Bass Gear Review

Reviewer	Fran Diaz
Experience	12
Email	tallent@wanadoo.es
Review date	June 18 2002
Manufacturer	Seymour Duncan
Model	MusicMan replacement pickup and preamp
Price	NA
Item owned for	1-6 months

Size	fits the bass without mods
Shape	musicman
Type	alnico version
Other	no

-The preamp: I had already installed the preamp a few months ago with the stock pickup. Pros: The brittle, "electronic" highs of the stock preamp were gone, the mid control is cleaner. The slap contour switch is not only great for slap, it gives you a round, warm finger tone for softer styles where you don't need to cut through loud guitars. Cons: The installation guide is s**t. I was lucky b/c I had a wonderful guide written by Bill Bolton who had had to deal with the problem first. I found the low freq. control set too low for my tastes, but now I like how it works with the SD pickup, I suppose that they were designed to work together.

-The pickup: mine is the alnico version, never tried the ceramic. I have added a switch in the control plate for series/parallel operation. Series is louder, with more lows and mids and cuts like a knife, its like a StingRay in steroids. Parallel is the stock wiring: The tone has deeper lows (with the preamp set flat), and it's more refined than that of the stock pu. The G strings sings as never before, even when I roll off the treble completely.

-Conclusions: If you're happy with the stock pickup and preamp why change it? well maybe to try something new and see if you like it more, you can always go back to the original. I'm not going back to the stock stuff, sure it's good, but the SD is better (IMO and for my taste). I've got a variety of tones that the StingRay didn't give me before.

Clarity	90%
Punch	100%
Noise	95%
Tone	100%
Customer Service	25%
(I sent 2 emails in the past and never got an asnwer)
Value	95%
(need to improve the instruction sheet for the preamp)
Overall	90%