Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: edwin on June 14, 2011, 01:32:07 PM
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OK, the pickups I got here are installed, or at least the bass and treble are. The humcanceller is waiting for me to rebuild the Series electronics. Right now it's hooked up to an ACG preamp. It works OK and sounds amazing, but I am getting a lot of noise, depending on my orientation. I think once the humcanceller becomes part of the equation, it should quiet down nicely. I'm also going to put a piece of copper under the f-hole to get that electronically solid. I've shielded the pickup cavities as well and just need to connect the ground wires. Interestingly, while the pickups are rectangular in shape, inside they are trapezoidal. We put some iron filings over them and the shape became clear. Matt Bergdorf at Woodsong's Lutherie did the work, including making the custom pickup rings that he matched to the top curvature. We decided to mount the pickups to the underside of the rings, so we could get a nice tight fit, so he had to rout and mount the inserts on the underside at an angle so the pickups would be parallel to the strings.
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/107064.jpg)
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/107065.jpg)
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Edwin, very cool. Where are you installing the humcanceller? have you considered bringing the tailpiece back further and locating the humcanceller between the bridge and tailpiece ? A narrow one might be able to be made .Just thinking ______ If you bring it back you also will be able to have a wider choice of strings ; that makes it a dual purpose modification.
Wolf
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My first experiment will be to put it in the body, under the top of the f-hole on the right. It needs to be parallel to the other pickups, but I'm hoping that it will work off to the side like that. If that doesn't work, we're going to rout between the other two pickups and it should fit perfectly.
Not too many issues with strings on this one, I change them every 5 years or so!
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2 trapezoidal humcancellers were located inside the cavity of my old Starfire off to the side It worked.
Your Starfire project is quite exciting for me as well !
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Edwin - THAT - IS - SOOOO - COOL!!!
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Yes, I agree; very cool!
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Very Nice!!!
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Now just a little reshaping to the headstock, and you should be good.
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very cool. Would love to hear clips of it when it's done. that's something I'd like to do to mine, someday, somehow.
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Yeah, the headstock thing is tempting, but I'm not going to mess with it because I've got Phil Lesh and Jack Casady's signatures on the reverse of the headstock.
Today, Matt gave me a sheet of copper that a friend of his who worked at Ball Aerospace gave him to use as shielding. So, I'm going to make a box for the inside to really seal it up from the evil electronic elements.
I'll post samples as soon as I can get this all together. Right now, unless I stand in certain orientations, it's really buzzy.
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It's not a Starfire, nor does it have Alembic pickups but on one of the hollowbody basses I built, it has a Darkstar pickup and Audere preamp and I used copper flashing from Lowe's and just peeled off the plastic backing they use to allow it to be used with pressure treated lumber. Made a box for everything to fit in and soldered the seams. The nice thing about flashing is you can make the box and then fold it up to fit in the cavity and then unfold it once it's in there.
In the picture I attached you can see how large the box will need to be dependent upon your layout and generally the opening is not as big as what needs to squeeze in there.
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/107216.jpg)
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That's a really beautiful bass! I bet it sounds wonderful. Any clips to listen to? I love the Dark Stars. Some of the most responsive pickups I've played.
Do you have a door on the back to access the electronics? I'll probably be doing exactly what you describe. I have a door, which makes everything much easier.
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Yes , I like it too !
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Yes, I put in a back cover when I built it. Attached are some images of the back cover and control cavity (which could probally use some wire ties). I also included a shot of the headstock which is vaguely fimiliar in shape.
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/107258.jpg)
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/107259.jpg)
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/107260.jpg)
(Message edited by shae on June 17, 2011)
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Very nice! Is that a 30.5 small scale?
Mike
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Edwin,
How long until you get the series electronics rebuilt and installed? Can't wait to see it when your done. Good luck with the shielding. I hope my suggestion for the copper box works for you.
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I'm still waiting on some parts from Alembic and I have to get some resistors and wire from a local source. I'm going to try to get the shielding done in the next couple of days. My first step is to further complete the shielding around the pickups (as that seems to be where most of the noise is coming from.). I think the box might work. The only real issue is around the fact that the controls are way past the borders of my access door, so I'm going to have to work out exactly how it will work. The copper I have is pretty thick and stiff, so I think it will extend well into the body. It's going to be pretty much an experiment.
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OK, I put in enough copper to at least cover the f-hole, actually, that whole side. I'm still getting buzzing in my basement, but when I took it to a bar gig this evening, it was dead quiet. I'll do some pix later tomorrow.
It sounded really nice. Very deep, pipe organ-like low end. The bass is now not as crisp on the high end as it had been with other pickups, but it's not lacking in presence. Certainly the punch is there is spades. Tonight was just a drummerless trio. Tomorrow will be the real trial by fire: full band in Denver. I'll see if I can get something recording, although I won't be bringing my full recording rig which takes extra time to set up and break down, due to an early court hearing on Thursday morning.
Hey Guitar Bill! This lawyering stuff is pretty fun!
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Not as much fun as this band stuff! Have a great gig.
