DiMarzio Sixties J & Lusithand 800TS - A Pickup & Preamp Combo Made In Heaven - LowEndLobster Builds

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DiMarzio Sixties J Pickups: www.dimarzio.com/pickups/stan...
Lusithand Devices 800TS Preamp: lusithanddevices.com/product/...
Hey Everyone! Today we are upgrading my modified Sire V7 with a new set of pickups from DiMarzio as well as a new preamp from Lusithand Devices. The Sixties J Pickups from DiMarzio are going to be a sleek new look while still maintaining the same vintage sound of the outgoing DiMarzio Area J pickups. The Lusithand 800TS Preamp is modeled after the GK 800RB amplifier's EQ section and gives us 4 bands of EQ flexibility along with an unorthodox yet very effective passive tone control switch module. Together, these pickups and this preamp can create some KILLER sounds. We'll go over the upgrades, the install process, and the tones in this in depth mod video. Let's do this!
This bass and all my other basses with rounds are strung with SIT Foundation Nickel Plated Stainless Steel 45-105(125) unless otherwise noted. Check them out at sitstrings.com/
Info on my signal chain, setup and more: • FAQ: My Signal Chain, ...
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[@jasoncherry3404]

That bass is a tone monster, you can pull so many different tones out of that set up that you can play virtually any style of music.

[@duartebriz]

Man, those electronics have killer tone. The clarity and the umpf are amazing. They have a ton of different usable tones.

[@davidvitale9338]

I have two 1980's 800RBs - that preamp is outrageous. Overall, the Mods were phenomenal Lobster!! Love them. As a side note, I could listen to you play all day. Seriously love your style.

[@LowEndLobster]

Thank you!

[@mark6302]

it's 800TSie baby! sorry i just woke up xD

[@LowEndLobster]

LOL took me a second but I get it ahahahaha

[@sunn_bass]

I really like Dimarzio pickups, generally my favorite bass pickups, I love their guitar pup's too. I have been eyeing these same pickups since I saw they came out. Thanks for a great demo of these!

[@LowEndLobster]

Me too and I absolutely adore these new ones. We have a separate video on the Relentless J's in a different bass coming later in MODcember :)

[@sunn_bass]

@@LowEndLobster can't wait to see that.

[@classicalthrasher]

If I had a modern Jazz bass, I would definitely get Relentless Js for it. The also new Relentless P (model P remake) are truly amazing! Looking forward to it.

[@johndelong9230]

For me this is what a J bass should be able to preform at. Top level results, I would buy this bass in this configuration over any I have heard. Great mods!

[@MrSparks54]

And they applauded with their feet! Awesome mod Lobster, very cool preamp and pups.

[@monkeybassness]

Man, thanks for the demo. I'm building cuurently a bass with these electronics. Hearing this it will be absulotely a winner!

[@marlen2801]

DiMarzio and Lusithand make great products... Awesome mod ..thank you for this great channel and give us so much information!!!!

[@DiogoBaeder]

I used to have a GK 800RB, best amp I ever had, and I miss it deeply. Hearing that preamp brings me back memories, man... thanks for that, love the tones you got from it!

[@patrickpeterson2174]

The pick-ups & the preamp sound so impressive that I will be purchasing both. And by the way, your playing on this video is very cool! Great job!!!

[@lfm4820]

Killer tone and Upgrade as well! Thks for the video

[@pjmuck]

Great tones and playing! The crisp articulation is superb. I still own my 37 year old GK 400RB head as a backup, which I bought back in the 80's and was my main head for years to my current Darkglass 900v. The GK has NEVER been serviced in 37 years, while I've had the Darkglass serviced 3 times in 3 years. And every time I plug into the old GK, I ask myself why I bothered to buy another head. I'm buying one of these preamps. They get very close, IMO.

[@samlelowitch]

Sounds really nice!

[@stephenclarke9512]

Hi lobster killer tone,definitely a Marcus tone for sure...wow love it, you get more and more techniques every time you review 😆

[@DiogoBaeder]

Just watched this again, and I still love the preamp. It has great power with it. And, you know the saying: with great power comes great responsibility. With that much versatility, it also becomes easy to screw up the tone in a mix and end up being buried below everything else. For example, if you cut those mids totally, that's almost certain to bury your tone.

[@randombassplayer_07]

Love it!

[@secretjourney4815]

Tone 1, neck pickup has a very dark Geddy Lee thing happening. Somewhere between Fly By Night song, and Freewill. Some very useful tones in there. Me likey!

[@TittiPotesta]

I have this pre on my Deluxe Jazz, and paired with Fender SCN pickups they are just an amazing combo with unbelievable tone options and combinations. Nuno is a great guy to del with and his products are just amazing.

[@johngeddes7894]

I never expected to dig these active mods, but they’re great. Especially #2 consistently had such a boss tone. Now, put a BSDS on your Casady bass with THIS preamp, and you’ll have the best bass on the planet. I guarantee it! Those single pole pickups really respond well to a good preamp!

