Glarry GJazz II MOD w/ John East J-Tone Preamp! - Tonal Transformation! - LowEndLobster Builds

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Glarry GJazz II: www.glarrymusic.com/glarry-gj-upgrade-electric-bass-guitar-wilkinson-pickup-blue-burlywood-sunset-white-p260.html
John East J-Tone Preamp: www.east-uk.com/product/j-tone/?v=7516fd43adaa
John East J-Tone Preamp (Best Bass Gear): www.bestbassgear.com/john-east-j-tone-01.htm
Hey everyone! Today we're doing a mod.... on a Glarry... But fret not, we're going to be transforming our Glarry GJazz II with the help of John East and the entry-level J-Tone preamp! Featuring a bypassable two band EQ with individual frequency target controls, this J-Tone is a fully featured monster of a preamp! Let's find out how this preamp will absolutely metamorphize our Glarry!
Info on my signal chain, setup and more: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6W9lZiMbLOarJI
Discord: discord.gg/dzrFMzD
Facebook: LowEndLobster
Instagram: LowEndLobster
Reverb Shop: reverb.com/shop/lowendlobster

[@jonsidell3338]

This is the bass equivalent of putting dubs on an old rust bucket. I wholeheartedly approve!

[@njtguy]

Great mod,you can hear the difference.The Wilkinson pickups are really decent.I know that it’s a budget bass,but it would be interesting if you installed any Hi Mass Bridge on it.

[@johngeddes7894]

Hard to believe what you get on a budget! Kinda restructures the thought process.The preamp makes that Glarry sound like a boss.

[@slimk3836]

I have similar pants.. great choice my man

[@Jaloja]

Random Battery owes you for promoting them. I love the tag line "If its not Random its not for me".... :)

[@MrJohnnyorange]

"Because........it's a Glarry!" What a snob! 🤣

[@jasonmasciulli8801]

Wow! That was a wicked easy installation.

[@etpslick100]

That’s why I LOVED John East Preamps! Made a already decent bass sounded better. Enough boost without over coloring the tone! Even the slap sound is clear. Nice upgrade.😌🎶👍🏾

[@mistral6996]

John East provides an other alternative: the J-Retro 01 which might sound quite different, be more "active" sounding. This could be the start of a great new series: how to turn your passive jazz bass into something more, whether i's a 100% active or active/passive jazz.

[@LowEndLobster]

Thanks Mistral! I have actually featured the J Retro in my Jazzborghini video that dropped recently. I've been a long time John East fan and I think I have most of his preamps. My Dingwall has the MMSR, my Jazzborghini has the J retro, this bass had the J Tone (I gave this bass away with the preamp), I tested the J retro deluxe in a previous mod series, and my Sire P10 has the Uni 5 knob pre. The only one I'm missing is the discontinued P preamp!

[@r.l.rachel740]

What I like is the "Body" at ~$160.00 Buy: 1) Roasted maple neck 2) Pick-ups of Ur choice 3) Preferred bridge 14) Pre-amp of your choosing and you can build a custom instrument to Ur exact individual specifications and tone aspirations. Ur own elbow grease is free & non-taxable. Lobster thanks for sharing as we all get better understanding ourselves by watching you.

[@joelitoholmesmusic8834]

I put a J Tone on my Vintage Icon VJ74 which also has Wilkinson pups stock! The pre made a big difference in the character of the pickups. I liked it bc it has the passive tone control that works in active and passive modes. It is also very transparent and doesn't color the passive tone when at detent. Then I installed some Bartolini B Axis pickups and *chef's kiss.

[@BullyThaKidd]

Interesting choice great vid

[@DMSProduktions]

It certainly brings out MORE of those pick ups! When you had it on the back pick up with some bass & treb boosted, you were getting right INTO Jaco territory! \m/

[@SuperFredIsa]

First minute of Week end, check KZbin and you are there Lobster ! good start for my Week-end , thanks

[@SuperFredIsa]

Hi Again Lobster, I was wondering, do you still have a Sadowsky preamp on hand ? Think it would be interesting to compare the John East preamp with the Sadowsky one, may be adding a EMG BTC in the balance, adding a passive tone control. Just an idea.

