Advice on "restoring" a 1995 Hamer 12-string bass

[tomteriffic]

It occurs to me that, if the "soundhole" P pickup is an EMG and the bridge pickup is an X2N, you've got an active/passive mix in there with each pickup requiring a different pot impedance. That could explain a lot of the extra switching, preamp, etc. etc., just in an effort to get the thing usable.

[hairbo]

love all the folks chiming in.

The neck pickup is a DiMarzio, not an EMG. Both pickups in the bass are passive.

[Hamer Bass Head]

The toggle switch is far more useful than a Kahler or other trem on a bass, but there were lots of those installed in the 80s on basses!

Bah!

[hairbo]

I got in touch with the original owner. The bass came to him with EMGs, and he swapped them out for the DiMarzio's almost right away, and had his bass tech put in the pickup switch and preamp. I've asked him, because I'm curious, why he switched to the DiMarzio's, but haven't heard back yet. If he replies, I'll update here. It's pretty fun getting to know the history of the instrument.

[hairbo]

Never did hear back about why the original owner picked DiMarzio's.

I had my local guitar shop put on a new nut (no small feat), and then they had to mess around with the bridge to really get the thing properly intonated, and now it sounds better. Not so much better that I don't still want to change the electronics, but better... (-;

After a long back-and-forth thread with a super cool guy over at bestbassgear.com, I think I've decided that I'm going to, in the long run, swap out the electronics for Delano pickups (humbucker at the bridge, P-bass style at the neck), and then install a Mike Pope Flexcore preamp. The beauty of this setup is that I'll be able to re-purpose all of the holes cut in the body for knobs/switches. The preamp configuration I'll get has 4 knobs (volume/active-passive, blend, stacked hi/lo, stacked mid/mid), and then I can use the current preamp switch as a coil-tap switch for the humbucker. Should be fun...when it happens.