Mec vs Bartolini

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agrume

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My corvette standard 5s is JB MEC equipped and my Thumb 6s is Bartolini soapboard equipped.
Personnally I find that the sound of MEC is harder, better for slap but less good for low medium .
What do you think of that?
What is the better method ?
Replacement of the MEC by bartolinis. is it possible?
or add a medium boost to the existing electronic?
Change nothing and add low medium on the amp, I've tried it but on my AER it doesn't really sound as I want it to sound.
In passive mode it is better but the output level is dramatically low always comparing to bartolinis.
 
I think the MEC active sound is a bit harsh on new strings but settles nicely after 2-3 weeks til they go 'dead'. Is it me but I sometimes think a bit of time spent trying different strings can save a lot of money on pup swap outs? E.g. I always find MM slinkey's a bit smoother than the WW blacks.
 
I think the barts are great but more for pedulla basses. I don't think the mecs are responsible for harshness or lack of joy in the midrange so much as the strings and amp settings. Besides if your vette is bubinga and didn't come with 3 way electronics you are left with the natural type of midrange that it naturally produces which is low mid dominant. I'm one of the few that actually like my wick issued black lables on my vette 5. lack of quality low mids is usually from the amp. You've got two great basses do you have a good amp? I use an ampeg svt3 pro head with hlf 410 cab. I would leave the mecs in and find the real problem. now if I can only fix my fonts.
 
By the way, I struggled with this same issue for a while and here is what else I found out. My local guitar store said that they could get the mid boost pot and hardware for the transformatoin for about 350 bucks plus labor. I never found out if this would have worked because I played one of thier neck thru katanna basses which has mid boost and decided to keep my vette standard intact. great pickups only pick up what your bass wood is putting out. try a bass made of different wood or different pickup placement. I also own a fna jazzman, most pros (which i'm not) own more than one warwick because they know that it is rare to find one bass that can do it all. The closest I"ve seen is the streamer stage 2 neck thru made of afzelia.
 
change of heart

Did some resesrch and found out that the sickest warwick sound I have ever heard, the nastiest slap tone in my opinion was done by one of my favorite bassists (Oscar stagnaro) on a 1990 stremer stage 1 /5string equipt with bartolini soapbars! By the way that track is in the latin bass book cd# 2 track 14. I don't know if all of these stage 1 basses sound like a rabbid dog badly in need of a cough drop but this is the sound I have been looking to reproduce for a while now. I have owned 5 or 6 warwicks at some point and played on a few more at stores but none of them did this.
 
I think MEC is the best for slapping uses (MEC maybe have the best harmonics)... I have basses with Di Marzios, EMGs, Seymours... And now my favourite are Di Marzio P/J configuration.

All depends for taste... and use. Barts have nice mediums, EMG have a beautiful "colour", Seymour a good natural compression, Di Marzio are very versatile & have a good growl, MEC is THE highs... You just must choose one... Or do as me! Choose ALL!
 
Absoloutely, I'm realizing that the pickup doesn't make the bass, it just helps shape it to your taste. I'll stay open.
 
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