Taranis vs Aguilar OPB-3

[lordie]

audere bring in by chern, i dropped him a email abt it last year but abandon the project until recently drop him another email but no reply ;p

so i bounce my *ss to tymc coz they got ready stock and can give instant gratification and i love how the tonehammer tone. very aggressive and from what i know tonehammer is as an outboard version of the opb-3

 

[fretless6]

Doesn't quite make sense though. Unless your pickups don't produce any freq at all around 6.5kHz. Even if they don't, boosting the treb to max on the Aguilar will still give u some noise, which you mention it didn't?

On a side note, personally I actually prefer the voicing of the Bart pre over the OBP3, which can be abit harsh and excessive.

 

[lordie]

nope no noise at all, i guess turning a full round my guestimate only give as much difference as 3-5% difference. its really very indistinguishable.

 

[lordie]

did a bit more research and something interesting pop up.

interestingly on bestbassgear: http://www.bestbassgear.com/aguilar-obp3-preamp.htm

"The preamp can be used with active pickups, such as EMG®, Warwick® MEC and others. Contact us before purchasing to make sure that compatible potentiometers are used with these pickups. " - eugene

 

[fretless6]

Drop them a mail then, Bestbassgear usually replies within a day.

 

[lordie]

aguilar engineers responded, they say the pups might be "too dark" they are working on a fix ;p

TYMC rocks \m/

 

[shinobi]

maybe cherns is busy with his family and stuff. i recently saw him at a supermarket in my area. strange cos he doesnt live in my area *STALKER ALERT*

 

[yuujin]

keep us updated lordie.
some guys from the warwick forum swapped their MEC pre in their thumbs to obp-3s and it seems like there wasnt any such problems.

 

[Resetti]

keep us updated lordie.
some guys from the warwick forum swapped their MEC pre in their thumbs to obp-3s and it seems like there wasnt any such problems.

if the swapped, probably not on a Taranis rite... it seems only taranis has a darker pickup voice, since the tuning is different from other corvettes anyways i think.

 

[yuujin]

hmm now that i remembered.
i do know someone that put in an obp-3 in passive corvette (J/J though) and it was fine too.

@resetti.
it could be the nature of the MEC MMs actually.

 

[lordie]

yeah still waiting for aggie engineers they told me my pups are "dark" dunno what it meant. so waiting

 

[fretless6]

When u slap/pop, ur bass still has the zinging top end right? If it's there, then I thinking claiming that the treble has no effect because your pickups are too dark is bullocks.

 

[lordie]

yeah pop and slap has that zing with the opb-3 last time not so pronounce the zing.

ty called going to take it over to the shop to change the stacked pots they got some solutions to it.

 

[lordie]

*update*

weirdest thing ever, remove the opb-3 and run passive thru the tonehammer and the same problem arise. the treble of the tonehammer suffers the same fate.

deduction is the pickup frequency is fucked or dark! need to change pups. lol

 

[fretless6]

Just had an OBP3 installed on my Benavente fretless. Similar phenomenon as the bass itself doesn't sound very bright. But just a side note, even without tweaking the EQ controls, the OBP3 is such an upgrade from the Benavente preamp. The Aguilar is so much more transparent, quieter, yet punchy in a good way. Love how the mids are voiced in the OBP3, perfect for fretless with roundwounds IMO.

 

[shinobi]

this is really something, 2 guys with 2 different basses having the same problem with the aguilar. maybe worth a sticky

 

[fretless6]

I've seen another person post on TB about the same issue as well. Using a warwick corvette.

 

[lordie]

gosh ... u got the same problem as me? this is getting bad.

 

[Resetti]

do you guys wanna revisit trying to make your pups closer distance to the string? like 3mm distance? if the signal is too hot, just turn down the volume.

this worked for me on my bass. When I got it, it's too bassy, and no matter how i turn my treble knob, there's no difference in the sound.

i lowered the action, and at the same time increase the pickup height, so that the distance of the string is much closer to the pickup.

after that, it was able to pickup the high frequencies and now there is a difference in the sound when i turn my treble knob.

fyi, my preamp is bartolini and pickups are custom

 

[yuujin]

hey lordie,

my MEC preamp recently died.
I switched to an OBP-3 and there's nothing wrong.
im using a SSI.

PS the only problem is I cant fit the damn warwick knobs on to the bass/treble stacked pot.