Bill, tgo
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Hey, Edwin, I'll be in Denver to visit a son July 1-4; are you playing in town that weekend?
Peter
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Yup! I'll be at Quixotes on the 1st and 2nd. On the third we'll be at State Bridge, a couple hours west of Denver, if you guys want to take a road trip to an incredibly beautiful place! Get in touch.
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OK, folks, I now can report that, even in progress, this is a wonderful instrument, magnificantly played by a really nice guy! Nice to meet meet you, Edwin. Anybody gets a chance to catch Shakedown Street, I recommend it highly. And Fareed Haque sat in 2nd set - it was incredible.
May post more later when I see what's on my daughter-in-law's camera.
Peter
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Update:
First phase of electronics installation has happened. I'm going without filters for now, an SF2 will cover that. Given that the electronics are at least 35 years old I was concerned that there would be issues. However, after I remembered to unmute my amp, all turns out to be well! Even the pots work fine. It's still all hanging out the back and I haven't committed to where the XLR is going yet, but it works and even better, the humcanceller is obviously doing its job. Tomorrow comes the drilling.
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Edwin! we need those sound clips!
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Yeah, I need to get on that. Ideas for hosting?
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Soundcloud (http://soundcloud.com/ target=_blank)
: )
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Another pic. Audio coming, I recorded this past weekend's gig, so there's got to be some clips I can put up once I have time.
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/113821.jpg)
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searching for the sound!
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It's really great to see this bass come together. Well done!
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OK, it's finally done. Series II electronics fully installed (although I might add the master volume on the lower horn out from the selector switch). Much thanks and appreciation to Ron for talking me through troubleshooting the filters. It turned out I grabbed the wrong caps and the filters were working in the megahertz range (not even good for bats!). Once I got the humcanceller in the right orientation, the noise levels subsided and it sounded great at last night's gig. The controls are pretty standard: Vol/frequency/Q. I'm thinking about swapping out the passive components for nice Wima caps and Dale/Vishay resistors and maybe building them all onto a circuit board. There's also still some shielding to be done, it's pretty cavernous in there and reaching every spot is pretty challenging! After doing all this wiring, I can see why these seemingly simple circuits command such a price. Getting everything wired up just so in a neat and orderly fashion is a pretty big job. I'm pretty psyched by the Q pots after playing Series I basses for the last 20 years or so. It's really nice to be able to exactly tune in the amount of resonance. I might have to convert my shortie to SII! On the reverse picture you can see the screw holes that hold the PF-6 card. At some point I'm going to make holes for the adjustment pots, but I haven't gotten confident yet that I can drill the holes in just the right place.
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/119893.jpg)
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/119894.jpg)
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Yay Edwin. Looks great!
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Edwin,
Congratulations ! Awesome ________
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Very cool! Congrats!
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Edwin:
Sweeeet! And I bet it's a lot more fun than torts!
Have a great new year.
Bill, tgo
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Speaking of torts...lol! My law school torts professor gave us a chapter from the first Harry Potter novel and asked us to identify as many intentional torts as possible for our final exam.
Edwin - your Starfire is awesome!.
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When you guys were talking about torts I thought you meant tortoiseshell pickguards...
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I like the Black Forest ones.........
Peter
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I'm with Peter--when I hear politicians going on about tort reform, I have to wonder what is there about a delicious dessert requires reform anyway?. Apparently it's that silent e at the end...
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Geez, torts is so 1L. I'm a 3L now!
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In the words of Steve Martin:
Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuse me!
O.K., how about Remedies? Corps? Crim Pro II?, Copyright? Name your poison!
3L, big deal. I'm a 29L! hehehehe
Bill, tgo
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Ah, you lawyers are such cards!
I guess I'm just amazed they haven't thrown me out yet!
Edwin
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Edwin:
They had me so twisted up that in my final semester, 3rd year, I was worried I hadn't passed either my Remedies or Corporations finals. When grades were posted I reluctantly climbed the steps to the second floor, held my breath, and looked up my exam number on the master list of grades. Not only did I pass both classes, I AmJured both! (For those of you who had the good sense and sanity to avoid law school, the AmJur award goes to the highest grade in the class). I left the building in a daze, then thought I must have made a mistake, and went back up and checked TWO MORE TIMES!!! Yup, got the AmJurs. And, being that I have always practiced criminal law, have never used anything from those classes in 25 years. As they used to say about law school:
The 1st year they scare you to death
The 2nd year they work you to death
The 3rd year they bore you to death
Ain't playing music more fun? Playing was the single thing that kept me sane for those 3 years! (Though some who know me might disagree - lol)
Bill, tgo
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They also say:
A students become law professors,
B students become judges and
C students change the world!
Playing has kept me sane, although has been a bit of a distraction at times.
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any sound clips yet?
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I've got some recordings from NYE, so I'll see if I can get something together.
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They had me so twisted up that in my final semester....
After giving an asignment that elicted groans all around, one of my profs prefaced his explaination of why he was assigning it with, Hey, what we expect of you in grad school isn't just hazing. I mean, it is hazing, of course, but it isn't just hazing.
Peter