sandy_r

[TL; DR] ...salient posts collated at the beginning of this thread

[TL; DR]... Salient posts now collated at beginning of thread

3 hours ago, Veg said:

Thanks Sandy,

 

If you don't mind me stealing your circuit diagram I will get some vero and build one.

 

Will let you know how I get on.

 

Regards,

 

Paul

Feel free, Paul, that's what they're there for

Now that i've made a CNC PCB version, my vero prototype for the JFET circuit is available if you'ld like it  (you said your Sinsonido is the version without built-in DC and 2.5mm headphone jacks?).  The JFET circuit provides output mixed from both bridge mics (as opposed to only 1 on the Aria), has better Tone variation, and 2-3 times longer battery life than the original Aria board - but no headphone drive direct from the jack socket.  You'ld have to replace the pots with a slightly smaller size, or slightly enlarge the cut-outs like i did

let me know if you want this - no cost, feed it forward

48 minutes ago, Si600 said:

They were, but I'm not paying either the price for the current model or definitely not what the actual vintage ESLs are fetching now

right!

hah - you could try DIY, like an article around the time they first appeared: Make yer own ES headphones ...can you imagine?  Layers of polarised plastic with highly-charged conductive strips wrapped around them nestling snugly against your ears - i think i'd rather swim with piranhas!

11 minutes ago, Si600 said:

Wot, one of these?

 

yes ...pretty sure the speakers were bigger and flatter tho'! 😉

11 minutes ago, itu said:

Yes, surprisingly rare nowadays, although very powerful in just one knob. I think Quad had also another switch to choose the desired tilt frequency.

Quad amps ..."Wire - with gain"!

1 minute ago, itu said:

This is so called tilt-eq. Can be found in some Steinbergers, Quad preamps and so on.

Actually it dates back to early wireless (er, radio) days, i believe - when the 'Tone' function was usually limited to a single control (if any)

Figure 1 shows the single-adjustment tone control which provides a symmetric EQ response that is flat at the center of the adjustment range

Figure 1. Single-adjustment tone control for Bass

Moving the control in one direction simultaneously boosts the bass and cuts the treble until about 5.5 dB of boost and 23 dB of cut are obtained. Moving the control in the other direction boosts the treble and cuts the bass in an identical fashion. Figure 2 shows the typical curves obtained from approx 5 Hz to 20 kHz with a 340Hz centre frequency, for the lower half and upper half of the control range, respectively

Figure 2. The tone-control circuit delivers good response characteristics 

in both the lower half (a) and upper half (b) of the control range

Insertion loss (at centre) approaches 6 dB. Since this is a passive circuit, all component values can be scaled, if required, without affecting the AC transfer-function.(Keep the source impedance low and the load impedance high. In this application the source is <10k ohm, and the load > 400k ohm)

The audio clips posted above were recorded at the EQ flat, Max Bass and Max Treble positions

On 06/04/2024 at 10:58, Veg said:

Hi all, I also have a tale of woe regarding my Sinsonido.

 

Mine has a very low output, though the controls work correctly. It is the version with the single PCB and no external power supply.

 

I would be really interested in a "drop in" replacement PCB if Sandy's design has proved feasible.

 

Regards,

 

Paul

Hi Paul (and welcome to Bass Chat!)

In common with many circuits in equipment 15 or more years old, Sinsinido preamp PCBs are also starting to need attention, due to ageing of the electrolytic capacitors. Symptoms of the failing caps can vary between inoperative controls, oscillation, loss of signal and heavy current drain from the battery

Early attempts to replace PCBs from Aria have been somewhat successful, but over the last 10 years or more even this level of support appears to have dwindled

Several BCers have been able to make good progress with repair/replacement with different approaches: 

• @lemmywinks replaced the Aria electret bridge-mics with a piezo element and standard preamp PCB; 
• @Richard R initiated & led a successful team effort (whilst on the SoS forum) to reverse-engineer an Aria PCB, identify the issue and repair the unit; 
• i've been able replicate Richard's work as well as successfully creating a hybrid pcb loosely-based on the Aria design, and in addition just create a new circuit based on a single JFET preamp/tone stage

All these different approaches have successfully overcome the component-ageing issues of Sinsonido PCBs - none are commercial enterprises, however, so if you prefer, or need, to obtain a drop-in PCB rather than DIY you'd have to arrange for someone with the relevant skillset and tools to use the designs posted here and build (or mod?) a PCB for you

Until recently i've been able to do some practical work on these preamps, with a view to assisting other Sinsonido owners here, but recent health issues have started to refocus my priorities

Apologies - probably not the answer you'd hoped for

(...nor the grammar, up with which one is prepared to put, eh @Dad3353 ? 😉 )

A big shout out to @rwillett, for kindly donating some 3D-printed pickup plates for my DIY bass to set off my rather funky attempt at a cover over my homespun windings - it looks the biz now. Many thanks, Rob!

