getting this bass to use the stereo signal path the SII uses was kinda tricky. it's gonna be an issue going forward until it's solved, methinks. to test it out, i wound up using what i had on hand as a trip to GC was futile and disappointing. on a number of levels. so i scabbed a 1/4" TRS onto a decapatated 12-foot 1/8" stereo headphone extension cable and put the split signals into their own 1/4" jacks on the end where the DS-5 patches into my stompbox. a little solder, heatshrink, cursing and hi-grade pot later i had a candidate. good thing it's all relatively low impednance. needless to say, it hums a little. not too much. really!
the difference between running this bass in mono and stereo is striking. attached is a picture of my home rig. i made a stompbox that paralles the iamp nputs for the mono basses and splits thhe bridge PU directly to the PJB and the neck PU directly to the ampeg for the stereo basses. with this bass i can A/B the difference with the mono switch on hte bass. i suspect the switch just shorts the TR together at the jack. i'll have to look. no matter. in stereo it's as if each PU signal path is unburdened from the other. the dynamic headroom out of each amp noticibly changes. sonically it's like going from HD to 4K. i can hear every detail of my fingers on the strings and fingerboard with crystal clarity (not always a good thing!). the E and A strings rattle the house. the D and G strings sing. while i'm playing it, i can intonate to another instrument with precision i've never felt or heard on another fretless. ever.
so somehow i gotta make this play in my ecosystem. i play all my instruments on any given day and i don't like jacking around when i swap basses (pardon hte pun). hence the stompbox. the best solution would be if it had a 5-pin instead of a TRS. pretty sure the hole pattern with the switch placement would accomidate this. then it could use the SII cable. or maybe a male 5-pin-inline hung off a male TRS that plugs into the bass should i want to keep it "pristine". however, i would be perfectly fine with this bass being 5-pin-stereo-only (like the SII) as it's a keeper (again, famous last words..). my kids can worry about the resale value after i kick the bucket.
so i'm gonna work on this. i love a challange especially when i know what the end result's gonna be. once i get the glitches out, i'll post a video. it's pretty wild.
