winder in the USA is Jerry Sentell. He makes some gnarly Bass pickups :)

Emailed John last night and below is his response....

Hello Waz Kelly,
Thank you for contacting me, I do sell that sized pickup in both wood or plastic cases depending on your build. The wood cases are something special for an earthy look which some builders really enjoy. The plastic is standard package at 4" x 1.5".

My tone is similar to an Ernie Ball Musicman tone in this pickup.This hand wound set uses 10 radial alnico magnets which give it a very full rich tone.

For the standard case, my price is $200 for the set and $260 for the wood cased version of this set.

PitBull is my Australian distributor, so I will contact them on how to proceed with this order if you are interested.

Thank you and please let me know if you have any questions.

Emailed back asking if he did 2 wire or 4 wire to allow for coil splitting and eagerly awaiting his reply.

sounds good Waz those prices sound reasonable for hand wound pups

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

sounds good Waz those prices sound reasonable for hand wound pups

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Beats the heck out of the EMG's at around USD $109 each plus postage. Bartolinis seem start at about USD $175 each but they make so many it tends to get confusing figuring which one does what?

There is a 2nd hand set of Bartolini 72M45C M4 (EMG 40) Size Deep Tone Dual Coil Bass Pickups on Ozzy eBay for AUD $150 plus local postage which works out about AUD $120 less than the JB's. Hmmm.....tempting as I have a couple of other moderately expensive upgrades planned on 2 other axes and only limited funds.

Basically I am staring down the cost of 2 kits across these upgrades but leaning more towards the JB's as I like the punchy mid rangy sound of that era MM and will have to shelve those other plans for just a bit longer.

If he can do 4 wire with coil split I'll go for it and wire up the same as the EX-1 by swapping one of the PUP volume controls for a typical 3 way switch and installing bourns push/pulls for the Vol & Tone pots. If only 2 wire, not a problem as that would save a few bucks through not having to buy the push/pulls and still sound OK.

I've just ordered an EMG 37HZ set from EMG for $178 (AUD). They're passive, apparently the right size. I'll report once installed.
The ones that came with my IB-5 were so low in volume, that I thought the Aguilar preamp I put in was defective. I complained to Bestbassgear about the poor volume, and they sent me a new preamp, which worked exactly the same. So now I have to put the first preamp in another bass ha ha, but not with those shite pups.

To be fair once I had lowered the action and also raised the PUP's a smidge they did sound better but not in the same ball park as the Custom John Benson's they were replaced with. Totally different tonal range plus more output, what more could you ask for? Would highly recommend them to anyone willing to make the switch and pay USD $220.

Are the EX-4/5 pickups 2 or 4 wire? Just wondering if 4-wire whether they were configured in parallel or in series? No wiring diagrams for the EX-4 or EX-5 on the Pit Bull site.

4 wire Simon and here is a link I posted a while back on how to wire them up with push/pull switches to coil tap them.

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=6476

Thanks. So it looks like they were wired in series to start with. Just looking for a possible reason for having such a low output and if they had come with the coils wired in parallel, that could have accounted for some of it.

Probably explains why most guys who build IB5 run an active pre amp on board as they use the same stock PBG PUP's.

I did notice that the IB6 kit is rather a mystery wiring-wise. It's got 5 pot holes. The kit description states two volume and three tone controls (and looking at the pics it comes with 3 capacitors), but the wiring diagram is for three volume (one master + individual pickups) and two tone controls. A kit that is really crying out for three-band active tone circuitry.

IB5 & IB6 should be exactly the same except for the additional string and slightly wider neck? They are after all based on the same guitar.

Surprisingly they aren't. Go and have a look. Definitely 4 pot holes on the IB5 and 5 pot holes on the IB6.

I stand corrected.

Had looked at IB5 many times before buying the EX5 but never took much notice of IB6 as it seemed too many strings for me to handle coming mainly from just a humble 4 string background.

It is a silly number of strings for a bass guitar. It really becomes a different instrument that just happens to look a bit like a bass.

Low B, I can understand, but a high C?

For a guy who also plays guitar that just does my head in. But if I think purely Bass, it does make sense. Still too many strings to contemplate.

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Low B, I can understand, but a high C?

For a guy who also plays guitar that just does my head in. But if I think purely Bass, it does make sense. Still too many strings to contemplate.

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On a long scale neck I'd probably tune it B - B and on a 30" scale E - E like my old Fender VI

( have I ever mentioned how much I miss the VI :D )