Passinwind

On 17/04/2025 at 12:14, JoeEvans said:

Which preamp pedals would you say have a distinctive tone, even with fairly neutral settings and clean sound?

 

 

I am of course rather biased, but one or another of these open source DIY jobs:

4 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

A different world...

Yeah, and one I welcome greatly after many many years of often watching the sun come up before getting to bed! Late shows at venues around where I grew up (i.e. near New York City) often started at 1 or 2 AM.

13 minutes ago, Bagman said:

Mt Hood = big fu**ing volcano 

Indeed. And to the north of where I live we have:

Mt St Helens

Mt Adams

And then Mt Rainier

What could go wrong? 

Not last night, rather last month. This place is out in the country up towards Mt. Hood in Oregon, about a twenty minute drive from where I live in Washington State. It serves an old nine hole golf course and when the weather's nice there will usually be at least 40-50 civilians and 10-20 musicians. The host plays mandolin and guitar and is conversant in many styles, so many players choose to use him for backup. Most of the open mics I frequent feature a lot of working pros, many of whom I've known for 20-30 years or more. I tend to sign up for a three song slot and then wait and see who gets shut out of the 10-12 15 minute sets, then grab a few and work out something to play. I also do solo bass sets with vocals sometimes though, or jazz duos with the host where we throw darts at his iPad and wing a few Real Book tunes. I subbed in one of his gypsy/swing/country bands years ago, and still have their book, so I can shed on a few tunes beforehand if the mood strikes too.

And then for the last hour we typically turn off the PA, circle the wagons, and go around the room with everyone getting a couple of features and a lot of learning going on. I am allowed to plug in my bass, and really weak singers might get a mic if the host deems it necessary, but it's all acoustic beyond that, and often sublime. Some folks just show up for that last hour, and the staff take a load off and relax a bit, while starting to clean up a bit. We quit around 9PM, which is official closing time.

This is the view of Mt Hood from the parking lot:

And then this was the last electric set, which I got pulled up for with no notice, just after I finished a set with a singer-songwriter I'd never played with before:

I don't own a fretted bass, but I had just finished a preamp install on that one and wanted to see how it sounded in a full mix. No advance notice of the song selection, but at least it was something I had heard 40 years ago...

5 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Maybe there is a little bit of people talking at cross purposes in the chat about L-Pads. If you're trying to design a flat response speaker then an L-Pad is not the way to go, there is only one position where it will be anything like flat and unlikely that most users will know how to find that point.

 

L-pads need not be variable, and many many are not. 

New body now finally done for the Marco Bass MV4 a few posts up the thread:

The bass lost just under one pound with the body swap, a nice surprise.

3 hours ago, FugaziBomb said:

Hello! 

 

I've been an on-and-off TB'r for a few years, but the mods have finally left a bad enough taste in my mouth for me to give up on it.  

 

On a thread about "Best Pedals for Ultimate Clean Tone," I posted a picture of an empty pedal board as a joke.  That was deemed offensive enough to warrant deleting my post on the grounds that I was insinuating bassists shouldn't use effects.  The ironic part is that I myself have a large pedal board full of effects.

 

 

I was asked to be a Mod over there a few years ago, but to me being a Mod and a Commercial User at the same time would have been completely daft.

And everyone knows that Clarence Fedner was too cheap to fix his original misspelled logo decals, so he just went with it.

On 22/02/2025 at 04:59, Rayman said:

It’s the word I probably hate more than any other when searching for a new bass……. “Upgraded”. The seller “upgraded” the tuners, pickups, bridge or whatever….. it’s a massive turn off to me, and usually turns me away from the sale. I want the bass to be as original as possible, so that I  can decide wether or not the bass needs any customisation to suit me, not the previous owner. 
 

Always keep the original parts, and put them back on when selling (imo). “Upgrades” hardly ever equal higher value instrument from the original stock bass, and you can re-sell those “better” (subjective) parts separately, and possibly for better gain.

 

Just my opinion, but I do like to see unaltered instruments (where possible) when I’m buying. 

