MEC, Bassline & Bartolini Soapbar

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wHi,

Is there any body know the difference between MEC, Bassline & Bartolini Soapbar?

My Dolphin Pro 5 has a Bassline soapbar PUs like now, I feel that sound is not good, the ex-owner changed the PUs or it should be Bartolini PUs.

I tried Bassline before, it is on my Thumb Bass BO 6, it sounds good, I am thinking maybe the PUs on my Dolphin is not bassline....

I would like to change the PUs, Bartolini is cheaper and easy to buy, it also have dual coil vision, the MEC is very expensive but it is the sounds of Warwick...

What will you do??
 
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i think bartolini will match boire perfectly. mec will do the job perfect as well.
bassline for my taste fits basses with bright woods the best.

i have all soapbars you've mentioned on my streamers. they sound all good but the barts has the most character if you ask me. mec have that typical and awesome warwick sound and bassline are pure rock'n'roll!
 
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That is what I am thinking, I try to order the bartolini Pus from bestbassgear for my Dolphin but out of stock, I order another set for my thumb 6 but not to sure if it's a good idea to replace the MEC pus....

The preamp they suggest for the bartolini is OBP, I am wonder if it is better than bartolini preamp too?
 
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IMHO Aguilar pre will be better than bart.
I have bart in my thumb nt(mec pu's) but want to replace it with obp.
 
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Hi ROOT,

Why don't you like the Bart's preamp? I have OBP in my Streamer, it's good, but I don't know about the barts pre, I just know it is better than bassline preamp....
 
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It's hard to describe but when we(me and my friend) tested bart vs. obp on Ibz SR3006E Aguilar gave more powerful and clean(maybe this definition) sound. More headroom, better lows and mids.
bart 918f is good thing but something is telling me that I should install obp and it would be better :)
 

lasteffect

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Ive seen two aguilar preamp basses on youtube... one with obp1 and one with obp3, there was a Faceless cover using an obp1 with a thumb bo, it sounded pretty bassy, but then i watched a couple different vids of a spector bass using the obp3 preamp... damn it sounded nice.

Note: The Thumb had MECs, wheres the Spector had active EMG Soapbars. I think every bass should have a 3 band preamo with mid sweep. :)
 
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Does anybody know how the MEC active soapbars (the ones that come stock with the wide-necked Thumb and Streamers for example) are built internally speaking ?
I've read that they are in fact split-coils. To me, it means that they will produce a single coil sound very similar to a classic J single coil (maybe an overwound one though).
How are the coils placed inside the housing ? Are they stricly in line (a la DiMarzio Model J) or offset so that, in each PU, coil N°1 picks up the sound in a slightly different position than coil 2 (like a P-Bass) ?

Any information about that would be greatly appreciated (didn't find precise enough technical datas on the MEC website and I don't want to disassemble my pickups).
 
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Florin

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Hi buddy,

The standard ones are as you said. SPlit coils, and they are not in line.

We created a new model for the single cut bass, and that one is humbucker, so two inline coils.
 
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Thanks Flo.
If they are not "in line", how are the two parts organized ? Witch strings does each coil pickup ? (is it BE-ADG or BEA-DG ?). Witch part is closer to the neck ?
 
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OK thanks !

For those wondering, (I did the metal spoon test), on my Thumb BO5 BN, the pickups are constructed as follows :
- one coil for the 3 lower strings (BEA), placed on the bridge side of the housing
- the second coil, for the DG strings, on the neck side.
 
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It's like P bass....inside MEC soapbar, it's like bassline soapbar, I wish MEC provide dual coil PUs like bartolini, I think my thumb 6 need more bass when slapping!
 
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