[@Alfura11]

Damn that thing has some sizzle. Nice

[@davidblack8174]

I have been waiting on these pickups since Billy Sheehan put out a teaser picture on Instagram a while back, excited!

[@randomserb761]

I was hoping for some sweet syncopated lines when I heard that bridge pickup and you delivered!!

[@danademski3353]

Very nice....just bought the new Relentless J set for one of my jazz basses..................

[@pimcramer2569]

I currently have the lusithand double nfp. If I knew this was coming I would have waited😋

[@oleran4569]

It's on backorder....still coming, I guess.

[@pine3737]

The GK RB800 was a game changer back in the day! You either had an SVT or you didn't, period. The GK changed that, check it out I loved them. I have the Gen II V7 and were still coming to terms, so it's been sitting on the back burner. I think you identified my problem the pickup and EQ. As always Thanks.

[@scottmatthews172]

Amazing tone you make that bass produce. I gotta get a set of those pickups if they have passive ones. They'd sound great in my Paranormal Jazz bass.

[@zacharydesjardins3701]

Lobster, I'm sorry I haven't been so active on your channel lately bit I'm loving these videos as of late. Loved the Harley Benton EMG mod you did I'm yesterday's video. This one is killer also! Dimarzio is such a sleeper for bass pickups. They need more bass options.

[@LowEndLobster]

Hey Zachary! Glad to see you on here. Thank you for the kind words :) DiMarzio rules, really love these pickups

[@christocr]

Over the past few years I've come to just not like the "active bass sound" much. There was a time that I was just the opposite. But now all of my six basses are passive. So, I'm not really into the sound here. Nothing wrong with it, per se, but it just doesn't do much for me. I think my favorite bass tone right now is a passive jazz bass with 70s spacing on the pickups and the tone rolled back a bit. As for active basses, my favorite would have to be the old two-band on the Stingray Classic basses. I just like to keep it simple. Too many knobs to twiddle with tends to distract me from my actual playing. Maybe Leo had it right the first time around--passive volume and tone. As for the bass.. it's pretty sexy looking EXCEPT that headstock. Man, I wish Sire would rework that shape. It just makes me want to take a coping saw to that bulge at the end. I think the headstock shape they did on the early 50s P-bass recreation was a step in the right direction. I do love the white with maple fretboard, though. And the block inlays. The past couple of months I've had a thing for white jazz basses with maple fingerboard--I was watching a Ghost video one day and said, "Yeah, that bass looks cool!" So I got a white j-bass with maple board and switched to all black hardware. Now if I can just play with that Star Wars helmet on like the Ghost "nameless ghoul bassist" does!

[@PhullyNo1]

It’s like an esquire bass with that tone switch.

[@bassimprovjams3772]

I absolutely love the area J’s ! And such a killer preamp! I want a J bass just to have area Js in it! That bridge pup sounds amazing!! Love the 3 tone switches! Wonder why there’s no detent on the knobs tho, I need a J bass I know that much! Johnny. Got the one I only ever owned for one of his stingrays lol

[@meyersguitars2196]

Tone selection 1 middle in active mode sounds like you have engaged the growl circuit in a GK amp. Love it and yes it a little too bright when set flat.

[@het_gele_teken]

Lovely J-bass tones out of this modded bass Lobster. Interesting pickups from DiMarzio. The Sire does lose its 70's J-bass tone however.

[@VeitLehmann]

Love it! How does this compare to other 3/4-band JB electronics which you reviewed in the past? I'm mainly interested in your opinion on this vs the Audere ProZ and the John East J Retro Deluxe.

[@spynae]

So when are you going to try out the double NFP preamp in a bass? Maybe put it in a double-buck SBMM bass for maximum Wal-alikeness.

[@LowEndLobster]

I did in a separate series last year. I do want to revisit that with some better pickups though!

[@spynae]

@@LowEndLobster oh my bad, I'll have to check it out, then.

[@spynae]

It's too bad Rautia isn't making pickups anymore, there aren't too many multicoil options.

[@Bassdriver]

@@spynae w8 WHAT? Rautia went out of business??? He was the only one I know who made replacement pickups for old Aria SB basses. Such a shame :-(

[@miguelfernandes333]

@@spynae it's ok, there is Herrick Pickups and Turner Pickups.

[@kevinpelepako7381]

Sounds killer! I've had my eye on the Master Effects Super800 pedal, which emulates the GK 800RB. If only Lusithand had a way to emulate hitting the rails built into this preamp...sigh.

[@Bassdriver]

I've never heard a soloed neck J pickup sounding so close to a P-bass! Especially in passive mode with tone 1 and 2 settings. Both pickups together sound great too. Very "lively", so to say. The bridge pickup soloed lacks a bit of warmth in my opinion but the tone 1 and 2 positions on the preamp fix it ;-) Those DiMarzios are really something else. I want them when I get a Jazz Bass again.

[@DrCrazyRiffs]

Ok I installed this preamp in my custom and did not like the results. That bass is real finicky. The only one that it likes is the East. I put this pre in my Fender Jazz and yeah that bass has become my favorite. This pre is sick! Thank you for the review!

