Bass elecrtoncs questions, Mods, How can a Epiphone sound better that a Modulus?!

[slicknickhaas]

I'm looking for some insight about the vast world of bass electronics. For the past 6 months Ive been playing out with a Modulus Quantom 5 with EMG's 18 volt, pan, vol, mid, treble, bass, and at first it seemed to has a very trebley or high tone sound, not much or none at all of the sweet fat low tones like my Stanley bass, but when run in to an Fb2 you can get just about any tone you want just leave the bass alone with the treble about 1/4 turn but the other day I picked up a Epiphone Embassy V with just a vol, active/passive nob, and one tone nob and when run clean with out the fb2, it blows the Modulus out of the water!how can a $300.00 bass blow away a $3500-$4000 modulus?! ether way I want mod my quantom 5's electronics or replace them. I realy like to put alembic pickups and the whole 9's but i'm not sure of what options or how far I can go, just a standrd set up like the site or could i put a series 2 set up in it? could I even buy them? would alembic be willing to do the work? or what other routs are out their?

[adriaan]

One sugggestion might be to set the controls on both the Modulus and the F-2B to flat, and work from that.
 
The reason to even mention this is because flat on the F-1X and F2-B is not what you might expect, like 5-5-5 - according to the FAQ section, Mica has stated that the closest thing to flat on an F-2B would be 2-10-2, using the numbers shown on the knobs for bass, mid, and treble.

[811952]

Strings make a world of difference as well.
 
Try setting your controls to flat or maybe even roll-off a bit of high-end..

[slicknickhaas]

to adriaan, very true, I've read the post on flat settings for the Fb2 and set them at 2-10-2 then adjusted them to taste but my FB2 is in need of some repairs so I'm not using it when I play out i think it has a grounding issue with the b channel and I know there's a capacitor in need of resodering on the board, as it is I set the tone almost all the way down on the modulus but I feel it should have more tone range than it has.
 
to 811952, strings is exactly were i'm starting I was thinking of going the flat wound rout,  I had a set of ernie balls on it, and right now I have a set of DR low beams on it but to date the sound remains the same, I've found that the ernie ball strings do produce a much more trebley sound but I put a set on another bass and it still has better tone range than the modulus, any suggestions on strings?

[811952]

I'm using cheap Fender flatwounds on my Series 1-1/2, and love it.  The tone just fits nicely into the mix, but there's still plenty of definition so what I do doesn't get lost (for better or for worse!).
 
John

[edwin]

Hm, I have a Modulus Q6 with EMGs (although no tone controls at this point, out of sheer laziness) and it's by no means too trebly. A very clear, defined and deep tone. I went through a lot of different strings when I got it, and it took a while to find some that were consistent top to bottom, but DR Sunbeams sound great on it. I use 30-120s (light gauge) and it gets plenty deep.
 
So, as a next step, I'd say try bypassing the electronics and see how that goes.
 
Good luck!
Edwin
 
There are a lot of variabilities from instrument even in a graphite necked bass (my neck is a 1991 vintage with the phenolic board, I'm not sure about the body), so maybe you got a not so great Modulus and a great Epiphone. I have to say that there aren't many Moduluses (Moduli?) that I've played that I like as much as mine. It has a very flat neck profile, a lot of them seem to be more of a C shape.

[slicknickhaas]

I really like the neck on mine too, its a nice flat neck and it plays like butter, and good pick up on the Epiphone. when i played it i couldn't put it down and for only 300 bucks with amazing tone and the neck shape is real close to the Modulus so, now its a part of my collection, thanks for the sugestion on the sun beams there great! I also went the Jamerson rout and put a foam block under the strings to give it a slight mute, but theres still not much range  on the tone, I've been thinking about upgrading to Bartolini M45cbc pickups and even putting the Bartolini HR5.4 harness kit in it. I have a good friend who runs about the same electronics in his 5 string and its got a great range of tone, with the push pull for active and passive theres not much out of reach, if i could I'd put Alembic electronics in it but for now the Bartolini set up is a little cheaper.