mhoss32

@Kinkh Thats some ace work on the schematic, A really useful piece of work for anyone looking into this. @funkle, as you mentioned, the way i went about the "pick attack" feature is very similar. On the filter board (right) there are 4 output pins on the right hand side: 1. OUT (the filtered signal) 2. GND ( ground) 3. VB (biased voltage to pass to the volume board) 4. P/T (a clean passthrough signal from the pickup) These then feed into the volume board (on the right). when the volume pot is pushed in, the filtered signal is passed straight to the pot, so it acts as a normal volume control. when it is pulled out, it blends the filtered signal with a second signal, which is the P/T signal that is then Low pass filtered and boosted. the level of each of these 2 signals and the overall boost can be changed using the 3 trimpots on the board. the picture above is actually an older prototype, the newer version only has 2 red mini switches on the volume board. these can be changed to change the frequency of the peak for the pick attack mode: OFF - OFF - 1.5kHz (sharp peak) ON - OFF - 2.2kHz (sharp peak) OFF - ON - 2.1kHz (shallower peak) ON - ON - 3.5kHz (sharp peak) From your simulations in LTspice, it looks like the Wal boost in attack mode is much broader than the one in mine, but centre looks around 3.5Khz I got some great feedback from both @Andyjr1515and @benh, who have prototypes, so im still working on these. In terms of layout though, separating out the boards does provide some extra flexibility in terms of setup. using a single volume board, you can run the P/T pin (for the pick attack) from either the bridge pickup or the neck pickup, or have a switch to switch between them! The idea behind these was to make the system as customisable as possible, so the user can have a very simple setup similar to a wal (push pull for resonance on the frequency pots, and push pull pick attack on the volume), or add in additional controls if they want more tweakability like on ACG's preamps. below is a normal installation: (note the "jumpers" on the pins at the bottom corners of the board") One feature that can be useful for example is having additional settings for the resonance (such as ACG/Alembic filters). when the jumper is in place, the push pull is simply Low/High. but the jumper can easily be replaced by a 2 position switch, 3 position switch or pot for variable resonance: There are also pins / jumpers to change filter modes but that's even more complicated. sorry for the low quality JPEGS here btw, these are snips from my first draft at the instructions for these preamp boards. Id say that based on the plots you put up, it wouldnt be too difficult to simply much about with frequency values on these boards to replicate those plots very closely, although as you say im not certain whether some of the character comes from the somewhat outdated component choices. If @Kinkhdoes go ahead and build an exact copy of that schematic, ill certainly send one of mine over with matched frequencies to compare! Honestly the work of people on this forum never ceases to amaze me!! amazing work and can't wait to see the build progress!

No problem, always happy to know people enjoy this stuff as much as i do! I will PM you regarding sending you one over, i will have to check i have the right OP-amps in my parts at the moment but if not they can be easily sourced. The ACG is extremely clean sounding, i know exactly what you mean. im not entirely sure of the reason for that, partly i suspect it may well be down to the complexity of the signal path but im not sure. having not tried the lusithand preamp im not sure how they would compare, in mike's brilliant video on the last page you can hear a good range of the sounds. it can certainly get very gritty towards the middle of the sweep with the resonance turned up. It's worth mentioning that in the latest version of the preamp, the volume board can be configured as a normal volume, or as a "les paul style" volume, where the control layout would be Vol / Vol / Tone / Tone, in my first experiment i did it this way and had each of the volume controls handling a diffferent "pick attack" - the neck pickup with a treble boost (like the wal) and the bridge pickup with a mid boost about 1.4KHZ - food for thought.

@funkle I'd agree, the narrow band boost (Pick attack) is a very useful feature. the one sound generally lacking from these filter based preamps is a "mid scoop", which the pick attack effectively remedies in terms of frequency sweep not going below 150-200hz, (I mis read my own doc- these preamps do go down to 150), so early on i whipped up this little bit of kit: This was my test bed, which let me test frequency ranges down to 50hz all the way up to 7khz by switching all the dip switches in different combinations. the thing to remember is when we're talking about sweeping down and removing frequencies above the cutoff frequency. with the resonance turned down and the frequency backed all the way off to 200hz (or just below) you are actually starting to pull the Mids out a fair bit, leaving you with some low-mids and all of the bass. to my ear, sweeping down below this started to reduce the overall volume a little too much and left a very boomy bass sound with very little in the way of harmonics. I will admit however, it's totally a matter of personal preference, and with the addition of a pick attack going down to (and even below) 100hz would allow for a more pronounced mid-scooped sound. totally a matter of what kind of sounds you find useful. as i mentioned before, the upper and lower limits of the multi filter can be modified fairly easily (2 components to change) @MoonBassAlpha i did look into doing an SMT version, with some through hole components, but i never actually got the PCB's made up. i may well look into it once i get back into this, i did my best to keep the whole thing extremely compact, but its very tightly packed components on both sides of those boards.

