Restoring Mark's Custom Series II Bass

[mavnet]

AND... we've shipped! Should have this long-lost love in my hands again in a week. I can't wait! In the meantime, Mica, any chance of posting a few pictures?


WOO HOO!

[mica]

Here's a few shots to keep you company until next week...

[edwardofhuncote]

Congratulations & Compliments Mark! Yours has been my favorite build (or rather, re-build) thread yet.

[StephenR]

Wow...nice!!! Now you must be even more excited... Enjoy your reunion.

[David Houck]

Wow; looks great!  Congrats!

[edwin]

What a stunning result! In person it will be even better, I'm sure.

[mavnet]

wow.
just wow.

[mavnet]

It just arrived at my office - did the grand unboxing, cleaned up the peanuts that fell on the floor, and omg this this is magnificent! The woods are beautiful, the purple heart is rich and purple, but not garish. Somehow, the brass and gold look new again.


Within seconds of playing this, it felt like returning home after, well, the year and a few months that it was away. Just feels right in my hands. It's going to be a good year


Can't wait to get home and plug it in. It was supposed to ship with flats on it, but they're rounds so I'll swap them out when i get home. I'll post some pics and maybe some soundfiles soon, once i figure out which things do what. There's some cool stuff possible with the SF + regular SII filter, and the brand new notch filter added as a SF mod.


Mica - since the electronics have changed, can you please email me some updated diagrams and schematics?


Thanks, Alembic!!!


And a serious WOO HOO!


Mark

[cozmik_cowboy]

"Mica - since the electronics have changed, can you please email me some updated diagrams and schematics?"

And mebbe put them up here, too, for all us voyeurs? 

I don't know if you'd noticed, Mark, but that thing is kind of spectacular.....

Peter

[mavnet]

Since the bass arrived 2 days ago, I've probably played it for 20 hours (and still somehow managed to do my day job).

It's a work of art. The feel is amazing, and the sound is solid and articulate. It plays better than when it was new. My fingers are really happy.

Ron designed a notch filter mod for the SF2 module - I think i'm going to be using that more than the other 3 filter modes - it's sweet and musical, and it complements the "regular" SII electronics in the other channel.

But the CVQ on the SF2 module wasn't working - no matter where i set it, it was a broad Q. I looked inside but didn't see anything obviously wrong.

Called in today, talked with Susan, who put me on with Ron, who helped me track down where to look - and I found a lead on the pot had broken off, but in a way that didn't look broken and i'd never have found on my own. Hopefully, they'll be sending me a replacement pot right away and I'll get that in there.

Probably my favorite part of the conversation with Ron was him casually asking "do you have a spare 10k resistor lying around to short the brown wire to ground?" as though normal people have spare resistors lying around. I love that he thinks we should.

Anyway, the thing is just amazing. As soon as I get the pot replaced and it's working, I'll record some audio with the notch filter - it's pretty cool (and will be even cooler when i can control the Q).

I am: HAPPY!

[keith_h]

Probably my favorite part of the conversation with Ron was him casually asking "do you have a spare 10k resistor lying around to short the brown wire to ground?" as though normal people have spare resistors lying around. I love that he thinks we should.

Some of us wouldn't think it proper not to have a few 10K resistors along with a good selection of other values. 

Glad to hear you problem was quickly found with an easy solution.

[elwoodblue]

I went to sleep thinking about how wonderful to have an onboard notch filter
(let alone a superfilter! ). It must sound heavenly.
 I'm tuned in for more impressions and soundclips.

[mavnet]

Got the new CVQ pot, replaced it, and holy moley, this thing sounds amazing. The variable Q actually working makes a world of difference in the notch filter.

It's going to take me a while to get it all figured out, but my first use was going into bandpass mode on the SF channel, high q, and sweeping the freq around until it sounded horrible. Then i flipped the notch switch, which took out the ugly freq, played with the q to smooth it out - strong bottoms and tops, and a musical dip in exactly the right spot to even the whole tone out.

I also was able to create a space for the other pickup, which was set up with a very different sound, by notching with a broad q... imagine a throaty fendery sound sitting inside a big alembic sound...

Anyway, it's pretty damn cool.

Hopefully i'll have some time this weekend to record some filter sweeps and post them; if not, then soon.

Mica, Susan, Ron (and everyon else who worked on it) - the work you did brought this instrument to life in a way i'd never have expected. THANK YOU!!!

[edwin]

So, how do the regular filter and SF work in the signal flow? Are the pickups assignable to each or permanently assigned? Does it affect the stereo output?

Very cool setup!

[mavnet]

Depending on the pickup selector, each filter gets a different pickup (regular gets neck and SF gets bridge, or I can reverse that), or both filters get the neck or the bridge pickup.
I don't usually come out of the bass in stereo, but the output from each filter goes to one side or the other in stereo. There's a mono switch on the bass that combines the two filters and adds a 10db boost on the SF output. I usually use it that way.
There's also a way to run the output of the SF into the input of the regular filter - so I can, for example, roll the treble off whatever i'm doing with the SF.
One of the switches lets you run the regular filter with, um, no filter - just straight pickup with a volume control.
The new notch filter switch just adds another mode to the SF module, but leaves all the other stuff (pickup selector, mono/stereo, filters in series or parallel) working normally.
It's pretty cool. Right now i'm running it into an F2B. Next step for me is figuring out how/where/when to use the SF2 i've got. Haven't had a chance to bring all the stuff to the rehearsal place and spend a few hours yet. But soon!