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lace transensor with audere preamp

ohskigod

ohskigod

May 5, 2008
148
23
#1
I've been using an audere pre for a while, recently picked up some lace transensor puck ups. noticed that 3 wires per pick up instead of 2 as a problem


any idea how to hook them up. I tried orange to hot, black and white to neg and green to ground......then tried tying the green to the black and white to the negative inputs on he audere, no change.

I get a white noise hum wether blended or not either way....oddly, the buzz gets ALOT worse if i tough the orange wire (going to positive)

any help would be huge, going a little crazy.


the Audere with my other pik ups were perfecly fine, so it;s gotta be something I am doing wrong with the pickups.
 
#2
checked the directions on the audere again, specifically mentions 3 wire pikups should have the ground tied to the cavity ground, so I did so, no change.

I did notice that if I face the bass away from the amp, the white noise diminishes to an almost acceptable level........I notice this on other basses, but the effect is quite significant with this set up now.

the wierd thing is the hum cancelling effects if i blend the pick ups is non existant....it's very close to the buzz hum you get playing thourgh a single coil pickup wether you have both pups blended or not.....I checked my polarity hook ups twice, I'm afraid to, but should I reverse one pick up for kicks and giggles?
 
#6
the Audere pre has a hot and common input for each pickup. (+ and - I assume)

right now I have orange to hot, black and white to common, and green to ground?

so from the above I should try:

1) Orange to hot, nothing to comon (leave it empty I guess?), and the black and white as well as the green to the ground.

2) keep wring as is, but switch the hot and common on either the bridge or neck pup input to see if hum cancelling kicks in

thinking i'll try option 2 first


if anyone thinks any of the above will cause a meltdown, now's the time to let me know :smug:
 
#7
Try no.2. Thats what I was trying to say. I'm sure you won't hurt anything. The worst that could happen is you wouldn't get any sound output at all. Then you could switch it back.
Maybe there is a shielding problem with the pickups themselves?
Good Luck.
 
#8
alright, I tried option 2. good news is she is dead quiet when the pick ups are split down the middle.

the bad news? the low end drops off, becomes thin and thready.......place the pick up knob even slightly in one direction and the bottom end comes back.

while it seems to hum cancel, the thin thready sound at pickups split can't be right. is this odd?
 
#9
Now this is wierd, and i hope someone can shed light on this.

I wired it back to normal, buzz is there of course. I notice when I take either pickup out of it's poket and face it away from the other pickup (on it' side or upsidedown) the buzz goes away (??)

not just that, it humcancels.....in other words, with the one pickup upside down, no hum exists with the pick ups blended, but the hum comes back if you bias it to either pickup alone........so it is hum cancelling, just not when both pick ups face up?

who the hell designed these pickups?

anyone have anything here? I am at my wits end on this.
 
#10
ohskigod said:
Now this is wierd, and i hope someone can shed light on this.

I wired it back to normal, buzz is there of course. I notice when I take either pickup out of it's poket and face it away from the other pickup (on it' side or upsidedown) the buzz goes away (??)

not just that, it humcancels.....in other words, with the one pickup upside down, no hum exists with the pick ups blended, but the hum comes back if you bias it to either pickup alone........so it is hum cancelling, just not when both pick ups face up?

who the hell designed these pickups?

anyone have anything here? I am at my wits end on this.
Click to expand...

I don't think the lace transensors are 3 wire pickups, rather that one of the (green or white) wires is the pickup common, and the other is the shield ground. Audere requires that the pickup common be wired to the - side, while the shield ground is connected to the cavity ground. You should check if the green or white wire is a shield ground. You can do this by measuring the continuity from each one to the orange wire.

Audere FAQ: "Note on installation: We separate the pickup common from ground, which is an uncommon wiring requirement. We supply the pickup common connection with a virtual ground voltage which is about 1/2 the battery voltage." Translation: "You can't wire these pickups the way the lace diagram says to do, since they tie the pickup common and the shield ground together."

The Audere preamp supplies a voltage to the pickup common through the neg connection, so you'll need to wire that correctly before the preamp will work properly. My personal guess, Green is pickup common. Wire orange to plus, green (common) to neg, and the white (shield) to cavity ground. Tell me how that works out for you.
 