Sorry for the late reply all, been away recently! @Rich many thanks rich, Think thats probably my favourite part as well! @funkle, I've been following your thread with a lot of interest in the end for this bass i settled on 2 different ranges, one for each pickup being slightly different the neck pickup was a sweep of 200 - 3.8khz i believe, and the bridge pickup was 200 - 4.5khz. The Preamps that @benh and @Andyjr1515 have tested for me have are slightly different: The board on the left is the filter board and the 2 res switches allow the user to change the frequency sweep: Switches on - 200hz - 3.7khz Switches off - 200hz - 5.0Khz and the spread of these 2 settings can further be tweaked by swapping out some resistors on the back. the push pull pot switches from high resonance to low resonance mode the second board is a normal volume control with a push pull switch that turns on a "pick attack" (very similar to Wal's pick attack mode), for which the frequency can be changed using the 4 red switches at the bottom. I had to pause a lot of my work on these, my original plan was to batch produce and sell them but my recent house move has take un a lot of my time. i wanted to make a preamp that could be super simple, but could easily be made way more complicated if thats what the user wanted (the ability to add resonance switches, resonance pots, and even filter mode switches can be added by swapping out a couple of little jumpers on the board, no soldering!). if people are interested i will post all the info on these in the thread

I may well enter, still have a few ideas cooking. I'll be interested to see if anything sub-6 strings makes the top 5 in either category

Loving this topic, really interesting stuff! In regards to the Preamps, I fumbled about with some filter preamps in my last build : They can be a bit tricky, but while i was doing the research i found that there were some fairly big differences between different manufacturer's filters: One other thing that the Wal filters have (aside from the relative simplicity of having a single frequency sweep and a simple hi/lo resonance from the push pull pots) is the "pick attack" That is a real challenge to get right. Ive got a couple of prototypes for a preamp with this feature out there, @Andyjr1515 & @benh were kind enough to give me some good feedback on the design so im still working on some improvements as you said above, multi coils are extremely time intensive to build, hence the expense! Really looking forward to seeing this come together!!

Not sure if i'm missing something along this journey... but if im not mistaken older Wal basses used to just use a Volume with a click switch at 0 So you wind down the volume to 0, then the switch disconnects the battery. might be worth looking into but not sure how easy it is to get hold of them in Audio Tapers Other option is to get a push pull knob and link the battery connection to that. My last custom bass had the battery pack wired up that way, and its a doddle to re-wire. no need for more holes or anything

Good Lord! Stunning stuff

Bloody hell... Thats a marvellous bit of work it really is. I shall pour a g&t, find a comfy chair and enjoy re-reading the thread! Congrats, a real achievement. You should be damn well proud

"more clamps is best clamps" -me, 2021

@Jabba_the_gut many thanks! Im looking forward to it too @Si600 thats a good question. For one thing im now certain i can reduce the footprint and improve the overall design. The coils need to be shorter and need more coils, and most likely i could move up to a 41 AWG wind for extra treble response if you were going to use them with filter preamps. Once i've had a go at a rework i'll be in touch! A 5er right away would be a bit overpriced IMHO, as it would mean a fresh design and reprint of the base pcb, but after a redesign it wouldn't be too tough i would think.

+1 for the EVO gold. both of my last 2 builds ive used it and im a huge fan.

@Andyjr1515 Thats High praise coming from you andy!! as i say, im extremely greatful for all the positive comments and encouragement @itu im glad you found it useful! i think one thing to bear in mind is that a lot of the veneers etc went to waste during the making of this bass, so in reality if i made another the overall cost of materieals would be slightly less. id hopefully be able to get 2 basses out of all those veneers second time around with a bit more knowledge... and i hope id be able to reduce the timescale on it now that ive done it all once and as i mentioned earlier in the thread, i wouldnt want to attempt inlays this complicated on someone elses bass until id had a bit more practice! Unfortunately for prospective buyers (but very fortunately for me) i've just managed to) buy myself a house, so a lot of my DIY time allocation will be going on plastering and laying laminate floors! then again if any enterprising builders in the north west fancy trading some hours for a bass then feel free to drop me a PM @binky_bass... what type of wotsits we talking here? normal or giant?

