1979 Series I noise

[jazzyvee]

Sounds great FC

[FC Bass]

Thanx!
 
I shall see if I can find a compass...  
If they're different the only remedy is a new pickup? And if so, would there it be beneficial to order a complete matched set? (could you send me a quote?)

[FC Bass]

And good to hear you're feeling better Mica, stay healthy! :-)

[sonicus]

Flip,  
Congratulations , AND I share your enthusiasm of your new baby as mine is in the process of improvements as well (73-32)
With your  excellent driven tenacity you have really made quite an improvement. I really like your My friend of misery? as well . I have been working on a claw hammer   bass technique for a similar sound as well .
 
Mica , I am glad that you feel better too !  
 
Wolf
 
(Message edited by sonicus on May 11, 2015)

[JimmyJ]

Hey Flip,
 
A couple more comments and I'll stop because it seems you are obsessing over things that aren't actually broken.  :-)  Or maybe it's just a way to get us all to listen to your demos.  HA!  (I am teasing now, really.)
 
First, it looks to me like the pickup is wired correctly.  It would be hard to do it backwards because the shield peels off and then the center conductor continues 1/4 further onto the board...  (See the pic of your pic below).  There does seem to be a repair to the 22M-ohm resistor which may have accidentally been lost during the pickup replacement job.  And, the solder work on the underside of the board looks a bit ... stone-age.  No offense if the service guy happens to read this thread - it is all working!
 
But what Mica said above means it's still possible your two pickups are out of phase to each other and I can't wait to see what you discover.  (You don't need to get the compass very close as the pickup magnets are quite strong.  Just see which end of the needle points towards the bass for each pickup.  If one is North and one is South you have a mismatch.  Cool test!)
 
Next, the ground wire to the bridge is something somebody probably did in a misguided effort to reduce hum - which more than likely was just coming from the pickups.  I think this is a common Fender bass thing but doesn't apply to these basses - or it would have been part of the original circuit.  The gang here can correct me if I'm wrong about that one.
 
Penultimately, you have an old style preamp board with the old style in-line coaxial pickup connectors.  The current pickup connectors have the male part mounted directly to the board.  There are adaptors available so you can use old pickups with a new board (and maybe vise versa) but since your replacement pickup has been hard wired your rig has already been altered.  If you were to order a new set of pickups, how would you connect them?  If you got a new board AND pickups, you would still need an adaptor for the hum coil which has the mini coax.  And so...
 
Lastly, If you are planning to send this bass to Alembic to update the electronics package then all of this is moot.  Until you do that, flip the phase externally (if that sounds better to you) and just play the thing!!  The bass sounds great in all your examples!
 
Jimmy J

[FC Bass]

Hah! Definitely a cunning plan to plug my demos! :-)  I'm pretty sure it is "broken" though... It might not be that obvious if you listen through speakers, but I'm sure you'll hear it with headphones in the example from post 1704.  That "out of phase" sound (00:00 Sound as is) is the sound coming from the mono out of the power supply. When played through my rig or the SWR combo, all lows are gone and its really harsh sounding with lots of noise...  When you turn down the filter (with Q on full) it gets real nasty, no nice "musical" sounds to be found...  With the stereo outs used and the phase reversed on one channel (like on the rest of the recordings) the lows are back and there's much less noise. I'm pretty sure that's what the Wickershams had in mind when this baby was born :-)  If I would order a new pickup (or complete set) I would ask for the new connector type + short wire with the other side of that connector attached. (70's style with new style connector(s))   The blob on the resistor you point out with (repair) is where the shield of the pickup was attached (as you can see in the pic of the first post) When she's well again, I'll clean things up :-)  Bonus content: The refurbished DS5:  
[img">http://club.alembic.com/Images/394/209331.jpg[/img]
 

 

 

 ("before" pictures can be seen in the showcase

Damaged Justice, Dutch 'tallica tribute: Facebook, Youtube

'83 Spoiler
'88 Spoiler
'99 Orion 5 fretless
'10 Elan 5
'23 Series II Europa 5

[sonicus]

Nice work !

[FC Bass]

Thanx!
 
The mighty compass has spoken: Youtube link
(red is north, white is south)

[JimmyJ]

Flip!
 
I know I said I'd stop but I seem to keep going, sorry!  And the more I say the deeper a hole I dig for myself.  (Sorry about the solder job comment...)
 
