Outstanding crunchiness! Well done yet again, Lobster!

Bout time for the tone monster!! Been waiting for this one!! Wish u put a ceramic in it ... hay thanks for mentioning Johnny Lee long!!! He's the reason I heard of them!!! Johnny is freaking amazing !!!! Thanks again lobster

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jeremy! JLL is the man and a great friend of the channel

Lobster, REALLY glad you did a video on this. I have had an SBK-3AD for nearly 12 years in my 5 string Samick Fairlane 5. I run mine at 18 volts and it sounds amazing! The only kicker is that eventually the concentric stacked pots wear/fail. The old design used a stacked b100k and c500k for the mid/mid sweep. The B is a linear taper, and C is a rare reverse logarithmic taper! They have since redesigned the circuit to have a more standard stacked b100k for that function as well as the stacked bass/treble. Thankfully I reached out to guitar fuel and they sold me some replacement pots! I will tell you though that the only difficult part if you do not have a desolder vacuum gun is removing the potentiometer from the PCB. Once you get past that obstacle then the replacement repair is very straightforward.

Here for the slap & the slap sounded bang on.😎 Happy Holidays Lobster.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

:) Happy Holidays Lighthouse

This series has been EXTREMELY helpful. I'm not really an EMG guy but among the one brand combos, I think I preferred the EMG set for tone. I'd have to listen to things again to see if I thought another one was more versatile but if I had to make a decision at this moment, I'd go with the EMG. That Delano/Darkglass set seemed pretty awesome. Not sure it was the 'best' but it definitely seemed pretty intriguing. Having said that, not being a Stingray guy, I recently bought one of the Ray4s in satin black and while I don't hate the sound overall, I do feel that this Tone Monster pickup is a no-brainer as the first upgrade while keeping the stock preamp for a while. I got the bass for $219 so even with this pickup, the combo will be a bit cheaper than a stock bass in a different color. Thanks again, fellow crustacean.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks cz!

I love that you filmed this in pretty much the same outfit I’ve been wearing the past year - The COVID PJ uniform!

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Ah, I see you are a man of culture. These are my patented Tone Pants. Guaranteed to improve your playing and bass tone 100% ;P

Overall that combo sounds pretty good to me. The pickup is great value, and I agree and appreciate your honesty regarding the preamp.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Belman!

Very Nice. I could sure handle having all of this tone to jam with. I've gotten too sick with Heart Failure to play with other musicians anymore (though I'm hoping just maybe), but I want to record a batch of songs. Anyway, love you man.

It’s good....I’m going to have to go back and listen to them all back to back. Not a bad deal tho. When you get up tomorrow morning....pick up your Rickenbacker (either one) and just enjoy it’s magic. You’re awesome buddy, Cheers

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Tommy! :) Merry Christmas!

The stacked concentric mid/mid sweep, the bottom knob is the mid cut/boost and the top knob is the sweep. It also only boosts/cuts 6db between a range of 1khz and 3khz.

@tedbrookins

3 ай бұрын

Subtle, but nice to have! Can’t fault it.

This actually sounds good

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Yeah the pickup is where it's at for 50 bucks!

This set of electronics, again, does what it should, has a great amount of variability and interesting control scheme within a set of tonal bounds that never gets too extreme. If I had never seen Johnny Long run a PILE of these things I would call this setup a great upgrade for someone who wants a little more out of their

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Russell! Great comment!

That's a very tasty preamp. I usually drool over sweepable mid controls, this is no exception. The overall sound is very nice, I give it a 2nd place for now. Great one!

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! :)

Oh the good ol sounds of a stingray. And for 110 thats amazing.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

:)

Wow this is very useful. I have an older RAY 4 model (huge SUB logo). I recently changed the default and faulty chinese preamp for an Artec SE-2A ( korean, I think) , which is a very cheap preamp (20 $) , keep the original pickup, and the difference in sound is huge and amazing, it sounds almost identical to those expensive preamps and pickups like aguilar and EMG. I think, for this kind of basses , a cheap but decent preamp can make a huge difference. Great job by the way, love your channel, greetings from Chile!

