bloke_zero

I was in the studio with someone and they had me listen to a late 70's live recording and he was going into raptures of the mustang bass sound, which to me sounded much like you describe. Sort of muddy. I guess it's a thing! Not for me though - glad you had a good result!

I'd keep them on one side and if you sell it you can mention you still have them, then anyone with concerns about it could easily solder them in.

I would take quite a lot of convincing that replacing the new ones with the old ones would make a positive difference to the sound. I'd guess they were replaced as the conductive track had started to wear out meaning they were crackling or dropping out. Pots wear out over time.

Well, not today, more like a month ago, but who's counting?

For your consideration a Kramer DMZ4001A kindly sold to me by @roger (excellent chap by the way!). 

 I just got it back from a quick electrical service as the preamp was playing up a little bit, well a lot - a capacitor went (well after Roger sent it to me - it played fine at first!), and I thought it would be interesting to play through the settings.

They are:

• series/parallel
• flat/tone 1/tone 2

And the way they interact is pretty mad:

You're looking at the same line 6 times, straight into a UAD interface: parallel flat, parallel tone 1, parallel tone 2, series flat, series tone 1, series tone 2.

By the time you get to the last you can see something is going on (excuse my playing!):

Here is the same thing but normalised so they are all the same volume:

Playing into an amp you'd get radically different effect across the settings. I really like parallel flat and parallel tone 1.

It plays really well. It keeps it's tuning really really well and compared to my 74/76 P-bass it has a much stronger fundamental tone, I assume because of the neck and how it's attached to the body. And I love the pickups - it has that P growl with extra body.

Anyway! Who cares what it sounds like!? Here is what he looks like (I've named it The Winstone after Ray Winstone, because, let's face it - it's a sexy beast!):

(that big grey cap is the one that went) - this is the only schematic I can find: http://www.vintagekramer.com/Electric/wiring-dmz4000preamp.jpeg - apparently not that trustworthy!
 

As an experiment just wire a pickup straight to the output - you'll hear a lot of high frequency signal coming through that you don't have with the volume wired in.

Some extreme guitar metal dudes have a switch to remove all the pots from the circuit so they can get maximum ear shred frequency from their axe.

So what would you put in line to replace the effect of the pot? I have no idea.

The FX from this: 

Quote

Hurricane (pitch controlled hurricane/tornado sounds),volume (normal volume pedal), wah (funky 70s "growl-y" wah sounds!), surf (like "hurricane" but volume controlled). and the last choice is a switch called 'siren' which is a sine wave rising and falling.

Maybe they could be hooked up to something like a b-bender mechanism attached to the neck, which instead of tensioning one of the strings could be attached to a pot so pulling the neck down controlled the wah effect?

A switch to turn it all off and just go passive (with a complete set of passive treble and bass controls ala G&L L2000).

Volume off at 8 sounds like a QC issue to me - if it's passive then it could be wired wrong/badly and affecting the tone control? Picture of the electronics?

That is a sweet looking bass- GLWTS

Bonkers! Love it. GLWTS!

That is a thing of beauty - GLWTS!

3 hours ago, disssa said:

zerofive audio LowRider clone

I did wonder with the EQP sticker if it was Pultec related and the lowrider is

Quote

stompbox version of a legendary studio EQ, the Pultec EQP-1A,

Nice. Does it do the trick?

3 hours ago, sandy_r said:

 

Wow - what were the others like?!?

 

What to say about a schematic which:

• takes pain to state the circuit is 'positive' ground - but then shows both transistors as types which would require 'negative' ground (NPN type);
• doesn't show any bias voltage arrangement for the 1st transistor (unless - it's really a PNP type... in which case  they have the collector & emitter connections drawn incorrectly)

...but apart from that - we can trust the remainder of this circuit absolutely, yes?

 

Good ol' Uncle Ernie!

 

PS.  if that foil is uninsulated, it might be an idea to check it can't make contact with any component leads on the PCB

 (...and if you ever get any hum or other elec type noise, more shielding wouldn't go amiss 😉)

 

I didn't find another schematic, just the other descriptions all had 'coil tap' as one of the switches, where it is surely series/parallel.

Thanks for having a look guys!

I'm thinking of them as 'big, bigger & biggest' settings right now.

With the PU too close to the strings I think I can hear some overdrive in the preamp so some further experimentation required (battery is fresh).

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

According to the schematic it should give three pre-set tone shapes. 

 

However Kramer from that period were notorious for changing specifications as parts availability demanded it. Also that circuit board looks very home-made, so without checking the components against the schematic you simply can't know. 

That certainly jibes with what I hear, so I think that makes sense.

I recently acquired a Kramer DMZ4001A from @roger (thanks Roger!) and I'm wondering about what the preamp does.

I can see one of the switches is series/parallel and the knobs are volume and what looks like passive tone.

So all I really need to know is what the 3 position switch next to the volume control does (switching it it seems like it gives a lot of boost!). There is a schematic here but I can't read them:

http://www.vintagekramer.com/Electric/wiring-dmz4000preamp.jpeg

Anyone know? My googling leads me to various sold listings with slightly dubious technical descriptions - the linked schematic seems the most spot on.

Ah, if you'd posted 2 days ago I would have been on these like a rash! Undfortunately I've scrated that itch.

GLWTS

Cool - it looks like you carved a bass from carbon!

Beautiful bass. A perfect spec - GLWTS

SEQ?

Looks amazing! Soft V? Is that like \_/ with a kind of flat section? It's hard to see from the pictures.

2 hours ago, Rich said:

I don't actually like it all that much.

You should never meet your heroes. I schemed for ever to get hold of a Music Man Cutlass (the new one), I don't think it's been out of it case for a year...

It's a beaut!

https://acguitars.co.uk/

On 03/02/2024 at 17:58, Pea Turgh said:

My tech has a Wal.  I’m too scared to go near it in case I damage it.

To be safe I don't think you should even look at it...

12 hours ago, nilorius said:

May be i am a fool, but i don't understand. This Musicman, 3eq - humbucker + piezo bridge pickup or bass with only piezo pickup. And what do You all think about it, the price, the sound. Can't find the right rewiev. 

https://reverb.com/en-lv/item/74863847-music-man-stingray-3-eq-h-piezo

That is a lovely looking thing.

I have a 50's style P-bass with a piezo in the bridge and the variety is useful - growl vs clean.

16 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

That is a lovely looking thing!

Reverse P BC Rich Eagle
 

I like the shape, and the electronics seem interesting. I don't need it and there are very mixed reviews of the electronics.

Not cheap: https://www.montysguitars.com/collections/bass-pickups

I like how well researched and how much attention to detail they pay - they get a lot of high end guitars in for re-winds etc, so they know their onions.