What you see above is a photo of Tom Ambrose, owner of what looks like an ordinary Jazz Bass from a quick glance. But it’s anything but ordinary.
Now before we get into the instrument you see above, there are a lot of Jazz Bass owners who love the idea of stuffing a preamp into a Jazz Bass, only to try it and ultimately give up for one reason. Lack of space.
The standard route on a Jazz Bass leaves you very little room to work where preamps are concerned. One of the few preamps that can be installed with no modifications is the John East J Retro (with this one in particular fitting a standard J Bass).
What would you have to do if you decided to use something other than the J Retro?
You’d have to use what’s known as a combination route:
This is pretty much as good as it gets when it comes to a “perfect” preamp installation in a Jazz Bass.
The J-Bass seen above is a custom build Sadowsky with absolute ridiculous attention to detail (note: the little bubbles you see in the wood are from protective plastic film and not the wood itself).
A combination route is where both the front and the rear have spaces made to fit whatever is needed. And where this route is concerned, this one is incredible. The black area is not a plastic nor metal insert, but rather carefully applied coats of shielding paint. The cover is secured with inlaid brass machine screw bushings, the output jack has a transparent boot for extra grounding protection, the battery has a route-within-a-route so the power source is kept as “clean” as possible, and there is even “star” grounding (seen top right) where all ground leads meet at a single point.
Do you have to craft something as good as this to get a preamp in your Jazz Bass?
No. The point in showing this is that unless you’re using a preamp specifically designed for the tiny amount of space of a standard J-Bass such as the J Retro, it is almost a requirement to make space in the back of the body to fit in all the new hardware. Note that we said it is almost a requirement. It’s still possible to stuff a preamp in a standard J-Bass body, but it will be a very tight fit and very difficult to install it “clean”.
In two of my J basses, I have preamps by Audere Audio. They are pre-wired, and have a notch cut of the PCB on the back side so you can put a 9v battery on its side. Wires from your pickups screw into terminal blocks. No soldering!
I also installed a 4 band Audere in my custom Jazz. Best on-board preamp I’ve ever had.
Easy preamps are simply the best ever
I just installed an Audere 2 band classic preamp w/ master vol. blend, bass & treble in a vintage modified 5 string jazz bass. Fortunately, I was still able to mount the M7 100k Ohm. audio taper pots to the control plate with the supplied mounting hardware with room still to spare for the small flat module. (This system is basically meant for installation similar to the control cavity pictured). I did have to route a battery box for the rear of the instrument but no biggie. Sounds killer!
That’s probably the best shielding paint job I’ve ever seen. They must have sealed and grain filled the compartment and then airbrushed the shielding paint in there. And I’m guessing they used solvent based paint, not the water based stuff. Perfectly masked off all around. They must have put baffle screws in the threaded inserts to keep them covered during painting. Unreal. Love that dog biscuit battery compartment!
I just installed an Audere 2 band classic preamp in a Squire VM 5 string jazz bass with NJ5FS Pups. Fortunately, I was able to mount the 100k Ohm. M7 audio taper pots to the control plate with the supplied hardware with room still to spare for the small flat preamp module. Note: ( This is just 1 of several variations of this system meant for front mount similar to the sadowsky in the post). I still had room for single 9 volt battery. But for the sake of neatness I routed a battery box in the rear of the body. Sounds Killer!
That looks like a custom formed insert to me made out of a high carbon composite perhaps. There’s what looks like a small fixing screw next to the jack socket, one in the side wall next to the black sheathed loom at the top and probably another in the battery compartment. Beautifully done nonetheless. Does anyone know what material it is?