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you Funky! :)

Great presentation....The mid concentric potentiometer's top knob is the mid sweep while the bottom handles the amount of decibels. I noticed that you were adjusting it in the reversed fashion where you'll be unable to coax the amount of mid increase or decrease volume.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Marry Christmas Mr & Mrs Lobster🙏🙏🙏

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! You too :)

Good to know about this company! There are limited sub $100 MM 4-wire pickups for those who want to modify HH Sterlings which have that crazy w/5-way super-switch.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Indeed! This would be a great upgrade for those. $100 for two pickups paired with the stock preamp would be great.

Shadda Ka Ka that's impressive sounding and not just for for the price! Wow! Thanks Lobster! Edit: this if on a budget, EMG if ya got a few more bucks IMO.

@andrewlookenbill3249

3 жыл бұрын

That was my thought as well! Doesn’t sound bad but if I had an unlimited budget I really liked the EMG’s!

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Bass Clef! Shadda Ka Ka!

Despite it being unconventional, this is a preamp for somebody like me. I usually don't make adjustments on preamps because they are too drastic.

@PorchBass

3 жыл бұрын

I always had a loop of the house mixer turning me down in the pa and boosting bass to compensate on stage. By the end of some gigs I was just fully bass with no top notes. It is dangerous

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Klay! Indeed, and at center it sounded quite solid.

I have a variation of this bass that I purchased a year or so ago, at a price too good to pass up. So...not wanting to spend a ton of money on a Very inexpensive bass I, this week and based on this video, purchased and changed the stock pickup to this Tone Monster. I also kept the stock preamp (again based on Lobster's recommendation). I am not exaggerating that it transformed this instrument. I will now be quite happy to gig this bass anytime, anywhere with no apologizes. The only way I can describe it is that it went from somewhat anemic, average, sounding to a fuller, richer, tighter, more controlled, bloom if you will. Oh course my Mesa rig makes all my basses sound great but there was a Very noticeable improvement in the sound of this particular instrument and even after a $50.00 upgrade I'm still under the retail price of the bass and in fact can say that it now sounds like a bass costing at least twice as much. And as a disclaimer...NO I am not affiliated with Guitar Fuel in any way, never even heard of them before now and I did watch a couple of Johnny Long videos before I purchased. So Thank you Lobster, great video! Keep em comin'.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Thank you for sharing! Enjoy :)

beautiful sound, but where can I find the tone monster pickup?

Quick question: did you have to solder additional grounding wires for ground wire to bridge? Thanks.

Ok, ok. I get where this set is coming from. And after further reviewing, I realy feel the bart pickup for warmth. The EMG for clarity. The EMG wins over all, as far as this set, one of the better preamps would do it justice nicely. This one just falls short. There is my 2 cents on all this, now to go buy a SUB and EMG set and get to work, lol

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ryan! I'm right there with you haha

Sounds good escially in slap mode i am not crazy on the colour still it sounds real good enjoy

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ram!

Where can we find the tm pickup I can’t find one

For the price this combo seems quite nice.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks James! Indeed, though I hear their other preamp series is better. Will need to check one out!

Tone monster has some crazy deals

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Indeed, nice dude running the show there too

Think the Tone Monster SEB preamp would be a better choice. They are Johnny Long's favorite. Does not have the mid sweep pot but a 3 way switch to select frequencies and gain trim like the Bart NTMB. I've installed the SBK with P/J pups and they sounded quite good. Have not tried their pickups but it sounds like another good value.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Andrew! I think you're right, we'll be checking those out in the near future :)

So you deleted the blend pot in the pre-amp? What would be a good pickup choice considering Tone Monster no longer sells pickups?

This series has been amazing. Thank you so much! 2 questions, do you ever do online lessons and do you have a Patreon? After this great series I would love to help you make further videos. You Rock Lobster! (Pun Intended)

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Campfires! Both excellent questions, and the answers will be coming very soon via a video announcement ;)

@campfiresedge9395

3 жыл бұрын

ROCK!!!!

Tone monster pre- amp may work better in Fender jazz bass style instruments with exsiting active electronics and pick-ups.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ralph!