The last bass I acquired came to me with no control holes or wiring in place, not even drilled for an output jack. Saved everyone involved a considerable amount of work and hassle.

5 hours ago, ezbass said:

 

Pretty much what was previously referred to as AOR. 

Or in the US, something that rhymes with "soft rock."

On 11/12/2024 at 02:19, funkgod said:

christ on a bike ! loads of great work there,

"The second version was two rack spaces rather than three, like so:"

that looks next level design, layout and everything looks really good.

you should be taking orders if you was in the mind to,

have you got a site up ? if not you should do one.

 

 

Thanks! I have no interest in selling production hardware at this time, especially in rack enclosures that typically cost a fortune these days. I do however love sharing open source designs with DIY'ers though, for instance: https://github.com/Passinwind/PW3B-LPF

I did have a website up for several years offering design services, but The Plague put an end to that dream and I just use it to archive info on my DIY stuff these days.

I recently did a new DIY preamp for my Marco Bass MV4:

Bass/Midrange EQ for the neck pickup, resonant LPF ("filter") EQ for the neck one, active mixing, detented volume pots with gain cut and boost available for each pickup. Stereo output possible but not currently implemented. I was recently given a second body for this bass, the new one has a bit of fire damage from the luthier's shop fire a few years ago but appears to be salvageable.

On 13/05/2024 at 15:06, funkgod said:

Thought id open this up as im interested in all things bass rack pre's,

 interesting to see whats out there and must be interesting for others thinking about getting one.

if you have one please tell us a bit about it.

I've owned Ashly BP-41 and Alembic F2B ones, both of which were very cool within their lanes but not quite my long term cuppa. As usual, I'd rather just roll my own:

That one is sitting over a commercial 1000 watt plate amp with DSP processing in the pic, but the power amp is now gone along with a more Fender/Alembic style rack job I did:

And then I've done a few tube ones:

...which uses 6SL7 and 6SN7 tubes. The second version was two rack spaces rather than three, like so:

And then my favorite is in a half rack width format, meant to fit side by side with either a tube one or a DIY 700 watt amp:

And then the very similar preamp in this integrated 500 watt amp build can be run completely independently of the power amp section:

I still own the first one and the last two, a luthier friend now has #2 and #3 and has taken both to his NAMM booth, and #4 belongs to a well known pro who primarily uses it in his home studio.

On 26/11/2024 at 01:14, Beedster said:

I wonder what the dudes over at Talkbass are making of this thread 😁

Just confirms what we all thought, really. Dude With Tudes 'R Us. 

More knobs = more tone. 

Or not, depending, but I have less than zero use for any passive basses in what passes for my world.

Modulate keys by circle of 4ths/5ths. Whole songs, not fragments. Interpose lyrics between songs, ignore the changes and do it all to one groove.

All of those approaches worked well in the one band I fronted for many years, but my stated goal for audiences was sit down and shut up, not dance monkeys. 

Here's my Marco Bass MV4 fretless, which is now on its third DIY preamp:

This time around I did a "filter" preamp for the bridge pickup, and a more standard Bass/Mids job for the neck pickup. Then the pickups are mixed to mono actively, for the moment at least. Easy enough to do a Ric style stereo breakout though, as the four conductor cabling has a spare available.

I set it up so the neck volume control mutes everything, but turning down the bridge pickup fully still lets the neck one come through at a slightly diminished level. The volume pots are detented with more or less unity gain at the noon positions. That allows makeup gain when big cuts are used, leveling out big tone control  boosts, and up to a whopping +24dB of gain at bass full up, pretty much still dead clean. There's "Q switch" for the filter resonance, currently with two gain options but probably with a third one added whenever buying the right switch is convenient. I play with a slide quite a bit and solo on many many songs, this new format makes grabbing a brighter more cutting sound trivially easy and although this bass has always sounded quite nice this is by far my favorite iteration.