#11
no dice, green to common and the black and white to the cavity ground yields no sound from the pickups (though the volume knob makes a fuzzy sound when moved)


thanks though, it was something I haven't tried.

I am starting to get the sneaky suspicion that these pickups + active preamp = no go
 
#12
ohskigod said:
no dice, green to common and the black and white to the cavity ground yields no sound from the pickups (though the volume knob makes a fuzzy sound when moved)
Click to expand...

Don't mind me asking, but this is with the orange wire still connected to hot, right?

You have referred to a white and black wire(s) above. Are they two physical wires (one white, and one black), or one wire with a stripe?

Do you have access to a multimeter?

Do the pickups attract or repel face to face?

Did you buy pickups used?
 
#13
ehque said:
Don't mind me asking, but this is with the orange wire still connected to hot, right?
Click to expand...

Orange was connected to hot, It's the only part of the install so far I have confidence in being right..lol

ehque said:
You have referred to a white and black wire(s) above. Are they two physical wires (one white, and one black), or one wire with a stripe?
Click to expand...

Sorry about that, the white wire with black stripe is one wire, and I did refer to it as just white earlier in the thread.

ehque said:
Do you have access to a multimeter?
Click to expand...

with how much i tinker with the bass, and the rest of my home audio gear you would think that i do, but alas I do not.....I see a trip to Radioshack in my future this weekend.

ehque said:
Do the pickups attract or repel face to face?
Click to expand...

hard to tell, they are covered with a plastic cover with no exposed metal like on a traditional jass bass pickup.

ehque said:
Did you buy pickups used?
Click to expand...

they were off Ebay represented as new, and the packaging gave me no reason to think otherwise. Seller had a top notch reputation from what I could see.



I sent an email to Lace about it, figured it couldnt hurt. Might just break down and get Fender Noiseless pickups for this bass, as I have them on my other frankenjazz with another Audere and I know they sound great together, just wanted to try something different.

I have another passive bass I can try theese pick ups with, will see if Lace gets back to me in a week or so.

I'll get that multimeter and try what you said though, like I said, i should have one around here anyway.
 
#14
Do the pickups work wired passive without the preamp?

Transensors are not normal pickups. They don't have much impedance because they only have a tiny fraction of the windings that a conventional coiled pickup would have. one end of the coil is bent down and goes through a transformer.... thus the name "trans-sensor"

This is the forerunner technology that made the alumitones possible.

Perhaps your preamp is just not designed for pickups with such low impedance.
 
#16
got an email back from Lace, they were not to familiar with the Audere, though they said it looked pretty cool :bassist:
they basically brought all the same recommendations you guys gave me, all have bee tried....all have varying degrees of buzz (and all buzz way too much to tolerate)


have an extra jazz plate laying around to ire passive, gonna give it a try as recommended above.

pray for me
 
#17
ohskigod said:
got an email back from Lace, they were not to familiar with the Audere, though they said it looked pretty cool :bassist:
they basically brought all the same recommendations you guys gave me, all have bee tried....all have varying degrees of buzz (and all buzz way too much to tolerate)

have an extra jazz plate laying around to ire passive, gonna give it a try as recommended above.

pray for me
Click to expand...

Wait for Audere's reply. It's their weird half-voltage pickup floats that don't work with some pickups, especially low impedance actives.

Did lace tell you which wire was the shield ground wire and which one was the negative?
 
#18
didnt think to email Audere, though I have since tried to wire it up passive......same result. pretty much ruled out the Audere. Incidentally, installed the Audere into my Squier vintage modified fretted bass just for kicks.....oddly it has 3 wire pickups too, easy to see which is pos, neg and ground. Wired it to Audere specs (hot, common, and ground accordingly), and it worked like a charm.......

the problem is definitely the pickups.


I emailed the seller explaining the situation and in doing so noticed he has a 7 day return policy so I might be hosed, as I took way to long thinking it was me and/or the Audere causing the problem.

He is away until the 20th per an automated response, so we will see. Will give the heads up on the seller depending on how this goes, as he is selling alot of these that might have the same problem.
 

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