Sounds great to me. What strings are you using? Love the style and look of the bass.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Gary! Using MJC Ironworks NPSS 45-105 :) (though this might be a stainless set, ran out of NPSS haha)

Woooooooooo

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

:)

They don’t sell the pickups anymore 😢

Well, hearing all the configurations, my choice would be: -Aguilar pickup, it sounds Stingray 100% without touching anything in the preamp. -darkglass preamp: it would let me have the base stingray sound from the pickup, but letting me twist it with something different

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jorge :)

The Kent Armstrong Musicman pickups are quite good for the cost as well, if one is searching for a bargain.

@andrewlookenbill3249

3 жыл бұрын

I just bought a Kent Armstrong pickup from Reverb!

@jonsidell3338

3 жыл бұрын

@@andrewlookenbill3249 Cool. They have higher output than a normal large pole musicman pickup, so they operate quite nicely passive as well as with a preamp.

@PorchBass

3 жыл бұрын

+1 for a UK company doing nice pickups. My jazz set are completely convincing vintage.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jon! I didn't know they made one. I'll have to check em out at some point

Would have been cool if you wired each individual coil to the blend knob

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Brent! I'm not a fan of that setup at all IMO. I'd do a seires/parallel/single switch over wiring the coils like separate pickups and having a blend.

@110380michael

2 жыл бұрын

Hmmm, I was thinking of doing just this.

Are those pickups 4-conductor pickups? If so, did you set it up in parallel?

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

These are dual coil pickups running in parallel.

As you say LowEndLobster not bad at all! But I stick to my first choice EMG followed by John East!!!

@longdongbongchong

3 жыл бұрын

This is like a putting a Ferrari engine inside a beat up Ford Pinto. Why anyone would put $400 into a instrument you can buy for about $200 new on sale is beyond me. Many times for about just $300 more, you could find a good used US Stingray! For this bass I'd consider a $30 Artec pickup which are great and a generic pre amp. $60 max all in.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Indeed! I really liked the JE a lot. I don't think it's gonna win the poll, I might keep it and do some fun mods with it haha

@longdongbongchong

3 жыл бұрын

@@LowEndLobster I think I neat series of would be to see how little you could spend on mods to a bass. I've had several artec pickups over the years and they've been fantastic for the money. Also, guitar fetish pickups. Maybe you could model P Bass with a $6 eBay Chinese pickup and a $14 preamp which they also sell there. $20 pickup and preamp combo!

Not the best combo of the ones you tested but for $110? COME ON :D It's a bargain! The treble is set a bit high for me but overall it sounds quite good! I think that if you just want a cheap workable bass (maybe as a backup or for gigs where you'd prefer not to bring more expensive instruments) it's the optimal solution. No use dropping an expensive professional preamp into a ca. $300 bass but this here? Why not! Although, just as you've mentioned, just replacing the pickup and leaving the preamp would make most sense. Actually, I've wanted a SUB 5 for some time now. Black + maple of course ;-) And if I get that new job after finishing a course I'm attending, I think I might :-)

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Bassdriver! Indeed, not the best combo but for the price!? A steal! This pickup with stock preamp would be the best bang for buck upgrade, I don't think you can get an Alnico MM pickup cheaper!

Damn... I thought I could get one of those Harley Benton Stringrays and throw this combo in there. But it seems that Tone Monster Stuff is not shipped to Germany.

@nathanchalcraft6919

3 жыл бұрын

YEAH MAN! I live in the uk and I can't get one either. It's a shame because the pickup seems like really good value for money

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Aw that's a bummer. I have a HB 'Ray with a 2 band TM that will be part of the giveaway! Stay tuned ;)

Mr. Lobster 🦞 I'm not surprised at all with that preamp. I bought that same preamp 2 years ago and I had the same complaints. The knobs don't do much. The changes in the boost and cut is minute. So I ended up uninstalling after a week. Not impressed 😕

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Dalton!

