elros

Got it. Brief description: The jack connects the negative lead from the battery to ground, thus competing the avtice circuit. The transistor does the same thing when it recieves the -7V from the GK circuit. So you can leave the 13-pin plugged in, and just turn off the GK unit it is plugged into. This will deactivate the on-board electonics - provided there's no jack plugged in. Makes sense?

Hi, Yes that's how it is these days. For some reason the guitar version of the GK pickup electronics has a built-in function for switching on the on-board electronics when the GK cable is connected, but the bass version has no such thing. Go figure. Anyway it is possible to build such a circuit on a DIY basis. All you need is a transistor (PNP bipolar IIRC) and a resistor (Rb anywhere from about 4k7 to 100k). I think I had a schematic somewhere... Until I find it, a dummy jack is a good solution.

Sorry I'm late for the party. You've got it right, obviously, but there's one little detail: since your bass circuit is active and switched by the output jack, it won't be on if you use only the GK cable. For you it isn't a big problem, because as far as I can tell from your schematic you've got a passive mode. On my installation I made a little circuit that switches on the active electronics when power arrives from the GK cable.

The single-stage FET buffer is very easy to throw up. And it would easily fit inside pretty much any control cavity. I'll try to remember snapping some photos of mine next time I'm able. Should be in about ten days.

An active on-board buffer is the best solution. A seperate output could work, but it's quite possible that you'd lose low end due to the longer cable run. After all, the piezo pickup is a capacitive source.

And the buffer is needed for impedance matching only - the levels are often very close to the magnetics (there's a lot of variation between different magnetic pickups, you know). For my Warmoth build I used a simple one-stage FET based buffer [url="http://www.till.com/articles/GuitarPreamp/index.html"]based on Don Tillman's design found here[/url]. Works great!

I'll try again. This is the brief version. Piezo pickups can sound great on their own. Wider frequency response than typical magnetic pickups. Listen [url="http://hallgeir.no/bass/sound/"]to my sound clips[/url] - the piezo solo clips are in there, read the descriptions.

Bugger. I wrote a nice lengthy response but it got lost.

I recorded the trombone solo for a blues piece of mine using my [url="http://hallgeir.no/bass/benavente/"]Benavente fretless with GK pickup[/url] and the Roland GR-20 guitar-to-MIDI unit. It works fine, great if you play in the upper registers. For bass lines though I'd suggest transposing down an octave or two and playing in the upper register - the tracking is more accurate (timing-wise) there.

Looks very nice. Where did you find it?

I've used a pair of AccuGroove Tri-112L speakers along with an Eden WT800 amp for about two years of medium-size gigs. (mostly venues seating anywhere from 200 to 600). I won't comment on wether their specs are met or ridiculous, or wether the price is obnoxious, and I won't even mention the **********. They sound great, and that's all that matters for me. I'd like more bottom on my low F# string, but for my normal 6-string range these did a great job. Alas, I had to sell that rig this past spring because I needed the money to pay for my wedding. Once I get some cash I'll definetly consider an AccuGroove rig again. But I'll probably look around on the used marked, there's a lot of money to be saved that way.

For cheap-ish monitors I'd recommend what I'm using myself: the new [url="http://www.mackie.com/products/mrseries/"]Mackie MR5[/url] (or its big brother, MR8). They sound quite decent, IMO. I'd probably have bought a Genelec pair (8030 for example) if I could afford them, though.

It hasn't broken any of mine yet.

[quote name='walbassist' post='451899' date='Apr 1 2009, 08:11 PM']No, as all that info was in the manual I assumed it's preloaded in the unit.[/quote] Are you talking about the bass compatability of the Roland Gr-20? It still needs to be set to "bass mode" though. This is done by holding down two buttons when you switch it on... I don't remember which ones though.

Of those that I have experience with, I'd have to say [url="http://www.conklinguitars.com/"]Conklin[/url]. Beautifully made, exceptionally well playing, and fantastic sounding instrument. A bit on the expensive side though, probably a result of market demand.....

[quote name='Stan_da_man' post='361444' date='Dec 22 2008, 10:41 PM']So where do you plug your bass in? I'm guessing there would be an on board power amp if the speakers were active. Would you use your bass has the pre amp then?[/quote] Hi, sorry about the late-ish answer. The Tapco TH-15A is an active loudspeaker. It has a built in power amp, and a three-band EQ with sweep mid. And volume control. The silly thing is that it only has XLR inputs, so an adapter cable will be needed. I modified mine to have a hybrid jack/XLR connector. This little thing is dirt cheap compared to the amount of punch it deliveres. Very nice for my savings account. The 15" woofer is suceptible to over-excursion though, so low bass notes will make it fart. It still has punch though. And, I don't know if this is an error with my unit, but at low volumes the softest details in the sound dissapears. Very annoying. I'll try to figure out what it is - but it's one of those new-fangeled digital (or class D) amps so I don't know how far I'll get. Anyway, the short answer is that I just plug my bass directly in the back of this speaker.