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Double Bass Stagg EUB megathread

#881
flaquito said:
Barring that, I might just pull the guts out entirely and make my own buffering pre-amp with gain control. Has anyone else replaced the electronics with something non-Stagg?
Click to expand...
I have a small builder EUB that I did this with (it originally had passive tone and volume that I wasn't keen on) and was very pleased with the results. I put a new battery in around April 2017 and it is still on the same battery, it gets played daily.

I used the Fdeck II high impedance input stage and battery monitor followed by a Music Man 2 band preamp. I wanted to use the 3 band but didn't want to modify the body of my shiny new EUB. I would have liked to have used the HPF as well but ran out of space in the cavity (and it would have used up one of the pot holes).

It is similar to the Stagg with a piezo under each bridge foot. I spent a lot of time going back and forth trying to decide which piezo to use, G side, E side or both. IIRC I settled on the E side.

I also added a full volume tuner out jack so I can turn the bass down and tune it without having to unplug from the amp.

I am thinking of doing something similar to my Stagg if I ever get the finger board camber sorted out
 
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#883
I got a Stagg with a rosewood fingerboard without tuners and electronics cheap. I changed the neck with an older version Stagg (with the weak headstock), add tuners and reshaped the camber (it was originally a reverse camber, like a big bump).
I'm still not where I would like it to be (1mm camber now, need more on the lower strings) but it is a lot better than before.
If one wants to do that at home, do it very slowly and check often. I used a scraper to do it slowly and have control.
 
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#884
flaquito said:
Have you thought about replacing the neck with one of the deluxe rosewood ones (has anyone done this)? I would think those necks could actually be reshaped by a bass luthier.
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I made the decision a while ago not to put money into it, instead I bought a very nice FarWest Redhead.

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I might have a go at sorting the camber out sometime, at least now I can use the Redhead for reference. When it was my only EUB I was reluctant to take it out of commission for very long (and didn't want to run the risk of screwing it up and not having anything to play at all).
 
#885
flaquito said:
Hey all, I just discovered that the Stagg battery life problem is a known issue. Mine has this problem, but I'm not near enough to any Stagg dealer that can get replacement electronics through. Anyone have any recommendations of a dealer I can go through to get a replacement module shipped directly to me? I can do the actual replacement myself, but it seems that Stagg only works through dealers.

Barring that, I might just pull the guts out entirely and make my own buffering pre-amp with gain control. Has anyone else replaced the electronics with something non-Stagg?
Click to expand...

The Schatten Micro-Pre2 will take care of impedance and leveling the two piezos under the feet. You can use a DI or the amp Pre to shape the sound better than the weird bass control on the Stagg.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#886
You don't need a new pickup.
A few weeks ago I read here on Talkbass that someone disconnected the signal behind the first op amp stage and directly connected that clean and noise free buffered signal to the output jack.
No controls that way (you might be able to isolate the volume pot from the rest of the electronics and rewire it between opamp output and output jack), but a clean signal.
 
#887
delta7fred said:
I made the decision a while ago not to put money into it, instead I bought a very nice FarWest Redhead.

Link Removed
Click to expand...

Wow, that's really pretty.

fenderfour said:
The Schatten Micro-Pre2 will take care of impedance and leveling the two piezos under the feet. You can use a DI or the amp Pre to shape the sound better than the weird bass control on the Stagg.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks!

DoubleMIDI said:
You don't need a new pickup.
A few weeks ago I read here on Talkbass that someone disconnected the signal behind the first op amp stage and directly connected that clean and noise free buffered signal to the output jack.
No controls that way (you might be able to isolate the volume pot from the rest of the electronics and rewire it between opamp output and output jack), but a clean signal.
Click to expand...
Hmm, interesting. I'll have to try to find that post. Thanks!
 
#888
DoubleMIDI said:
A few weeks ago I read here on Talkbass that someone disconnected the signal behind the first op amp stage and directly connected that clean and noise free buffered signal to the output jack.
No controls that way (you might be able to isolate the volume pot from the rest of the electronics and rewire it between opamp output and output jack), but a clean signal.
Click to expand...

I don't know if this is what you were referring to, but I found this post explaining essentially how to do that. I now have a dual buffering pre-amp with individual trim pots and a volume control, all using the existing electronics. The remaining circuitry no longer has any power. The bass sounds great, and is now drawing .2mA from the battery as opposed to 20mA.
 
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#891
So short of of rewiring the Stagg as described in the other thread, I made a simple discovery. Turn the pre-amp way, way down. Like down to 1/4 to 1/3 of the way up. Its actually a much better sounding preamp at those levels. I think they had a decent circuit, with decent FETs as the other thread mentions, but then decided to hotrod it all to hell to turn it into a headphone amp (which even for that its too hot and distorts headphones all the way up). The sound quality is way, way better with volume cranked way down. And A-B-ing it with my Shadow preamp on my upright, at just under 1/3 of the way up the level is about the same. Can not overstate how much more transparent the built in piezos sound at this lower setting. If you have not tried it, you should. A ton easier than rewiring it and I bet gets you about 90% of the way to the rewire mod, while still leaving an on board volume for moderate volume adjustments when playing with a group.
 