[@milkovic07]

I liked the bass knob more on the sadowsky, that one sounds like it boosts a higher frequency

[@bassclefconnoisseur]

Ha, Sixties in a 70's! Far out

[@dupajas4671]

Interesting pickups - I haven’t seen anything about them in the online gossip forum (TB). Looking at DiMarzio’s site, they have a new take on pickup coils with a “parallelogram” shape to bring the magnetic field and pole pieces closer to the strings - sort of like how you’d adjust a set of P-bass pickups. The new cover are really cool, too. I kind of wish you showed them in more detail…unless DiMarzio asked you not to… It is unfortunate for us 5-string players that DiMarzio doesn’t offer any of their pickups in the Fender Jazz 5 size (4.1” bridge, 3.9” neck pickup sizes). They only offer the short sizes that Sadowsky and many European builders use. I think they are missing a huge chunk of the US market by not offering those sizes, as I would definitely love to try a set of Area Jazz in my Fender Jazz V. I almost feel like they are purposefully ignoring 5-string players…Are you reading this DiMarzio…?!?

[@claudellwoods552]

I love the brightness but it would be great to have a little more bass also

[@sicilianmammalian]

Man you had me sold till you said it had no center indent 🤣 I gotta player jazz and she needs a preamp might switch to hum canceling eventually thanks for saying which screws to use cause I try to keep the originals in when I can to keep wood from stripping

[@klaymeister]

I'm a big GK fan. Why did you have to show me this? lol. If they truly based it off the GK design, then the more you add of any frequency, the wider the curve or Q gets to make it sound more natural. So it's a very different sort of EQ.

[@LowEndLobster]

Thank you for this info!

[@imurrx]

How are those Sixtie's compare to the DP-123?

[@nj1255]

Does the radiused pickups help when playing fingerstyle? Singlecoils are so thin that it doesn't feel like it should make a difference, but maybe it does? They sound awesome eitherway.

[@barondavis5692]

What year is your bass that you used? Thanks for responding to my queries. 🤔

[@jagpanzer16]

All I can say is KILLER!!!!

[@element-dh9dx]

Hey Lobster hope you are doing well, I am about to watch and like this video. You ever hear of a Kestral bass by PRS ?. This would be a bass you could review, if you are searching for new ones, thanks.

[@tim7of717]

How does the Lusithand compare to the one you used in the original jazz bass comparison? The Lusithand with the filters.

[@donellwoodard129]

I noticed you said you had to adjust the pups height. How do you know what height is best? For sound and balance between the two.

[@paulmiano4993]

Wonder how this may sound in a Harley Benton JJ 450 or 550. The control plate would have to come apart which may it make it worth the effort....

[@jordansankar2786]

So you put dimarzio 60s in the 70s position bass?

[@ronviejo4994]

Could that control cavity get any smaller? I really like DiMarzio's pups, I just can't afford them.

[@Feesh6]

Lalala lalalala building a bass with labster

[@LowEndLobster]

I need to do another one of those soon just to rehash that theme song

[@rejtkc1]

Such a shame you didn't compare side by side the original preamp with the new one.....

[@willistaylor4077]

Does this run on a Battery?

[@LowEndLobster]

Yes, the preamp runs on a battery. We are using the Sire 18v harness with this preamp. The pickups are passive.

[@willistaylor4077]

@@LowEndLobster I have just bought a Squier Classic Vibe Jazz Bass V. I'm going to mod it with Area J DiMarzio pickups and Flatwound strings. Maybe next year, I will look at a Active 5-String Bass, and keep the Roundwound strings on it.

[@willistaylor4077]

Have you done any review videos on any of the Cort Basses? Thanks, for your content. ❤️🎸👍

[@jordansankar2786]

Also why did you why is M and series instead of the usual parallel

[@jordansankar2786]

**wire

[@LowEndLobster]

The individual pickups are setup in series (humbuckers). The two pickups together are in parallel.

[@Waggel86]

Went to check out those 60's J pickups... they finally released the Relentless J's and the Relentless Middle now also comes as a P model with adjustable polepieces. Bye bye boomy Quarter Pounds! Already have G&K Plex preamp pedal so this preamp is probably not for me. Does sound great though!

[@LowEndLobster]

Oh yeah! DiMarzio released a bunch of new stuff. I haven't tested the Relentless P yet, only the J's and the Middle. I really want to do a Relentless PJ on those new short scale Harley Bentons..... mmmmm

[@Waggel86]

@@LowEndLobster Ben from Crimson Guitars built a fretless bass back in July. You can find the videos on their channel. Raffled it off and I'm the lucky winner. Custom one off hand built bass including a case for a measly €70 😁. Add a Relentless set, some knobs, maybe some push-pull pots for some switching options. Best sub-€500 bass ever 😉.

[@ampthebassplayer]

Not really an AMP guy? Aw...

[@bog_goblin]

He didn't mean it! And if he did, then who needs him!

[@doj8763]

Sweet