OK, NOW I am understanding - you have already flipped the bridge pickup where it's soldered to the board.  That's why in your latest pic it looks correct - because you fixed that!  Got it.  Hard to see in the first post but now I see the different colored wire-tie and with your explanation of the solder blob on the resistor leg...  it's all making sense now.
 
Your compass video seems to indicate what Mica was hinting at above - that we have a mismatched pair of pickups.  But I would do the test in a slightly different way..  Try standing the bass up in a stand, then bring the compass in from directly in front of each pickup and see which side of the needle points toward the bass.  In other words, the pickup's coil is wrapped around the magnet which is rectangular in shape and shorter than it is wide.  But the magnet's North or South poles should be facing out the front and out the back of the bass, perpendicular to the strings.  (Here I go again, probably wrong about this too).
 
My current theory (which is mine!) is that your two pickups are indeed a mismatch.  Furthermore (a-hem) I think a previous tech, or perhaps whoever installed the pickup, already went through these steps and that's why it was wired backwards to the board when you got it.
 
Now the tricky bit, and we'll need to hear from Mica on this: If the magnet is reversed in your bridge pickup, does that also mean the windings are reversed and does that mean the hum canceling circuit would not function???  I bet that's true.
 
This could explain the whole mystery!
 
You are VERY CLOSE to figuring this out.  Great detective work and well worth getting this bass back to spec.
 
Nice work on the DS5 too.
 
Maybe not done after all...
Jimmy J
 
(Message edited by jimmyj on May 12, 2015)

[FC Bass]

And some more bonus content: A friend (jeweler) made a silver script for my birthday :-)
 

 
I like the looks of logo + script better than just the logo and it makes it a bit easier to explain if someone asks what kind of bass it is :-)

[FC Bass]

No worries JJ, I appreciate any input highly!
 
Latest pic is indeed my handywork, looks worse in the picture than irl...  
 
With the phase reversed on one channel, everything (incl the hum canceling qualities) seems to work great (as you would expect from these tone monsters)
 
I think they indeed noticed the pickup was out of phase and just rewired it backwards, with that wiring the tone was ok but with lots of noise...  
 
That's also most likely the reason I have an almost brand new '79 bass here :-)
If the original owner or repairguy had figured this out, the bass would most likely be played a lot... (have I already said this is a great bass?) :-)
 
The compass seems to work in any position, there's always one pole attracted to the pickup.
I also checked with my other basses, they all attract the red end :-)
(the old '79 pickup attracts the white end)
 
Pretty sure this baby will be up and running at 100% capacity soon, thanx all! :-)

[FC Bass]

Had a blast with this baby last night, I think this will be my favorite bass ever soon :-)
 
Can't wait to use this bass with the 'tallica tribute, though it doesn't quite have the looks it sounds exactly like Newsteds basses. (a little less bright, most likely because of the woods or the extra boost of the SII electronics)
 
Main basses for the tribute will always be the Elan 5 and Spoilers, but I will take this bass for backup and for some special gigs. :-)
 
The Series I will be my main bass with my other band, together with her Walnut fretless sister.
Fun to see the (almost) most expensive Alembic pair so well with one of the least expensive ones :-)
 
Did you see my mail Mica?  
Plz include a pointer knob in my package (if possible) even if I find it, it never hurts to have one in stock :-)
(I lost the pickup selector of my '83 Spoiler at a gig this weekend, apparently I didn't tighten the screws enough after cleaning my baby...)

[FC Bass]

Mica?

[FC Bass]

I might have found a pickup, will know for sure later this week and might also be able to score some Series II conversion material :-)
 
Also did the mono output mod, but would want to replace the resistors with the ones Alembic uses.
(took the resistors from an old vcr board)
 
And I can confirm the pointer knob of the Spoiler is mia, must have lost it onstage... :-(
 
Also I'm going to need a new backplate for my '83 Spoiler and a bunch of threaded inserts + screws (incl the tool screw)
There's also one threaded insert missing in the Series I, the Spoiler came with broken backplate and all inserts missing...
But I think I'll save that for my next order, could maybe be combined with the requested woodcards. :-)

[FC Bass]

New pickup is on order :-)
I decided to play safe and order a new one from Alembic.
 
First 3 decades of Alembic:
 

'79 Series I, '99 Orion and '88 Spoiler