funkle

Ok, now I’m interested! They fixed the logo….

They are there indeed, and very useful.
 

But I am also alluding to another issue which I haven’t talked about - even with the pickups screwed right down on the prototype body, I was picking up a lot more false harmonics than usual, created by how my right thumb rests on the string.  
 

I hear this happen on my other basses, but quieter. It’s a problem of my technique. On the first prototype body, that happening was also a function of how close these powerful magnets were to the strings. I wasn’t getting wolf tones/warbling but I felt like maybe it wasn’t far off. 
 

I can now set the pickups further away but boost the output, and have less noise from false harmonics. 

Another quick update. I ordered a nice brass shim set which I have now used to get the neck just right, and it is set up beautifully. 
 

Nuno fixed my broken volume pot and got me a new blend pot quickly, so the electronics are working again. 
 

I’m experimenting a lot with pickup heights now I have a bunch of different screw lengths (necessary as they fit fairly precisely into threaded inserts). I don’t think the present pickups need to be quite so far away from the strings as on a typical Wal - signal drops off too much.  
 

However there has to be a major difference in height between the neck and bridge pickups to get the right volume balance; I don’t think I was achieving this before in spite of my best efforts. The pickup routes were just not deep enough. 
 

I have a new appreciation of the Wal pickup design. It allows for easy pickup height adjustment without having to change screw lengths and without the risk of accidentally screwing through the rear face of the bass!

29 minutes ago, Tom Stafford said:

 

Any requests?

All good mate, play what your heart desires!

The Wal recipe is 42.5 AWG (actually metric equivalent) wire, 10,000 winds per coil, C8 ceramic magnets, steel keepers. Not neodymium magnets at all..and the wire is different too. 
 

Straight DI sound would be great. 
 

(Everyone thinks it’s 42 AWG, but this in fact not right.)

It sounds great. That's a fair bit of processing on there , I would say, though - the SVTR/drive adds a fair bit of colour. 

I would say you're in the Wal-ish neighbourhood, though. It's interesting as the Herrick pickups have quite a different recipe to a Wal - steel poles & neodymium magnets scatter wound with 42 AWG plain enamel wire. Resistance  = 16- 20KOhm. (Or so their website says... it also says you can get other pickups on request.).

Can I ask @Tom Stafford, what pickups did you request from Herrick?

17 minutes ago, HotelX said:

Wow that is a beautiful bass. Is it everything you hoped for?

Not yet. But I keep iterating closer. And I’ve learned a lot along the way too. So it’s been good. 

It’s easier to play because the neck fits my hand - Jazz nut width etc. Plus the body hangs in the right spot - the upper horn reaches the 12th fret so the first fret is not a long reach and there’s no neck dive. 
 

The other preamp will be installed for an A/B test. It’s still going to be a while. The only way to make it go faster is if you wish to send me money, lol, because then I can pay other people to do faster work. 

Hmm, I’m going to have to get some more tech work done. So there may be a bit more delay. 
 

I’m going to have the pickup screws shortened further - one of the issues with the original body was that I was becoming concerned if the pickups were too close to the strings, even with screwing it all down tightly. I can’t quite get as far down as I want using the current screws, so I’ll need to get some trimming done.
 

For context, the recommended Wal setup is to have strings 5.5 - 6mm away from the pickup, and whilst these particular multicoils have fewer winds, they are still powerful magnets. I can get down to about 4mm but would like to have the extra wiggle room. 
 

The other issue is I have bottomed out how far I can lower my setup, so I’ll need to shim the neck. Such is life I guess, most Wals seem to need a shim, so I’ll match the spec 🤣 

I may as well see if I can sort the blend knob when I get pre work done, so I have emailed Nuno about this. I also had a mishap with the volume pot shaft trying to fit another set of knobs, so I’ll sort that too. 
 

Patience….

39 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

It looks stunning, @funkle  Great, great job on that body.

That’s all @Chopthebass. I can take some credit for ideas, or at least some

of them…but execution is all him. He’s a good listener/interpreter 👍

Although I do need to do one quick wiggle on the neck to align it slightly better. But I’ll sort that too. 