@Daz39, ive got a few ideas brewing as i mentioned earlier in the thread, a lot of the material choices for this bass were made with the consideration of "if this experiment goes to s***, how much is this going to cost me?" and so most of the wood choices were relatively inexpensive... as such id love to have another stab using some more expensive wood options in the future, and ive got a few changes id make to the pickups and preamps next time round as well. @binky_bass, certainly not too prying, im happy to share if it helps others! The wood costs were broadly as follows: Body wood - Padauk - approx £22 Body veneer laminations + extra veneers for the neck: approx £80 (these are expensive partly because they are thick constructional veneers, and partly because they cost a lot to ship) neck laminations (veneers /oak boards / rosewood) - approx £50 Namibian rosewood block for the neck through - approx £45 other various veneers etc approx £30 macassar ebony fretboard - £40 inlays - approx £100 Flamed redwood top (imported from US, bit of a difficult one to quantify as it came with a couple others) - approx $80 for the top approx $70 for the shipping plus import tax... probably total about £100 for the rest of the parts: Bigsby b500 clone (a good one) - £35 brass parts for customisation - approx £10 Tune - o matic bridge - £21 TUSQ graphite blocks - £12 Sperzel locking machine heads - £91 assorted extra hardware (inserts, straplocks etc) - approx £30 for the electronics: 3D printed pickup covers + switches - £33 truss rod - £16 carbon fibre in the neck - £32 PCBs for pickups, bobbins, preamps - approx £50 spool of 41AWG wire - £26 electrical components (resistors, caps, pots, knobs etc) - approx £40 bits for power supply + custom cable - approx £30 there were many other assorted costs for sanpaper, fresh router bits+jigsaw blades etc, and stuff i already had like the finishing products which i can't total up here. (if id had a swear jar in the garage id be broke) so based on that math, total would be somewhere around £850-900 ish. which is frustratingly expensive really, ive built some nice basses before for less than half of that, but there just arent many cheaper ways to do some of the stuff on this one. as for time, thats a difficult one to say. i think with all of the reworks of various things id hazard a guess around 240 hours, but maybe more than that. hope that is helpful to anyone wondering like i was saying, id like to do the next one with some fancier woods/veneers... just seen this fretboard blank for sale... that sort of gets the cogs turning

Thanks again so much guys! There's been so many kind comments throughout this thread and i so glad everyone has enjoyed it! I just hope it lived up to the expectations Daz, thanks! The sliders on the pickups switch the pickup coil configurations between 4 modes: 1. p bass 2. Reverse P 3. Jazz bass 4. Humbucking The other controls are: Push pull master volume, switching between stereo output with outboard power and mono output with battery power Balance knob Then each pickup has: Frequency sweep low pass filter 2 position switch between 2nd order (12db/octave rolloff) and 4th order (24db/octave rolloff) Resonance control from 1db peak up to 10db peak, with a push switch in 4th order mode up to 15db

As promised, managed to ge out in the good weather and get a few beauty shots! The scroll at the front and the rounded front of the headstock im particulary pleased with: and a few artsy shots on the grass and a few close ups of the pattern: Hopefully updates in the form of a couple of demo videos coming soon!!

@binky_bass Can't promise i can stretch a bigsby out to 6 strings, but you could get one hell of a pattern down the back of the neck! @HazBeen People often refer to alembics as "furniture basses", its a big compliment!!

Thanks so much Guys! @Hellzero, it does look really long haha, that 26 fret neck that far up the body gives it a somewhat stretched look, but overall its actually pretty dainty. the total width of the body is only about 33cm @TheGreeki know what you mean, but ive already got a few sketches of some more crazy ideas for the next one... as well as some improvements to some of the decisions made on this one, plus ive got a few bits of extremely nice wood for things like fretboards and body wood ready to go. i'm hoping to take some time to refine stuff and then see if i can find a customer for MK II

