richrips Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Hi, I have been playing my Ovation Magnum for a couple of years now and it sounds great when dialed in nicely. My biggest problem is output. My amp is the Ashdown Little Giant 1000w, which has a rather weak preamp as discussed elsewhere. The amp is pretty good apart from that with a good EQ, and as I payed very little for it I am more than happy. The big problem is swapping basses. My other bass is a 3EQ Stingray which is great because between them I can make most sounds that I need. Trouble is, whilst the Stingray has a super high output, the Magnum is a whisper at the same settings. I find it really hard to swap between them as the compression (Aphex Punch factory) and preamplification totally change when I do so. Ideally I would like to be able to plug the magnum in and have the same output level from it as the Stingray. The magnum has stereo output which I don't use currently but did sound totally badassed on my previous rig with a stereo valve preamp/compressor/poweramp/speaker setup. I am not totally keen to lose the stereo feature, but is there an onboard preamp with a stereo signal path that would slot in to the current wiring setup in the magnum (2 vol, 2 tone, stereo and mono output)? So far I have tried turning up the individual volume pots on the magnum and raising the pickups as high as is practical to play on. I don't want to spent loads on a tone-shaping beast of a preamp as the tone is fine as is (although fairly large volume change as tone is rolled off...). I don't particularly want to have to carry around another pedal if it can be helped. Any suggestions? Magnum 1 schematic:[url="http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/chino555/Magnum_I_schematicrevised_zps60eb9a7e.jpg"]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/chino555/Magnum_I_schematicrevised_zps60eb9a7e.jpg[/url] Many thanks, Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassHertz Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 The schematic shows that this is a totally passive tone control. You are going to need some sort of buffer circuit with a bit of gain. Are you handy with a soldering iron and is there space for a battery in the control cavity? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richrips Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 I can solder alright. In my mind I have a highly efficient onboard buffer with enough gain to bring the output up to within tweaking distance of my stingray. The cavity is huge and the scratchplate is non-original so I'm not precious about that either. Read a little about the redeemer onboard buffer, but not sure if that's what is needed precisely. What do you suggest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richrips Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Any recommendations on a clean onboard boost with low battery consumption? I don't want to be unscrewing the scratchplate more than necessary... Thanks, R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 You could use this: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kXoByAOQ73U/UQkZnBNFGwI/AAAAAAAAEp8/agyYHuzaeao/s1600/Emerson+Custom+Guitars+Em-Drive+-+compact.png as a line booster - just remove the 'Gain' control and it's a really clean level booster. fits on a 6x6 piece of veroboard too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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