lemmywinks

The only bit that confused me was she mentioned the hot wire from the pickup as being grey (which it is), then said connect the capacitor from the 9v feed onto a white wire. I assume she actually means the grey one coming from the pickup. Still not sure what the actual pickup assembly is in one of these, some people say it's a piezo but Soloette say it's a dual mic. Suppose they should know as it's their pickup! Tbh I just really want this bass to be up and running as it's a great little thing.

Also if I was wiring this as in mono rather than stereo would I need different a value resistor and capacitor? Am I right in thinking she means wire the resistor to draw power from the 9v + and then connect this to the hot wire of the pickup, then solder a capacitor to this connection and wire that to the input?

Just had an email from the very helpful Soloette (who Aria licensed the design of the bass and pickup from) and she said the following: [i]"[font="Arial"][size="2"]I apologize for the delayed response. We don't think this preamp will work as is since it doesn't have power going to the pickup. P[/size][/font][font="Arial"][size="2"]ower has to come to the pickup from the 9v battery. You can use 10k resistors from the 9v positive side of the battery to each microphone in the pickup. The gray wires are coming from the microphones in the pickup. Unsolder the white wire from the preamp first. Now that's it's sticking up, you will add the 10k resistor coming from the 9v+. Then add to the same junction a .01uF capacitor leading back to the input of the preamp. T[/size][/font][font="Arial"][size="2"]his will power the microphones. Do you understand? Let me know if you need more details or take this email to a tech for help. "[/size][/font][/i] So the pickup actually needs powering directly before hitting the preamp? Like I said I'm rather clueless with stuff like this so if anyone could explain it in kiddy terms that would be great. Gotta say Soloette have been very helpful while I've been trying to sort this, I messaged them a while ago and they were really god even though they didn't make the bass. Class company I think.

A Markbass with the Compressore, a tuner and a mute switch would get a sale from me straight away.

In fact I have a small mixer I don't use any more as I replaced with an even smaller USB powered one, I got it given to me off here (cheers ahpook!) so I can send it to you for the cost of postage if you like. One of these: It has the power supply and a cloth bag, you'll need a cable to plug your mp3 or whatever in.

Just get a small mixer. Also has the advantage of being a mixer too so you can use it for other stuff. If you want to use your PC then software like Guitar Rig might be of use.

Dunno about the photo on the site, maybe they just knocked something up to show what it looked like? The parts I received match the description. IC has LM358N written on it and 6F008030, the parts list just says LM358.

R1 (the top one in the picture) is 1k, the other three are 100k. The three identical 100k ones were taped together in the kit to seperate them from the 1k one. In the component markings section R1 is labelled as brown, black, red and R2 to R4 are labelled brown, black , yellow. The instructions are actually really clear and easy to follow, I just don't understand why it doesn't work!

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1391826578' post='2361853'] Ah. In which case, two things that I'd double check as a matter of course would be: 1) Did you put the capacitors (C1 and C2) in the right places - you said one of them was different to the picture? 2) Did you fit the electrolytic capacitors (C3 and C4) the right way round? [/quote] The ceramic capacitor which is different to the picture is actually listed in the manual and described in the component marking section. C1 is supposed to be a 1u polyester capacitor, C2 is supposed to be a 100n ceramic capacitor with 104 written on it. The two electrolytic capacitors are in the correct places and are the right way around, the -ve side is markd out on the board. Here's a pic: Excuse the screw terminals, I wanted to fit someafter I first discovered it didn't work so I wasn't soldering to the board all the time but couldn't find any 2 way ones with a 4mm pitch so I had to improvise. There is electrical tape around them and nothing is touching, I'm getting some proper ones next week so these are only temporary.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1391822656' post='2361834'] Have you connected the output signal and the battery -ve/board -ve to the right lugs on the jack socket? [/quote] At the moment I have just wired it straight to a mono jack for testing, when/if I get it working I'll put a switch jack in. Everything is going to the correct tabs.

I built it from a kit and yeah there isn't much information on the Maplin site. In the box you get a parts list (with descriptions) and a good diagram along with soldering guides so that part is quite good. Will get some pictures up at tonight hopefully, lighting and 3 year old daughter permitting.

The pickup cable is screened I think, it's very thin cable with a copper wrap, the hot side is attached to a grey cable and the ground is attached to black one, these are wrapped in shrink tube. There are two of these as it's a stereo pickup. I butchered some old instrument cable and used this to connect the output to the 1/4" jack but this made no difference. I'm not getting any actual bass signal at all, just a constant hum which gets louder as I turn the preamp gain up. I also tried wiring the pickup straight to the jack but couldn't hear anything, I should be able to hear something right? Tried it with the original preamp and it worked fine so the pickup is ok.