#892
Actually, there are two trimpots in the preamp, I used this to lower the volume of the preamp while retaining a full usable course from the external volume knob, so the output is ± the same as my other bass. Sounds great also this way and wont overpower your signal chain.
 
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#896
Yeah I use a Shadow Rockabilly Pro on my upright and comparing levels it seems like a lot of the issues people complain about (battery life, hiss) come from the preamp on the Stagg running just way, way too damn hot. Most amps are set up for a passive electric bass guitar in terms of level and impedence. The point of the preamp is to fix the impedence mismatch and do some minor tonal adjustment for the tonal qualities of a piezo, not drive it to 4 times hotter than the hottest active electric bass. With my Shadow preamp, 9 volts last about 6 months and I play a lot, like 3 gigs a week and use the onboard tuner even when not amplified at all. Ideally the signal going into your amp should be about as hot as a passive electric bass guitar, just with impedence raised and a slight tonal adjustment for the lack of mids in piezos when compared to magnetic pickups.
 
#897
Seand, very interesting discovery about the better sound quality at lower volume levels! Thank you!
Where did you turn the volume down if not at the trimpots? Simply turned down the volume pot? I'd like to know if the same increase in sound quality can be achieved by turning down the trimpots.
What can be the reason for the better sound quality? Maybe more headroom?
 
#898
I suspect the circuit was first designed to just be a preamp and they tacked the idea of being a headphone amp after the fact and with just one volume knob, it sort of sets you up for failure. Was unaware of the internal trim pots till just now so that seems a more fool proof way to go. I actually had marked the main volume knob with a bit of fingernail polish to remind myself to not turn it up too far.

I am mostly a slap upright player and interested in the Stagg as an inexpensive travel bass (as opposed to a $3800 folding Chadwick). It was only because i was A-Bing the Stagg and my upright right next to eachother did I realize how hot they set up this preamp for by default. I was also trying to see if it needed a neck pickup for my slap needs. I use one on the upright. But because the body is so stiff, I feel like it transfers a lot more of the fingerboard click to the bridge pickups on the Stagg. So not my 100% ideal woody fingerboard slap click but surprisingly more than good enough IF you keep the level on the preamp down. I use the "deluxe" Stagg with the rosewood fingerboard (because i assume all the slap stuff would beat up the painted maple neck quite a bit on the other Stagg model). Rosewood fingerboards are considered to have a rounder more "woody" slap click on upright stap than ebony fingerboards so that probably helps a bit too in conveying a more "woody" click.

Lowering the level whether on the main volume or on the internal pots (not that I know) makes such a huge difference in terms of getting more natural upright-like tone. Its like day and night.

Edit: after a lot of comparing and listening I decided the "click" was not actually cutting it. Unplugged the G side foot piezo from where it plugs into circuit board of the preamp and wired in a "clickie" fingerboard piezo on that input. Used the trimpots to set a level between the bridge and fingerboard piezos and now am much happier in the tone and slap "click" I get from the Stagg. Posted below.
 
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#900
Quickie update, after dialing back the pots on the internal preamp - to level where the output matches my other basses and getting a much better tone, I started experimenting with unplugging one piezo and then the other on the preamp. As I am primarily a slap upright player and I use a "clickie" or fingerboard pickup on upright to capture that percussive aspect of my playing, I wanted to try that on the Stagg EUB as well. Drilling a hole from the chamber where the preamp resides was dead easy. Comes out behind the fingerboard over hang so not obviously visible. I had an extra "clickie" piezo from an upright preamp system I no longer use.

As with conventiional uprights the best place for a musical "click" is as far up close to where the fingerboard joins the neck, IMO. The Stagg fingerboard (I have the rosewood one) is particularly resonant which can produce a marimba like "note" if you put the pickup closer to the end, as opposed to a nice wooden snap sound (which is what you hear acoutically on upright slap). This fingerboard for whatever reason is exta "notey" so not just as close to the neck as possible but off center was important to get a click thats a click and not a "bong" tone.

Anyway wired it into the plug for the second bridge foot piezo, set a level between the one bridge foot piezo and the "clickie" fingerboard piezo and I have a tone that is much, much better suited to my style of playing.

Really worth doing if you are slap upright player. The built in piezos both plug in the preamp circuit board with jacks that resemble mini earphone jacks (though smaller) so its dead easy to wire your clicky onto the plug for the less "beefy" sounding bridge foot piezo. Change to the bridge tone is minimal. I personally having a little neck pickup in the mix even when I'm playing straight pizzicato jazz gigs with no slapping at all because in moderation it adds a little front end attack to your pizz tone that I think bridge only piezos sometimes miss. I.E. subtle use of "clickie" sounds more like a mike in front of the instrument and bridge only piezos can be a little too "pillowy" missing some of the bright of the initial attack even on pizz only playing. My opinion only.
 
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