Hi all,

I'm thinking about modifying my Stingray to take an 18v preamp (and I stress, thinking about it!). For some time I have been seduced by the chat about increased headroom and tonal variety that seems to come from this kinda power. Has anyone ever attempted this? I realise it would involve routing the battery cavity and I would get a luthier to do this, of course. I was thinking of putting in the Aguilar OBP 3 also.

Any thoughts? Sacrilege to do this to a 'ray?

Cheers,

Pete

Why not, do it.
If you're using an Aguilar pre i don't think you really need 18v.
Try it with a single 9 volt battery and see if you like it.

While you would get more headroom, what on earth would you use it for? As far as I know, no pickups have a signal level anywhere near the limits of a 9v preamp (unless said preamp is very poorly designed indeed). Pretty much the same goes for tonal variation, I can't see how the supply voltage can be the limiting factor. Besides, do you currently turn your knobs all the way to the extremes and still wish they could go further?

Bear in mind, this is purely speculation, I have no experience whatsoever with 18v preamps.

Im using a schecter with a pair of 35dc's and and aggie OBP3 running 18v and the thing is almost too powerful it even overloads my compressor with the volume on the bass turned down half way!
might try ditching a battery