(...plans inhand to feed-forward the kindness)

40 minutes ago, jay-jay84 said:

Looking for a budget (very budget - ideally £300 max) combo amp which is good for jazz and blues but also versatile enough to do some funk and 60s rock, with good slap tones too. Mostly for home and band practise but will need to be played in small gigs like pubs too. I really don't know anything about amps so please help!!! thanks

Whatever the requirement, the answer is always a Fender Rumble - just change the number following, to suit the budget, so in your case that would be a F R 100

2 hours ago, bloke_zero said:

 

 - the linked schematic seems the most spot on.

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 😉)

What a geezer - leave the door open, Steve...

Okaaaaaay - so let's see if i can summarize...

• for some reason, best known to him and his cat, he likes to scallop the edges of fingerboards (**might be related);
• when he obtained the bass, the finish on the top horn was present and correct (in one photo), but whilst scalloping the fingerboard at the 12th fret, his concentration slipped ...and so did his rotary file/sander;
• he fitted a new (longer) neck, and didn't take into account total string-length and possible neck-dive**;
• so now he has to fit a bridge which overhangs the rear of the body - he desperately loses some forward weight, by chopping the headstock in half, horizontally - and in the process has to cut the corner off a tuner plate (see rear headstock), so it will all fit on the new 'skinny' head;
• but all this still hasn't solved the neck-dive, so he has to extend out the top strap button by an inch

I believe this approach is known among Luthiers as 'Lateral Thinking'  - ie. wide of the mark

16 minutes ago, SuperSeagull said:

Again, thanks. Every day a school day! 

Sorry ....Ziiiiiiiip! 

1 hour ago, SuperSeagull said:

Update - there isn't one. Family life has got in the way of sorting anything over the last week and I know Rob was away from the office at Status. Gigged last night, voltage on both batteries was 9.27v pre and 9.02v this morning after a 2.5 hour set. Next week we fly to SE Asia for a few weeks so I'll get back to it when home again. Thanks again for all the advice. 

Thanks for the update

A couple of points which might be worth pointing out:

• If you're having to monitor battery discharge for comparison purposes (either with itself or with some other battery/ies, it's more representative of the battery status to measure the voltage whilst it's powering the circuit;
• If you look at the graph i posted earlier you can see that the biggest rates of voltage drop occur at the beginning and ending of the battery charge life

You've measure current drain around 1ma+/- which should mean you'd get over 450 hours of use from those batteries - maybe you should fit/check a new set, run them for 10x 2.5 hr gigs and then recheck to see if the (onload) battery voltage has settled down to roughly the middle of the 'plateau' on the 2mA curve shown above?  Just an idea ...but do ask Status when available what they have to say about the average current drain for your bass model

Hope all goes well with family commitments and forthcoming trip

Cheers

...hello?...

9 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

Nothing to see here.

 

in his void of darkness
the door was an outline
welded in brilliant light

no reason to assume
access is not acceptable

there was nothing

nothing
between him and the door
to stop him

that was the problem

4 hours ago, sblueplanet said:

I'll leave it to the Fender experts to fill in the details. 😄

 

)

...i realise it's easily done, but it does appear that Sting has mislaid the Ford Mustang Spark Plug tip off his selector switch

fortunately we all know a man who can fix that for him...

...feel slightly miffed that he missed the opportunity to big-up the eco-benefits of the repurposed door handle spindle-bar offcuts, placed at jaunty angles across the poles of the broken humbucker...

15 minutes ago, rwillett said:

PM'ed you. No idea whats going on.

 

Just checked my profile and there's nothing obvious there to stop you.

Rob

Thanks Rob - your PM received ok - i can reply to that with my intended msg

18 minutes ago, rwillett said:

 

@sandy_r

 

Of course you can. I didn't realise I was that frightening that people needed permission to talk to me

 

I will try and be more friendly going forward and stop growling at people.

 

Rob

 

Lol - your posts are hospitable, as always, Rob - but BC is telling me that i can't PM you, when i try to send 😔

23 hours ago, rwillett said:

 

Send some simple measurements and I'll knock something up. It's not a big deal to print it up and if v1 is wrong, v2 will be better. 

 

I'm hoping just to drill and not ream. 

Rob, may i send a PM?

1 hour ago, Richard R said:

Boingy is good. I like the max bass version.

...seriously thinking of changing my username to boingybassman

i was interested that the Tflat position still seems to have a reasonable 'bass' content - i think i would start there, but its useful to have some measure of boost for either bass or treble, not just cut

here are some audio clips of the CNC PCB installed in the Sinsonido (fretless, but hopefully, not too Boingy, Richard? 😉)

Ground wound strings, recorded direct into Samsung tablet

Tone EQ flat:

Tone EQ at max bass:

Tone EQ at max treble: