Replacing active soapbar pickups with passive

Rockbassman-yo

Rockbassman-yo

Jan 14, 2021
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#1
I'm new here so please forgive me if this question has already been posted and discussed:
I would like to replace the active soapbar-style pickups on my Conklin 5-string with passive pickups. Would this be a straightforward task or would it require replacing pots or messy adjustments? Other than my preference for the sound of passive pickups over active, I need to switch over to passive on this bass because the original pre-amp died and its replacement is way to hot - very difficult to control the massive (and unnecessary) gain; I have to dial the volume so low that it kills the tone.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
 
#3
Conklin does use a lot of active EMG pickups in their basses. Is that what you have?

What preamp do you have in there now?

What pickups would you like to swap in?

It really becomes a game of matching the new pickups to the preamp in the bass. It's hard to tell you what to do, or how complicated it will be, without knowing some details. This could be as simple as literally just swapping out the pickups and removing the +9v lead that used to power them.
 
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#4
Active pickups don't need an active preamp. You can probably just install the proper value volume and tone controls, though you'll need to know what the pickup manufacturer recommends for those parts.
 
#5
Thank you, dwizum - I hope it turns out to be just a pickup swap and battery removal. I believe the particular Conklin bass series is no longer in production; I haven't been able to find any useful info about the pre-amp. I do know that the original pickups are Bartolini soapbars (I believe they are humbuckers). I would like to replace them with split-pickup design or other full-range pickups.
 
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