Also I find it about a million times easier to play than my Wal. The body shape, nut width/neck, how it hangs on a strap…. @Chopthebass picked a very lightweight African mahogany and he married it well to @Andyjr1515’s neck. It’s a joy. 

Ok, unexpectedly, got my bass back from my tech quicker than I thought, after getting the body and neck etc back last week. Here’s a teaser. It’s stunning. :

I’m still sorting things like pickups heights, setup, etc. Annoyingly I have worn out the centre detent on the blend control through repeated use, lol. I’ll work around it. 
 

It sounds fantastic with the Lusithand Double NFP and the original Turner pickups transplanted over and Andy’s neck on there. Great pickups and I’m always going to be a fan of this preamp. 
 

Spoiler…It does sound a bit different, but I’m not yet convinced the mahogany body has made a huge difference over using alder. It is different, and it is noticeable, but not the way a different fretboard wood or completely new neck construction was…however I will keep playing and get some Youtube recordings up soon. 

Beautiful. I’m ordering one!

Always liked these. Great basses!

55 minutes ago, luthifer said:

Are you using 9 or 18V? I'm testing a new op amp right now that allows a full input swing. So far it looks great, works with an MFD pickup in series, the gain trimmers up at max, and full Q. With the gain trimmers down, the signal is clean down to less 5V on the battery. I'm excited about it, there would be no need for 18V in any situation. The downside: It uses a little more power.

I’m using 9V presently but will be able to go up 18V with the new body, when it arrives. 

The Lusithand behaves similarly. It distorted massively when my battery output fell; I thought my amp was crapping out, but a battery change fixed it. 

Great work @luthifer. Fascinating. 

Eventually I hope to be able to say how much each bit of the bass contributes to the ‘Wal sound’. I’ve given my theories before on how much each bit contributes, so I won’t repeat myself. But the distortion from the EQ circuit is a key ingredient. Really interested to hear what your boards sound like. 

Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their opinion. All I can say for now is that I await a bunch of different parts coming and will document what happens when I change them, and see how close I can get. 

@bornleftthe onus of proof isn’t on me. I just don’t think from the clips I have heard that the Octave basses are as close to a Wal as I would hope, yet. We’ll see how it goes over time. I don’t think I’ve heard a clip with his newest preamp though. 
 

And my prior comment was referring to Dario at Octave basses, who I know has been working hard on his Wal pickups and Wal preamp. 

The Octave chap is using his own design pickups and his own preamp. We have talked.
 

I don’t know if he has solved the problem yet, though he is working hard on it - it’s his niche…

4 hours ago, bornleft said:

have you had a chance to test the "reverse engineered" pre-amp?

Not yet, unfortunately. 

5 hours ago, luthifer said:

Not bad news, just surprising they want to boost way up there. I spent enormous amounts of time playing with a pick and trying different frequencies to get the same kind of meaty pick sound, and settled on ~2k. 6k seems more like a "fret noise" boost to me...

A lot will depend upon the cabinet/crossover design. I use an FRFR cabinet with plenty of treble response available and get a lot of ‘air’/‘sparkle’ with the Wal treble boost. I sometimes use the bright switch on the Berg B-Amp around 7k or so for a similar effect. It’s a ‘Miller-iser’ switch. 

19 hours ago, luthifer said:

So I'm pretty sure C24 and C25 are supposed to be 10n.  Even with the gain of the inverting "attack" amp all the way up (2x), you would barely hear the boost at frequencies below 7 or 8 kHz. 10n caps there would bring the cutoff frequency down around 500 Hz, which gives you lots of boost around the 1-2k "pick" frequencies and above. Maybe I'm missing something; what happens with the OUTB signal before it hits the final mixing amp is very confusing without a clearer picture.

 

According to the chap who drew up that particular schematic, it looks those are indeed 1n - they are clearly labelled - see this reference photo:

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. 

Thanks Chris. I think you’re still getting some kind of grit from the compression, either that or there is some in that circuit as well. I guess @luthifer might be the most sensible person to comment…