So yeah, said I'd be back when it doesn't work and here I am! Wired it up and just get a hum which gets louder as I turn the gain knob on the preamp, no signal at all. I desoldered the wires to the board and put little screw terminals in and get the same result.Tried it with just one side of the stereo pickup and both, same result again. Can't see what could have gone wrong on the pre side of things as it's really simple and impossible to get wrong (even for me), similarly the wires are all going where they should and the battery is functional. Any ideas? As an aside does anybody know where I can get 2 way PCB screw terminals with a 3.8mm-4mm pitch? I can only find the 5mm ones and these are too big. Thanks Steve

All gone, enjoy Ghost Rider!

Well I'm only joking, sort of.....

What can I say? I guess I just don't like cheesy, gutless pseudo-metal which is completely lacking in dynamics and features a singer who sounds like Bon Jovi acting hard after a shandy or two. You would think after the first album they would have made enough money to upgrade the Tascam Portastudio too, might have made the other 4 sound a bit better.....

All gone thanks! Bought this as people keep telling me how good Dream Theater are, having listened to it I still think they're completely rubbish so take this off me please! It has the following albums: Images and Words Awake Falling into Infinity Metropolis Pt2 : Scenes from a Memory Train of Thought

Cool thanks guys, expect me to be back when it doesn't work!

How would I wire the switch jack in? With the [b]Battery +[/b] wired to the [b]9v +[/b] on the preamp as usual, then the [b]Battery Gnd[/b] wired to the extra tab on the jack, then the [b]9v Gnd[/b] wired to the Gnd on the jack?

Recently bought one of these to replace the ailing pre in my SInsonido: [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/mono-preamp-kit-n46fl"]http://www.maplin.co...reamp-kit-n46fl[/url] Have no idea if it's suitable for electric bass or not but it was free shipping day on Maplin and I had some Paypal funds. Sooo.. I'm going to test it by wiring it straight to the stereo pickup (in parallel), I'm ok at building stuff like this (it was very easy to do) as long as the guide is good but I'm a bit thick when it comes to wiring things up, having basically no electrical knowledge. The preamp has 6 contacts - [b]In[/b] (& [b]Gnd[/b]), [b]Out[/b] (& [b]Gnd[/b]), [b]+[/b] (& [b]Gnd[/b]). I'm assuming the piezo wires go into the In & Gnd, the Jack is wired to Out & Gnd and the 9v battery is wired to the + & Gnd? I know this will drain the battery so I will have to fit a switch jack (which arrived today) but I just wanted to test it first before complicating things further. Like I said I don't really know what I'm doing so wanted to check the pre actually works before adding anything else. Any help is appreciated, please explain things in simpleton terms (diagrams in crayon please) as any technical stuff will go right over my head. EDIT: Also one of the white block plastic capacitors was substituted with a brown ceramic one in the kit, I trust this is ok?

How do you date the post Japanese Aria's from the serial number? There's lots of information and catalogue scans with the more collectable ones but not much on the later basses, unless I've been looking in the wrong place!

Yeah I would say stick it up for £100 if you want to sell, the one I bought which looks to be in better condition was on Gumtree (with a nice hard case) for ages at £200 IIRC with no takers, I was the only bidder when it went on eBay and that was a late bid too. From the sounds of things you got a bargain though. Personally I'd keep it!

Well I just bought an almost identical one on eBay for £99: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aria-Pro-ii-Bass-/321308722063?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&nma=true&si=s4C5YZdCxmd8j1FG7VDc6O8l1OQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc There's another one on there at the moment which comes with a nice case and a bridge upgrade (original bridges are good though): http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221366145444?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 That one is missing a black washer from one of the tuners though. One needing a bit of work (and about £10 parts) sold for next to nothing here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aria-Pro-II-2-Bass-Guitar-/141143646715?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item20dcd121fb&nma=true&si=s4C5YZdCxmd8j1FG7VDc6O8l1OQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 Not sure on the actual model number, the more recent IGB equivalent is the IGB40. I'd say the value is about £100 tops unfortunately, the Integra shape isn't popular. I recently picked up an IGB55 in dark stain for £50 and an identical IGB68 was on for a few days at £160 BIN with no takers (seller pulled it as they wanted to keep it). Another IGB55 went for £37 recently too. Very underrated basses though, shame that even the earlier Korean ones like yours don't hold any real value as they're very well made and are a joy to play. I've had a few cheap Arias (not the classic Japanese stuff) and they've all been very impressive.