Aguilar Tone Hammer DI unaffected out mod

[scotch]

Just got a used Tone Hammer from the tb classifieds (thanks, jhfishn!). Love it! I know the OBP-3 preamp very well & have used a bunch of Aggie' amps that I love, so I knew the tone would be cool. The only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger on one of these years ago was the lack of an unaffected (parallel) 1/4" output.

I don't want a di to color my signal to the amp, just the pa. So, a parallel, unity gain output before any eq or gain adjustments was a must! Unfortunately, Aguilar didn't incorporate that into the Tone Hammer design. Well, I did it myself!

Pretty easy mod - the hardest part was removing the chassis screws! Had to drill those out! After that, pretty simple to link a 1/4" switchcraft jack & install it in the chassis.

guts removed & jack leads soldered & heatshrinked to input jack pc lugs:

jack installed after chassis drilled out, not a lot of space in there!

finished exterior:

I would have liked to locate the extra jack on the top panel with the others, but there just wasn't enough room. This low-profile metal jack should be fine though!

Very happy with this DI!

 

[Ron Now]

That was my gripe with the tone hammer when I had it. I wish I would have thought of this. I'd probably still own it if I did...

Great, now I'm going to want another one.

 

[eeyorebass]

A slight resurrection to ask a question.

Do you notice a signal loss splitting off the input like that? either at the unaffected out or the signal going through the pedal?

If you've had a chance to use this out in the world, I'd love to hear a review. Do you still like the mod?

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[Bakkster_Man]

One other question. You didn't happen to generate a schematic while you had it open, did you?

 

[scotch]

A slight resurrection to ask a question.

Do you notice a signal loss splitting off the input like that? either at the unaffected out or the signal going through the pedal?

If you've had a chance to use this out in the world, I'd love to hear a review. Do you still like the mod?

Thanks,
Jeremy

No signal loss whatsoever. Still using this as my live DI! I've been using it out in the world, alright! 3 tours so far as well as dozens of local shows in clubs, churches, bars, festivals and tv.

The mod is necessary to how I set up. I use the ToneHammer di to provide a colored signal (a compromise of the way I like it and something easy for the engineer to mix) to the front of house pa. I do not want that extra coloration going to my amp, however - I do the coloring with my head and cabinet there. Generally, a little bit 'cleaner' to the front of house with a little treble rolled off (I hate it when I hear the bass "snapping" out through the pa!). I can also adjust for boominess, etc if the soundguy is asleep at the wheel.

One other question. You didn't happen to generate a schematic while you had it open, did you?

I sure didn't. I simply tied the hot (tip) and ground (sleeve) connection from the additional switchcraft jack to the correct terminals on the pcb mounted input in the ToneHammer. If I remember correctly, the solder points closest to the jack are the ground connections and the furthest points are the tip (ignore the middle solder points). Use a continuity tester to verify if you do the mod...
The only tricky part is getting the enclosure apart & locating the jack hole properly - there's not much room in there! I'm sure if you were to show the above pics to any competent amp repairman, he/she could have this done in 15 minutes!

 

[eeyorebass]

No signal loss whatsoever. Still using this as my live DI! I've been using it out in the world, alright! 3 tours so far as well as dozens of local shows in clubs, churches, bars, festivals and tv.

The mod is necessary to how I set up. I use the ToneHammer di to provide a colored signal (a compromise of the way I like it and something easy for the engineer to mix) to the front of house pa. I do not want that extra coloration going to my amp, however - I do the coloring with my head and cabinet there. Generally, a little bit 'cleaner' to the front of house with a little treble rolled off (I hate it when I hear the bass "snapping" out through the pa!). I can also adjust for boominess, etc if the soundguy is asleep at the wheel.

Great news. I'm one who agrees that all DI's should have an unaffected out. My amp/cab sound the way I want them to, no need to mess with it, especially if it's mostly just for me on stage.

This is brilliant.

 

[MoWBass]

oooh i want this moood for my TH

 

[scotch]

Update: 6 years and counting and the is still my only live show di! Works great.

 

[bassophile]

Interesting mod. As the parallel out is not buffered does it affect input impedance of the TH when it's plugged to the amp?

 

[TonyP-]

Update: 6 years and counting and the is still my only live show di! Works great.

@scotch first off, thanks for sharing this information.
Like you, I need to have an unaffected line as well for live.

Question, do you just modify your 1/4" output to be just parallel output? (I'm assuming that is what you did).

From my understanding I heard you are going to do this with the the AG and I hope you share your results.
Cheers

 

[Saturday]

hi, bumping this as. this is the only thread of this mod actually as far as i searched on
Just to confirm @scotch - this adds a THIRD output to the tone hammer? Or it disables the normal 1/4" output jack?
Stock, a Tone Hammer has a balanced XLR output and a normal 1/4 output. I want a third unaffected line output mostly for bi-amping purposes. but i DO need to have the normal 1/4" output jack on the tone hammer.
Thanks!

 

[eeyorebass]

hi, bumping this as. this is the only thread of this mod actually as far as i searched on
Just to confirm @scotch - this adds a THIRD output to the tone hammer? Or it disables the normal 1/4" output jack?
Stock, a Tone Hammer has a balanced XLR output and a normal 1/4 output. I want a third unaffected line output mostly for bi-amping purposes. but i DO need to have the normal 1/4" output jack on the tone hammer.
Thanks!

I'm not @scotch, but I haven't seem him post in a while, so I'll help. This does not affect the existing outputs at all. What it gives you is an unaffected, parallel out (like you'd find on nearly any passive DI) plus the affected 1/4" out and the affected XLR. You could use all three simultaneously without issue. If you don't want to mod your pedal, you can accomplish the same thing with a passive splitter before the Tone Hammer or even a simple 1/4" summing/splitting adapter like this one.

 

[Saturday]

I'm not @scotch, but I haven't seem him post in a while, so I'll help. This does not affect the existing outputs at all. What it gives you is an unaffected, parallel out (like you'd find on nearly any passive DI) plus the affected 1/4" out and the affected XLR. You could use all three simultaneously without issue. If you don't want to mod your pedal, you can accomplish the same thing with a passive splitter before the Tone Hammer or even a simple 1/4" summing/splitting adapter like this one.

Thanks for your reply. Allow me to feel very stupid, but does a splitter like that really work? I can put that into the output of my TH or any other pedal and splitting into two and both signals will be exactly the same? what is this sorcery??

 

[eeyorebass]

Thanks for your reply. Allow me to feel very stupid, but does a splitter like that really work? I can put that into the output of my TH or any other pedal and splitting into two and both signals will be exactly the same? what is this sorcery??

Sorry, I should have been more clear. You can use that splitter on the INPUT of the Tone Hammer to create a parallel, dry output. Electrically, it's the same as the mod scotch did. Just plug the adapter into the input, plug your bass into one of the sockets and use the other to output an unaffected signal.

Putting that splitter on the output would give you two identical signals from the output, but I think that runs more risk of impedance matching issues, depending on what your sending each of those outputs too. Someone with more knowledge may be able to confirm or correct me on that.

 

[Nuisance]

I used these before on various guitar boards. In your scenario, it would be placed right before the DI.

 

[eeyorebass]

I used these before on various guitar boards. In your scenario, it would be placed right before the DI.

Yep, a buffered splitter takes out any concerns about impedance or weird signal loading on the split. The only downside is it requires power. It's the optimal solution. Whether or not it's necessary depends on the individual signal chain being assembled.