The slap tone is not as chunky as the bad boy preamp, that's for sure. The pickup seems the star of the show. Thanks for the budget stingray marathon

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks James! So glad you enjoyed the series :)

That’s a decent preamp for the money. I know guys who install the preamps in their squier Jazz Basses and brought their Basses to life. But for the stingray it needs more ‘boost’ power. But for the price? Not bad @ all. The pickup surprised me @ how great it sounded. I can see that with a Nordy preamp. Gonna look up tone monster. Thanks Lobster. Great review!😌🦞🎶👍🏾

@vabassin

3 жыл бұрын

Their SEB series of preamps have an adjustable gain on the module, more boost than you'll ever need 😎

@etpslick100

3 жыл бұрын

@@vabassin So it WOULD give more boost to the MM pickup?

@vabassin

3 жыл бұрын

@@etpslick100 Works like the bartolini ntmb preamp gain does,definitely raises the signal from the pickup coming in to the preamp and a stronger output to your amp. I used one with an Aguilar AG5M pickup, has great tones but moderate output.

@etpslick100

3 жыл бұрын

@@vabassin OH Ok. Thanks. Will DEFINITELY give Tone Monster a look.😌👍🏾

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Will be checking out the different preamp line in the future :)

Its hard to follow with project Mint-O-Ray still in my head.🤔

@wesliggett2454

3 жыл бұрын

So totally agree! That was just perfect. I’m so glad MM is putting out such a great import line. My SUB 5 was a great buy. Now I just need another for my 6 string songs!

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Gerald! Yeah Minty is a special one haha

I think for the price tonemonster pickup is great though the preamp :/ ... its more or like stock ...

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Pratyul!

Hello Lobster, I have a MM Sub ray4 and I'm looking to change out the pickup. Been watching your videos and finally made the decision to go with the Tone Monster. Unfortunately, I went to their website and didn't see it there, then went on their eBay page to find out that they were sold out. So I messaged them to see if they were coming back in stock soon and they responded with "these were a short run and do not anticipate they will coming back." So that sucks. My question to you is, is there a similar alternative? Something that sounds good at a relatively low price? My original plan was to change just the pickup with the Tone Monster and see how it goes with the stock pre-amp for now and change the pre-amp down the line if I felt it needed it. Please help me decide on a pickup. Thanks Lobby.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Hey Pat! Bummer! I didn't know that they were only a limited run. Honestly, I don't know of any other 'name brand' alnico Stingray pickups at this low of a price. Next cheapest are the Seymour Duncans at $99ish.

@patbastid

3 жыл бұрын

@@LowEndLobster Wanna sell me yours? haha

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

@@patbastid ;P This one was part of a giveaway, long gone my friend. Sorry!

@patbastid

3 жыл бұрын

@@LowEndLobster haha I was only bustin' ya claws. Do you think the Seymour Duncans will sound okay with the stock pre-amp?

@patbastid

3 жыл бұрын

or should I just go with the Aguilars for $25 bucks more?

Nothing wrong with that price at all. Throw that setup in a Harley Benton, and you'd have a cheap little monster!

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Way ahead of you! ;) The HB Ray I have just got a battery box installed for the HB 2 band. Battery will not fit under the control plate

You know, I was gonna comment on how kinda weak the bass cut/boost is… then I remembered that these SUBs are infamous for their shitty 2 band pre-amp blowing up cheap speakers because of their muddy yet explosive boost. This is much smoother overall, and is useable without having to avoid the dreaded full boost mud. Still retains that stingray snap and crunch, so overall a good change up, mostly because the included preamp is so bad in the subs, not particularly because the tone monster is so great. Still, to take a 300 dollar bass and drop another 100 bucks for that budget musicman sound is a pretty great value overall. Gotta know what you’re doing though.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Nathan! Yeah the preamp was a bit weak, but the pickup here is the real star of the show. ~$50 for an Alnico MM pickup is quite the bargain.

I think the Delano is still the best

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Froge!

So I guess you are fond of black StingRays.

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

A wee bit ;)

damn im early

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

:)

Well, AliExpress 3 band eqs do more...

So Nice 💘💘💘💘💘💘

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Meh

@LowEndLobster

3 жыл бұрын

Yep, I dug the pickup but the preamp didn't do it for me. 50 bucks for the pickup though, not bad to replace that terrible stock SUB one.