John East P-RETRO 01 Description & Sound Demo (Retros P-2)

John East summarises the operational features & installation of the P-Retro 01 active/passive retro-fit preamp for P style basses. Phil Mulford demonstrates six different styles of bass part, with passive settings first, and then with appropriate active EQ settings.

Phil then plays a piece on his Overwater J bass, which has an East J-Retro 01 fitted. He uses this bass in his professional career for TV, music recording and live work.

The demo set-up involves directly injecting the raw bass signal into Logic Studio on a Mac, via an East STMP-01 with EQ bypassed. This setting gives a buffered and razor flat balanced output.

Category:

Music

[bohs1984]

This sounds great I really don't mind spending this kind of money for someting that works. BUT, all rechargable batteries lose their ability to hold a charge over time. Do you replace the recharagable battery for free when that happens? Is the rechargable battery easily replaceable by a standard batter or am I left with a hunk of junk in 4 years when the battery loses it's ability to hold the charge? This is why "green" tech SUCKS. Just give me a 9 volt option.

[JohnEeRetro]

Yes rechargeables do deteriorate taking less charge as time goes on. This unit uses the same technology as mobile phones & more recent iPods etc. The reason for the rechargeable is down to a couple of main issues - a 9V battery doesn't fit in a P bass, have to take out a bunch of screws, loosen the strings, at least if it did. The P-Retro does operate on 9V but you would need to make physical changes to a P bass such as fitting a battery box. Didn't want to doctor my 63 P hence drop-in unit.

[JohnEeRetro]

So it's about getting comprehensive control on two knob stacks, including power, into a P bass with no physical changes to the bass itself. As for replacement batteries, they are on a little plug, and are easily changed. The batteries aren't expensive but there would need to be a charge for them.

[0tt0kruegar]

i remember when the j-retro was 1st reviewed in Bassist back in the late '90s...i ordered 1 straight away and it was awesome!.so will deffo get one off these for my P bass....J East should win an award for his pre-amps is all i can say!

[dreadtodred]

makes that P bass sound even better

[dreadtodred]

that A string rings out



[johndough247]

Never mind, he said it's a 62 P-Bass.



[johndough247]

Anybody know what type of P-Bass that was? Looks like the Pino sig. model though I could be wrong.



[tonsilcrafted]

john rules!!!!

[mikemcgibney]

Fantastic. Phil is one of the best bassists around. Top session and live player and all round nice guy. Great to see him endorsing such fab products - I had a J-retro in a 75 jazz for a while and it sounded huge! Great idea to bring out the P-bass version.