Author Topic: Search for Alembic Approved Distortion (Read 226 times)

wideload · « **on:** March 05, 2005, 12:10:29 PM »

I am from a school of bass playing that says if you play cleanly, you can play louder, and all your work will be appreciated for its clarity and not get lost in a sea of woof. However, the move to in-ear monitors is letting me hear my bass VERY clearly. Wednesday night I had the best sound in ear, just a little edge that I thought was related to slightly increased gain at the board. Last night during practice, I had the same good sound, then my battery died.
Does anyone have a suggestion for getting that bottom of the cup sound? Its going to get expensive if I have to run 9Vs down to 2 hours of playing time before I use them! (I run my Rogue5 into a Countryman 85 DI to the main board). Thanks, guys! (oh, and don't let my wife know I need another piece of gear!)

Larry

mica · « **Reply #1 on:** March 07, 2005, 03:00:22 PM »

Next time you start getting your personal magic sound from the just dying battery, go an measure the voltage. We could wire up a voltage regulator to keep you on the edge of that sound. Thinking maybe an internal trimpot to set the voltage and a switch on the bass to include/omit the function.

I have no idea how much this would cost yet, and you'll have to schedule bench time pretty far in the future at this point, but at
least you can know it's possible.

One drag, we'll have to figure a way to get the battery to communicate to ou when it's really on its last legs, since the distortion won't be a clue any more.

bsee · « **Reply #2 on:** March 07, 2005, 07:57:16 PM »

Mica, if you make it switchable, then you will know the battery is dying when you try to turn it off and the tone doesn't get clean. Not perfect, but better than nothing.

Bradley Young · « **Reply #3 on:** March 07, 2005, 09:46:55 PM »

Mica,

Couldn't you do something like a two-color LED (i.e. red/green) that measured the pre-regulator voltage, and turned red when the voltage dropped below?

Anybody who owns a gameboy* knows what I mean =).

Better yet, do something simple like http://www.edn.com/article/CA484496.html . Well, maybe simple isn't the word I was looking for. Boy, would it be cool, though.

Brad

* I have kids! That's the only way I know, and my son whips me at computer games. I'm going to have to turn in my computer geek card soon.

wideload · « **Reply #4 on:** March 09, 2005, 09:54:23 AM »

Thanks for the input. I'll try to get a voltage reading on an old battery and see if that makes sense. Mica, I guess now you've heard everything!

Larry

somatic · « **Reply #5 on:** March 10, 2005, 06:26:21 AM »

The low volts dying battery thing is quite common and well known amongst guitarists who use pedals. I once made up a board for a guitarist friend after measuring the battery voltages in circuit that were producing the effect he liked. I then ran 15Vdc from a plugpack supply to a wooden board that mounted the pedals. Underneath I rigged voltage regulators that were trimpot adjusted to get the differing voltages he liked for different pedals. Worked perfectly and reliably and every night he had the same sound from each of the pedals.

Doing a low dropout regulator onboard the bass is going to be a challenge.

effclef · « **Reply #6 on:** March 10, 2005, 07:28:43 AM »

>Doing a low dropout regulator onboard
> the bass is going to be a challenge.

I don't think so - with the newer ICs running at
low core voltages there is probably something
tiny and off-the-shelf which could work.

However, it may be much easier for Ron to simply
take some measurements with stock electronics set
at Larry's favorite voltage, and come up with a
bias mod for the op-amps which will produce the
same sound at full voltage.

Maybe?

Where's my Op Amp Cookbook when I need it?

EffClef