[@TheGAMEGod_YT]

LETS GOOOOOOOO

[@rmccain99]

I love it!

[@Below-Average_Joe]

This may be the most impressive project you have ever done, Lobster. Shield that sucker, and it will be a giant killer!

[@LowEndLobster]

Thanks Doc! I love these John East preamps, they are so transformative and accentuate the 'right' bits of the bass character without overly coloring the sound

[@devindickinson3903]

I think it sound great man really

[@Bassguitarist1985]

Great video! You should check out Tone-Monster budget preamps. I have on in my old Fairlane 5 string with the 3 band 18V and its pretty decent for under 100 usd. They have since gone to quick disconnects and screw terminals for bare wire. Very easy to install no soldering.

[@jamesmarkham7489]

Always my first suggestion for tone upgrade. Pups or preamp. Great tone out of a budget bass!

[@MegaTerryNutkins]

Would be cool to see some budget solder free (or at least minimal soldering) preamp upgrades, I've used the Artec SE series in quite a few budget backup basses and they sound great.

[@ramshaar2597]

The preahump lol gives a lot of good energys too this bass nice and simple 🙂☕

[@judecarpenter2990]

Sounds awesome for a glarry

[@martinheath5947]

I'd really like to see a 'braver' mod of a jazz bass (especially a cheap one like this) like relocating both pickups an inch or so closer to the neck. A more interesting mod imo than yet another micro refinement on a classic tone set we all know and recognise in our sleep.

[@KeithCopeland778]

This bass sounded quite good stock. The John East pre is a definite improvement but not a drastic one to my ears through headphones with KZbin compression.

[@6string_gus]

I have that same exact bass, i need that preamp asap!!!

[@paultraynorbsc627]

Excellent 🎸🎸🎵🎶👍

[@TheBeardofDOOM]

50/50 boost is mo betta 🤘

[@ChaelaThompson]

Sounds like Glary basses share common hardware with Vintages if anyone else has checked those out, not sure they sell them in the US but in the UK they are a staple in the budget market

[@Bass.Player]

Sounds good...

[@johnniedelong9322]

What a great sounding bass for the price before and better after the preamp you installed better. Do you think the the size of the neck has a lot to do with it, the nut width being the size of a P bass?

[@grantkoeller8911]

The easiest upgrade would be some high quality pure nickel round wound strings, with a truss rod adjustment, action and intonation also. How is the neck fret wires? Do they stick out?

[@oldasrocks9121]

The weirdest thing about these is putting a 42mm nut width PBass neck on a Jazz body. My sunburst was delivered with a twisted neck so after a partial refund I was actually ahead. Took a chance on a no-nane eBone Chinese jazz neck (the second one was good, lol!) Heavy!! Reech's big magnet vintage wind handwounds from Epic Custom Shop, very thrifty. DiMarzio pots and a TBX tone and a dark tortie pickguard. Might spring for Gotoh lollipop tuners but honestly that seems extravagant. Maybe...

[@StudioBrock1337]

First time seeing a John East preamp get installed. I don't know when I'll get around to it but I think I'll be throwing one in my Fender Jazz.

[@LowEndLobster]

Very easy and very worth it IMO. I have the J Retro in my Jazzborghini too

[@StudioBrock1337]

@@LowEndLobster I was looking at the site, I'm thinking of grabbing one for my Jackson Spectra too. Do you know if these are capable of increasing the output? I like how's the bass sounds but it's stupidly low output.

[@LowEndLobster]

Great question, Brock! Yes. the J-Tone preamp has a master gain control trim pot in the cavity for you to increase the output, and the J Retro and Uni preamps have individual gain controls per pickup! You have TONS of granular control with these preamps. Check out the manuals to see how much you can customize. You can set the higher and lower bass frequency targets, treble freq target, gains, bass boost only or boost/cut. These really do it all while also requiring zero to near zero soldering (ymmv, there's a few factors)

[@StudioBrock1337]

@@LowEndLobster Amazing! Thanks for the info, Lobster!

[@ewetoo]

@@LowEndLobster Also the tone caps can be swapped out in the J-Tone not sure about the J-Retro tho.

