We are excited at Bass Northwest to be able to offer the new J-Retro Onboard preamp for the "Jazz" style bass. It is a totally onboard active/passive preamp with the following features and drops into most existing "Jazz" style control cavities with little to no modifications.
The J-RETRO 01, pictured here, is designed to fit directly into standard "Jazz" style basses without modification, including a 9 volt battery. Its high quality circuit uses three stacked knobs and includes an active blend circuit plus a 3 band equalizer with bass, variable frequency mid, treble and bright function. A very gentle built in contour gives immediate color without detracting from the basic sound of any bass. The active blend circuit prevents the loss associated with many passive basses where, when both pickups are up full, the signal from one pickup feeds into the other and vice versa. A switch is included to allow a passive equal mix of both pickups. A second switch - basic "get-you-out-of-trouble" passive mode is included in case the battery dies in crucial circumstances, but this mode allows lots of useful settings too. If you have a "Jazz" style bass guitar you should have one of these pre amps.
EASY TO FIT NO ROUTING OR OTHER MODS TO YOUR BASS.
A STANDARD 9 VOLT BATTERY FITS UNDER THE PLATE IN THE STANDARD CAVITY IN MOST J-STYLE BASSES.
VOLUME & BLEND (Knob stack nearest the neck pickup)
VOLUME The upper knob is the Volume. This
knob has active circuitry after it so that the feed to
your amplifier is a low impedance drive.
BLEND & PICKUPS SWITCH The lower outer knob is the Blend balance for the pickups. Turn it fully clockwise for the neck pickup alone and fully anti-clockwise for the bridge pickup. The midway position, which has an indent, gives an equal mix of both pickups. The balance between the pickups is continuously variable with progressive level compensation towards the single pickup settings. Important:- The Pickups switch (by the blend) must be set pointing towards the jack for the Blend to function. ( See ACTIVE & PASSIVE diagrams for details of how this switch works )
BASS & TREBLE (The middle knob stack)
TREBLE (+12dB @ 3 kHz, -12dB @ 1kHz) The upper knob is the Treble control with boost and cut. The central 'flat' position is indented. The cut settings work on lower frequencies compared to boost to give a deeper sound when the top is rolled off.
BRIGHT (+8dB @ 7kHz) Pull the Treble knob for the Bright setting.
BASS (+15dB @ 50Hz) The lower outer knob is the boost only Bass control. The frequency band of boost gets progressively lower as the boost is increased. An indent midway is included to aid the setting of this control.
MID LEVEL & FREQUENCY (The knob stack nearest the jack)
BOOST/CUT (+/- 12dB) The upper knob controls the amount of Mid boost or cut at frequencies according to the setting of the Frequency knob. The midway indent is the 'flat' position.
FREQUENCY (150Hz - 3kHz) The lower outer knob is continuously variable and sets the Mid frequencies for boost or cut.
ACTIVE PASSIVE SWITCH (By the jack) Towards the jack for active, the opposite for passive.
POWER The 9 volt battery is switched on automatically when a mono jack is plugged into the socket.
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