Audere preamp blend problem

[JustOpenYourMind]

Hi everyone,

I recently noticed that on my audere preamp the point where both pickups are blended at equal volume is not at the center detent, it's actually more towards the neck. When at the center detent the sound is definatly more bridge pickup heavy, and if you listen closely, there is some 60 cycle hum present, if I blend towards the neck pickup, there is a certain point where all hum disappears and I get the familiar both pickups on jazz bass tone.

What can I do to remedy this problem?

 

[tbone0813]

I would email Audere. They are going to be your best source for answering this question.

 

[kmk42019]

I would shoot David a pm. His name on here is audere. He helped me out a few days ago on here...

 

[JustOpenYourMind]

I sent Audere an e-mail, a technician replied to me within an hour, pretty good service...

Back to my problem, turns out my issue is not really solvable... He said to me that the problem is not with the preamp but rather with the pickups. He said some manufactuerers wind the bridge pickup hotter than the neck to balance the output since the strings do not vibrate the same way at the two pickups. Since the audere buffers the two pickups separatly, the equal volume point is not at the center detent but more towards the neck.

To solve my problem, I would have to change some small surface mount resistors on the preamp.

I'm wondering, I thought that most pickup makers wind their pickups that way... why hasn't audere thought about this. Am I the only one to notice this. I read about a lot of people having nordstrands pickups and audere preamps in their basses, Nobody ever noticed this?

 

[sunbeast]

Does it really bother you that much? With all the hand-wound pickups (including Fender pickups for many years), there would be no perfect blend system that would work with every pickup- even pickups like G&L humbuckers that are supposed to be identical when in pairs are never perfectly identical. I have the same issue with my Audere- my Darkstar pickups are not perfectly matched- on a buffered blend it appears to be much more of a mismatch than it would in a passive system, where there are many other factors affecting the loading of the pickups, etc... I would recommend doing a thorough shielding of your bass to cut out as much of the hum as possible, so it wouldn't be an issue at any settings. You could also put a small resistor in line (in series) with the bridge pickup that is a roughly similar value to the difference in DC resistance between the 2 pickups (I have no clue what value though for your pickups, you'd have to measure yourself and try a couple different ones)- this would help even out the volume difference if its really that irritating!

Karl

 

[JustOpenYourMind]

Does it really bother you that much? With all the hand-wound pickups (including Fender pickups for many years), there would be no perfect blend system that would work with every pickup- even pickups like G&L humbuckers that are supposed to be identical when in pairs are never perfectly identical. I have the same issue with my Audere- my Darkstar pickups are not perfectly matched- on a buffered blend it appears to be much more of a mismatch than it would in a passive system, where there are many other factors affecting the loading of the pickups, etc... I would recommend doing a thorough shielding of your bass to cut out as much of the hum as possible, so it wouldn't be an issue at any settings. You could also put a small resistor in line (in series) with the bridge pickup that is a roughly similar value to the difference in DC resistance between the 2 pickups (I have no clue what value though for your pickups, you'd have to measure yourself and try a couple different ones)- this would help even out the volume difference if its really that irritating!

Karl

No, it's not bothering at all, I use my ears to find a tone I like, not detents on knobs. For the last 10 years I played passive basses, it's my first active with a blend I just wondered if I was alone with that problem.

 

[jsm81]

Yeah, mine does the same just opposite. I seem to get more volume from my neck pup so to get an equal blend I dial mine more towards the bridge. I ordered the one with the Z-switch, so what I did is dialed the Z on the bridge to be hotter, now when if I need a well-balance active tone, I switch her over. Seems to work for me.