On 02/11/2024 at 11:43, Mottlefeeder said:

I'm trying to squeeze as much bass out of a small cab as I can, and the constraints I have accepted are that I need the steeper filter to reduce the port velocities. So my filter does not need to be variable, which makes things easier.

 

With regard to digital options, the last digital circuit I designed was the logic behind a discharge-then-charge battery charger. I think it had eight gates in it. Also, learning new languages has never been easy for me, so I'm pretty much 100% anogue.

 

I'll check out LTspice and see how steep the learning curve will be.

 

David

 

For a digital possibility, you might want to take a look at the MiniDSP stuff, for starters. No programming needed, just a simple WYSIWYG interface and nothing to build yourself in many cases.

I've never looked at chaining two of my open source HPF boards to make a 6th order filter, but it might be feasible. If I needed that transfer function I'd probably just do a new layout though. Fixed frequency certainly makes things much easier in any case!

23 hours ago, Mottlefeeder said:

It's funny how when you only have a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail!

Thanks for the info - I'll check it out. (And thanks for correcting my typo which I only noticed last night)

David

Always happy to share starter files for fellow travelers breaking into the LTspice world, just PM me if you might find that helpful. I typically use a bit different 2nd order/ 2nd order format from fdeck et al, mine doesn't need a multisection pot and is meant to interact with the bass control in some pretty specific ways. There are lots of workable ways to skin felis catus though!

For steeper alignments like 36dB/oct I've just used digital solutions, FWIW.

On 27/10/2024 at 14:30, Mottlefeeder said:

Feeding WinISD'a filter calculator with the cookbook recommended Q per section for a two-section filter, I get two 12dB filters to give the same response as a 24dB filter. 

Unfortunately I cannot model the Rod Elliott twin 18dB filter design as WinISD only allows a triple 12dB design. But that gives me a design that I can  work with.

David

IMO LTspice is a much better tool for the job, FWIW. You can even run .wav or .mp3 files through your model and have a listen, if desired.

On 10/10/2024 at 05:07, rwillett said:

Hi,

 

I can see a number of excellent build diaries for cabinets, but haven't seen anything about building a FRFR speaker/cabinet.

Look at the old fEARful (sic) threads on Talkbass. Those threads are a bit messed up by now due to board software changes but the plans are still readily available with a bit of looking around. If you go this route you'll want the "True Three Way" crossover variant, which some TB'ers developed outside of the original designer Dave Green's purview. He did approve it somewhat reluctantly though.

I've done a few more uptown 15/6/1 versions of my own design too, but never really documented them that thoroughly.

22 minutes ago, Groove Harder said:

Through the headphone output.

Dang, hoping for you that it was the other one. 

1 hour ago, Groove Harder said:

 

Yes, if I plug my phone in I get music playing through 👍

Through the power amp output or the headphone one?

12 hours ago, Groove Harder said:

Afraid not. Probably struggle to find a schematic online, tbh.

 

I bought it hoping that it was just the switching headphone jack stuck open 😀

 

It would be nice to get it working as the only other amp that I have is a Joyo nano Thunder Bass 😄😄😄

I repaired amps professionally for many years and there's no chance I'd try to repair a high power Class D module for component level faults without extensive documentation and access to factory tech support/blessing for advice and parts. The modules are generally "replace, not repair" parts, and with good reason as they are quite complex, dangerous, and rigorously regulated for radio frequency noise emissions, especially here in the US. Does Thomann offer repair service on these? That seems like by far your best chance of getting it working.

Please be very careful, 300+ VDC is not uncommon in these things.

4 hours ago, Groove Harder said:

Could it possibly be the power transformer?

 

 

Probably about a 1% chance, or less. Do you have a proper schematic, signal generator, dummy load, etc?

3 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

We've been looking at designing a self build BC design active speaker for a while and there is no real shortcut or financially sensible way of going about this that we have found.

I'll be doing one for myself quite soon, but mainly for acoustic guitar. Supporting ground-up DIY active speaker builds for others would be utterly daft in my case, simple pedals are already a huge hassle.😉