[@TheChrist117]

It looks to me as though the bridge is out of alignment and I wonder how much that affects playability, tuning, sustain etc.? That being said, the preamp makes such a difference especially with the Wilkinsons installed; good cheap pickups, in my opinion. Thanks for the review - food for thought, as usual.

[@georgebronner6767]

Great video. How hard is it to change the battery? And is there a passive switch? I only see the usual 3 controls. Thanks

[@ragetoca]

whatever you said about the screws on the bridge pick up was not audible...was it on purpose?

[@alphanumeric1529]

Would like to hear back to back comparisons. I've been clicking in the time line, but its a pita and ultimately fails to give accurate A/B comparisons. Thanks for the vid though!

[@rmccain99]

My money would have been on a set of EMG hz pickups. They are dead quite.

[@roadworn61]

Hi,can be installed on basses with passive pickups as Sire V5 ?

[@lucybarney1]

For the money Wilkinson pickups are pretty good

[@ampthebassplayer]

What do you do with the extra electronics and hardware once you've upgraded? Do you keep that stuff or do you get rid of it?

[@LowEndLobster]

It depends. I usually keep the stuff or sell it if someone is in the market. I have a lot of extra hardware lol.

[@sicilianmammalian]

Throw a preamp in a classic vibes

[@paulpuljic6025]

Would this drop in tone control work for the Harley Benton Fretless?

[@LowEndLobster]

Yes!

[@ChefBassBro010]

Hey Lobster. I just installed this preamp in my American pro ii jazz with fralin split coil pups. It sounds great, but it’s crazy noisy if I crank the treble. Do you know if this is normal?

[@LowEndLobster]

You might have to do some shielding and ground your shield

[@ChefBassBro010]

@@LowEndLobster thanks dude! Appreciate your communication ✌🏻

[@russellzauner]

Not even gonna pick this one up lol When's that Kyle Kim interview? ;-) But entertaining - you see, kids, the great thing about putting the preamp in is that I can also take it OUT. :-) Nothing is lost here but time. Nothing is gained but fun! WIN WIN

[@russellzauner]

clatter clatter clatter doesn't matter the pre, you can't get those HLK vibes off it lol it's certainly better than that, since the HLK setup that was here is what I measure all shit neck jobs against. *dooooooop*

[@lazyeye001]

Do you think that the extra cost of the J Retro is worth it, or does the J Tone do the job?

[@ewetoo]

I think it depends on the the job you want the bass to do. Despite the "budget" price (its not very budget in Australian dollars believe me) the J-Tone is designed to enhance a passive bass not replace it with an active bass. Apart from being a 2-band EQ compared to the Retro mid-sweep design it also comes with replaceable tone caps so you can modify your tone control rolloff which works in both active and passive. I'm putting one in my CV70's Squire Jazz so I can keep the spanky punky sound and use the preamp to dial in a bassier sound with a bit more scoop that'll kick it more towards a 60's jazz with a beefier bridge. In the process it should make a pickup upgrade easier not that the Squier pickups are at all bad.

[@lazyeye001]

@ewetoo I ended up going with the J Tone, and couldn't agree more with your comments.

[@Rick_Petrone]

Mr.Lobster, if you can make Portuguese subtitles available on KZbin, that would be great! I have a page about bass content, and your videos are very interesting!!!

[@marunikusbakufu]

Now that you've modded a Glarry, when will you mod a Hard Luck Kings?!

[@LowEndLobster]

Ahahaha I actually have a HLK mod video coming very soon, already filmed. It's Bully's green HLK bombshell 5. He put an Audere preamp in it already, but the stock pickups are just absolute trash. It actually sounds nice (with $400 worth of upgrades LOL!... though I did get them for free and the pre was installed by Bully)

[@marunikusbakufu]

@@LowEndLobster Ha! I look forward to that one.

[@wildizer]

so the J-tone premamp module works with existing passive pickups. I that right? you don't need to install 'active' pickups

[@LowEndLobster]

No, In fact I believe you need to use passive pickups with this preamp unless you get one with a different vol and blend value

[@grantkoeller8911]

When you tested the bass, I heard fret buzz and it sounded like action was too low.

[@PorchBass]

Amusingly good sounds from this cheap bassl