new onboard pre for ns upright

[D.A.R.K.]

greetings.
i have tried to contact ns numerous times on this subject,
but with no luck, so here goes:
i love my nscr5m. it sounds amazing.
but i think it could sound even better.
i do not, and have never been a fan of emg pickups/pre-amps.
not to mention i do not like 18volt on-board pres either.
one reason i chose eub was so that i could take easy advantage of fx and signal processing, but the high output gain overdrives alot of my favorite stompboxes and pres'. i'm tired of taping my volume at halfway, and would like to chill out the hard- sounding upper-mid(to my ears) emg tone.
so: does anyone know if it is possible to switch the on-board pre
from an 18 volt emg to, say, a 9 volt bartolini?
i understand their is a bit of complexity in the system:
emg's are usually voltage-reliant(the pickups themselves need power)
plus there's the piezo and pickup blending.
i'd like to find out if the onboard tone and gain are post pickup selector
and blend, and if it can be changed.
adding a feature like a sweepable mid would also be amazing.
anyone out there with any info/experience?
thanks!
doug

[Gorgula]

D.A.R.K.,

That sounds kinda hairy considering the fact that you have 5 individual magnetic pickups and 4 piezo elements to deal with, but it has to be possible.

I suggest that you talk to Guitar Electronics. I would be surprised if they couldn't come up with a solution for you. Their rates are very reasonable too.

Good luck.

[Bob Gollihur]

Originally Posted by D.A.R.K.

greetings.
i have tried to contact ns numerous times on this subject,
but with no luck, so here goes:
i love my nscr5m. it sounds amazing.
but i think it could sound even better.
i do not, and have never been a fan of emg pickups/pre-amps.
not to mention i do not like 18volt on-board pres either.
one reason i chose eub was so that i could take easy advantage of fx and signal processing, but the high output gain overdrives alot of my favorite stompboxes and pres'. i'm tired of taping my volume at halfway, and would like to chill out the hard- sounding upper-mid(to my ears) emg tone.
so: does anyone know if it is possible to switch the on-board pre
from an 18 volt emg to, say, a 9 volt bartolini?
i understand their is a bit of complexity in the system:
emg's are usually voltage-reliant(the pickups themselves need power)
plus there's the piezo and pickup blending.
i'd like to find out if the onboard tone and gain are post pickup selector
and blend, and if it can be changed.
adding a feature like a sweepable mid would also be amazing.
anyone out there with any info/experience?
thanks!
doug

Why not wire the pickups directly to a TRS jack, that way you can use an external preamp or different preamps/processing for each pickup. There are great preamps such as the DTAR Solstice*, and I use a K&K Dual Channel Preamp* with my homebuilt EUB, which also has one piezo and one magnetic pickup. The signal could also be split using a y-cable, to two different mono preamps/effects units with appropriate inputs and feature sets such as the sweepable mids. Of course, you'll have to determine is the EMGs are actually active, I am guessing they are passive and rely on the onboard unit.

*disclosure: I am a dealer for both

[spacecanoe]

or better yet. if you want to have less heat in your system. simply take 1 battery out and wire a jumper clip on the unused 9 v tab. all emg preamps can be run 18 or 9 volt id assume this one can too. try it out and tell me how it goes.

[D.A.R.K.]

thanks for the input, guys!
gorgula, i'll contact g.e. and see if they can give me any info..
hopefully the tone/pre is after the blending controls.
bob- good thoughts, but after my last tour overseas i'm trying desparately to minimize my set-up, i've been using an awesome
ebs microbass2 pre-amp (among others in the past) but i'd really like to have the sound on-board.
the sweepable mid would be a nice extra, but not essential...
especially with a mellower pre like a bartolini(been my fav for like 20 years now!)
space- i'll try a jumper, or perhaps even a single battery alone will work.
i do hear a difference when the pair is at about 50% charge, though, that's when i pull 'em out and use them for stomp boxes...
plus it's still that emg-upper-mid character that i've been using the ebs
to chill out...
once again, my thanks for the replies, all great input!!!
cheers
d

[spacecanoe]

dark , give er a go! whad id do to make the conversion from 18 t o 9 v is simple. go to radio shack get a 9v batt clip, strip the wiers on that new batt clip. solder em together and tape them so there insulated or better yet shrink tubed. then simply clip that into the now open 9 v batter clip! done and done and no harmful soldering to your ns insides thatll kill resale. its minor surgery and totally reversable .. all for about 1$ tell me how it goes! im really interested in hearing.

[D.A.R.K.]

ok space, i'll definitely give it a go and report the results
cheers
d

p.s. i'll try to get some sound clips together soon for you as well,
per your request in another thread

[spacecanoe]

thanks dark! give that man a cigar!

[D.A.R.K.]

ok, i tried a jumper, and yes, the bass still functions.
but, the sound was not the same, nor half the output gain....
there was distortion which ocurred when digging in, the
harder, the more distortion. also, strangely enough, the pre-amp gain
was the same level for unity for either one or two batteries, there is just a degredation in sound quality with one.
so, it would seem the onboard electronics require for 18 volts to run optimally, without a direct correlation between available battery power and output gain capability(other than possible level loss due to a lack of power, or a "brownout" coupled with degredation in sound quality).
it was worth a try, though.
now, i need to get to those sound samples for space....
cheers
doug