Sorry for the delay on this update guys, its been a hell of a busy week. Lots going on with another little project that i'll share with you all soon, but in the meantime: im building the external power supply for the bass. The original plan was to build a pretty simple pedal with a 12v input, and a normal 24v DC-DC converter. ive changed this plan slightly for a couple of reasons. firstly, this big DC-DC converter is fully isolated, a bit like a pedal "wall wart", which means that i can use pretty much any normal power supply and feed it into this (the input voltage range is 9-18V DC) with a 24V isolated output. the second change is that i found a rather natty red aluminium chassis on youtube, and liked the look of it better than a pedal. sometimes its just something that catches your eye! first step was tapping the holes for the bolts i wanted to use. these chassis come un-tapped so you have the option of different screw types: and once it was all jammed in together, this is what it ended up looking like: i think its fairly smart! plus its small and light enough to fit into a hardcase alongside the bass, so thats a plus. very simple: its just the 4 pin micro XLR on the front, and a DC Jack, a switch and a 1/4" jack socket on the rear, with a switch. the switch lets me flip between stereo output or mono output, letting me use the external power with traditional as well as stereo amplification. in the picture aboce the switch is set to stereo, with a stereo jack cable coming out the back. this then runs to the 2 inputs on the back of the Boss VF-1, which the runs to the 2 inputs of the Peavy IPR-1600, which outputs to the 2 1x10 Eden cabs below. this will hopefully be the normal setup for this, but i just need to carry a standard jack to jack to run it straight into any normal bass amp as well having got a few additional coats of the high build oil and a couple of coats of the Wax, the sheen was bang on where i wanted it. just shiny enough without really being "glossy" i realised there were a couple of small drilling jobs i hadnt yet done, so i used a spare Pickup pcb to drill holes for the threaded brass inserts that will accept the pickup screws: somewhat frustratingly, the gold screws i used for the coil height adjustment dont come long enough for the pickup mounting screws. one change id definately make next time round is shortening the coils to make the pickup slightly shorter. regardless, i did manage to find some nice gold hex bolts that came in the correct length that fit just fine, but with the rounder flatter head like these: So, all holes drilled, hardware in place: we're getting a lot closer now so no we begin to get into wiring... whcih honestly turned out to be not quite as painful as id initially expected! The battery board is a tight squeeze, but that was intentional. the 24v power from the XLR runs to both the preamps as well as to this board. i decided to have it this way up as the little check battery button and lights are visible. i think i may leave it loose in there once all is done as a well fitted cover should hold it in place just fine, and allow easier swaps of the three batteries if i ever need to do that. After lining the control cavity in copper tape, i started to run the various cables from the push/pull volume into the main cavity. some braided sleeving from my PC building parts helps keep everything from looking like spaghetti! The wires from the pickups, as well as the battery connections get the same treatment, wth some 2.54mm block connectors at each ens so i can easily swap the preamps in and out if need to and once everything is in place, it was time for a first fit of everything to see how it all came together... deep breath: the black and white control knobs im very happy with, and the tuners a sperzel locking tuners which seem to hold everything very nice and solid. i cut a fresh nut from another block of Tusq graphite, and strung it with some Optima Golds. they handle the angle round the bigsby really well and help tie the look together, plus they sound fantastic. This may look pretty close to finsihed, but theres still work to do. the cavity covers i haven't made yet, and i think there may be some component changes needed for the preamps once its all up and running but we're very close to a finished bass now once its all buttoned up, ill get some proper beauty shots in natural light, as well as some sound clips!

I too am on the switch train. more switches is best switches Great looking thing Andy!

Thanks Guys!! @LukeFRC, generally because the finsihing oil isn't so much the finish as it is filling the grain and adding some depth and colour. once a few coats are on and before the wax finish, ill keep wet sanding to much higher Grits

First round of finsihing is complete This first few layers are Crimson Guitars' High build finishing oil, over a surface sanded to 400 Grit. colour wise im extremely happy indeed, the contrast in the marquetry came out really nicely. the target is a nice even satin finish across the whole bass, which im using renaissance wax (conservators wax) slowly built up on top of the finishing oil. From this angel you can see the effect i was going for with the s matched top, with the flame of the redwood matching up nicely throughout the body the flame on the upper horn is especially nice. once ive got some more coats on and a slightly more even finish, ill get some nice close up shots. im also going to put together the power pedal, as well as the custom cable that will be needed for power/signal this week... and then its time to put it all together!!

@Passinwind thats an awesome looking thing! at present im working on +24v, GND and L and R channels in a 4 pin micro XLR for this one, with an option for either stereo or mono from the other side of the pedal.

@TheGreek Ive used these guys for inlay banding, the fretboard binding on my current build was made by them. good guys to deal with and they sell a lot of really excellent veneers too, albeit at a cost

Just a couple of extra shots with a bit more detail :