Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: jazzyvee on September 03, 2016, 05:06:56 AM
-
I've just read this short article about Marcus Miller's 77 Jazz bass and in it Roger Sadowsky installed a Stars Guitar pre-amp.
Am I right in thinking Stars Guitars has some connection with Alembic so would that be an alembic pre-amp in his bass guitar?
http://www.bassplayer.com/basses/1165/the-one-marcus-millers-1977-fender-jazz-bass/58383 (http://www.bassplayer.com/basses/1165/the-one-marcus-millers-1977-fender-jazz-bass/58383)
-
I think they were located close to Alembic and there was some interaction. I have a guitar that has the whole Stars package for the electronics.
http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=16266.msg164252#msg164252 (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=16266.msg164252#msg164252)
-
According to the Long History (http://www.alembic.com/family/history.html), in 1971 "Alembic moved to 60 Brady Street in San Francisco, taking over the former Pacific High Recording Studio. We did a lot of renovation. The facility was transformed into a state-of-the art sixteen track recording studio. We also established a music store in which we sold the new Alembic guitars and basses (all Series I/II with our PF-5 electronics) as well as Alembic cabinets, complete with tye-dyed speaker fronts. We also sold McIntosh amps, JBL, EV, Gauss, Shure, B&K, custom cables etc. etc. We offered a PA design and consultation service that was headed by Ron Wickersham."
In 1974 "in order to concentrate our efforts on the manufacture of a standard high end instrument, I decided we should sell off the assets of the recording studio in San Francisco ... We then sold the assets of the Music Store we had at 60 Brady Street to Stars Guitars."
At least some of the Stars Guitars owners had previously worked there for Alembic. So a preamp purchased from Stars Guitars could have originally been an Alembic part, but after taking over the shop they continued making and creating their own parts; so it at least is somewhat within the Alembic lineage, but may or may not be of similar design.
-
I had a Stars Guitars 2 band "Star Tone" EQ in my Strat for a while. They also sold Alembic style brass bridges.
Bill, tgo
-
I remember " Stars Guitars" and the folks there as well .
Wolf
-
in that article it mentioned that Marcus's original preamp was trashed. "(When it was destroyed by a direct box surge at Media Sound Studios in 1983, Sadowsky replaced it with a Bartolini TCT preamp.)".
A few times recently I've gone DI at a gig when there was a misunderstanding about a backline being provided, jam session or the rig is something I really am not keen on. Is my bass in danger of having the electronics fried by a DI surge or phantom power somehow getting through an active DI box and into my bass?
I understand this isn't an issue with passive transformer coupled DI's like in the F1-x or other smaller DI's sicne DC doesn't pass through a transformer. Is it wise to carry my Radial DI with me in my gig bag, but failing that, is this a real issue and if so how can I tell at a glance if the DI box is active or Phantom powered?
-
Just if the DI transformer grounding is broken, Jazzy.
-
Sorry Mario I don't understand your answer? Can you clarify what you are saying please?
-
Jazzy, I'm not an expert but know DIs use transformers to convert an unbal signal (as the line out from your pickups are) into a balanced one (as mic inputs on a desk need to be). This is made to match impedances between your bass and a console's mic input circuits, but also to prevent long cables from suffering with induced magnetic noises. There is no need to understand this in depth, though. The question is that they use transformers to do this "balancing act".
Active DIs have builtin preamps that help boosting weak signals (and that is why we don't need them with an active guitar's stronger output). To do so, those preamp need to be powered with batteries or any other external DC source, as console's +48V phantom power. This DC is what could be potentially harmfull to your bass, although a proper working tranformer should avoid any risk (since they isolates any electrical circuits attached to its both ends).
A transformer uses the magnetic field produced by a signal flowing through its primary coil (let's say input coil) to induce voltages in a secondary coil at its output. You may say the conection is magnetic, not electric, since this convertion only happens when currents change polarity. Audio signal (as your bass output) are AC by nature and can pass through a tranformer, but DC can't (this is a characteristic of inducers like coils and transformers).
So it should never permits any dangerous current to reach your bass circuit. If this happens is because there is something very wrong with DI's main component or the way it was conected, as far as I'm aware. Hope my bad english (and poor electronics knowledge) doesn't made that explanation useless...
-
I forgot that there are DIs who uses opamps to balance signals instead of transformers, but the question is that the DI need to be broken to offer danger. Or there is any short connecting both coils of a transformer or even a broken capacitor in a transformless DI (capacitors also blocks DC). A DI is dangerous just if it is broken somehow, I'm sure people here can explain us that better then I did.
I've never had this fear before, but never thought about it also. Don't know how usual this fail may happen but may be safer having our own trustfull DI with us at gigbag...
-
Thanks for the explanation. I understand the basics of transformer coupling and my main thought was with the active DI's that don't use a transformer which you have clarified. Like you it is something I'd never considered before reading this marcus miller comment. I normally use the one on the back of my Mesa boogie amp or my Alembic F1-x but recently I've had a few DI only gigs so it's good to know and I think I will take my F1-x as a matter of course on those gigs where I don't need my full bass rig as I'm much less likely to forget to pick it up off stage. :-)