Bass arrived today pretty good set up out of the box I had to adjust for some string height and intonation but all else is great plays like a dream.
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Hey good people,so I was bitten badly by the dreadful bug and decided that the sterling sub4 hh is great to play ,but the pickups and especially the preamp is letting it down a tad.
I have a budget of about £300, do any of you knowledgeable peeps have a suggestion for a decent combo of 2 pickups and a preamp that should work with my green hornet- that will work with the five way blade switch?
Thank you and all the best in dealing with our shared affliction
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It’s a little spendy but if I were upgrading a preamp I would take a serious look at the Darkglass Tone Capsule.
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Thank you. Yeah I did run into that one couple of times while having a look around the net. I’ll have a proper look
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They do a cool thing with the frequency bands where instead of Low, Mid and High they have Low, Low Mids, High Mids.
Plus it’s Darkglass 
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Looks like I’d have to invest in a push/pull pot too.just reading up on it , looks impressive!
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I would recommend going to a 3-band preamp regardless of which you choose.
I’d never stop knob fiddling then! 
So I’d have to change two of the pots to push/pull if I don’t want to drill her slender body,right?
Hmm, I might need a professional to do this…
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Ironically usually the knob you want to change is the midrange knob. Two-band preamps are a bit limiting
If the bass has passive pickups, another nice mod to do now would be an active/passive switch.
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I’m definitely in over my head with this then- there’s too many options!
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I wouldn’t say that! Just pointing out my opinions here:
If you’re upgrading the preamp, you should consider upgrading to a three-band because they are much more useful than a two-band.
If you’re to the point where you’ll be changing to push/pull pots, or drilling new pot holes, an optional mod to consider that is a very nice feature would be an active/passive switch.
Both are optional, but speaking for myself, if I were upgrading a preamp I would never take it to another two-band.
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John East’s stuff is quite popular, also for people not so good at wielding a soldering iron 
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Thank you both.for your replies.
I’ve seen the John East ones and the fact they don’t require soldering is a massive plus.
I really want to avoid the drill as the additional knob will not fly under the radar of the all seeing eye and I’d have to come clean about my problem,there’s bass related things arriving at the house regularly as it is😂
I’ve seen the active/ passive ones too and thought that would be good to have.
So if I was to stay with three knobs on the outside what would be the way to go?
Push pull on volume for active/passive
Another for the high and mids( is that even possible, I really have no clue) and bass remains bass?
I think my budget has been breached!
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While I am sure it is possible to wire up a push/pull pot as an active/passive switch I am not sure about how to do it. Active/passive switches are usually DPDT switches. If the push/pull pot switches are too, you’re probably all good
@terb might know better.
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I’m screwed:joy: should have just kept my squier PJ. Now all I do is google and fiddle with things! I definitely want to keep the same “face” without any extra switches. So a three band would still be an option in that case?
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sorry I have not read all the recent posts but yeah an active/passive switch would work if it’s a DPDT. it’s exactly the same switching circuit than in a “true bypass” pedal. all the push/pull pots I’ve had were DPDT.
the base logic is pretty straightforward :
and the best way to wire this on a DPDT is this one, because it allows the preamp to be grounded when not in use :
'hope it helps !
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Thank you! I’m in over my head , but at least I’m learning
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@joergkutter @Stando I’d encourage considering that soldering can be approachable. It’s going to make the mod that @terb suggests possible. The solder will melt into place long before it gets hot enough to damage a part. If the insulation on the wire is melting back, that’s your warning to stop applying heat. It’s very satisfying to make a perfect shiny joint. You can practice all day long on things that don’t matter to get comfortable.
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I appreciate the encouragement, Dave, but I figure there are a few things in life where I could see it is a lost cause for me from the get-go… and electronics is one of them. I am just not interested in it. Maybe it’ll come, but I doubt it… And soldering goes hand in hand with the practical aspects of electronics, and I think I will leave this to people infinitely more capable of it - so, I “modded” my P bass with this nicely prepared potentiometer set from the good folks at ObsidianWire 
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I completely understand and respect you honoring your limits.
I put the encouragement out there so people don’t get the idea it’s an automatic no-go.
For me it’s mechanical things. I’ve heard more than once, “How did you manage to do that???!?” referring to something I broke in an unimaginable way.
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