Stingray aftermarket 2 band pre

[johnk_10]

i dunno, they seem to be laid out about as good as it can get to me:

 

[delta7fred]

... considering it needs several long-lead jumpers. ...

Those aren't jumpers, they are strain relief for the solder joints and well worth keeping IMO.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

That does remind me - the current PCB layout is rather unsightly, considering it needs several long-lead jumpers. Has anyone tried to optimize the layout so more is routed using regular paths on the PCB? And yes, I'm fully aware of the "if it ain't broke" adage.

They aren't jumpers, it's just that the wires don't exit at the edge of the board.

I may changed the board around at some point because I want to add a gain trimmer.

 

[UncleFluffy]

They aren't jumpers, it's just that the wires don't exit at the edge of the board.

I may changed the board around at some point because I want to add a gain trimmer.

The way the holes are set up is a low budget - but effective - way of providing a little extra strain relief. Mr Leo Fender's engineering pragmatism strikes again ...

The current layout is just a cleaned-up version of the original PCB. It wouldn't be hard to rework the layout and make it smaller and tighter - my best guess is that it could go down to 2/3 the current size without moving to SMT parts.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

The way the holes are set up is a low budget - but effective - way of providing a little extra strain relief. Mr Leo Fender's engineering pragmatism strikes again ...

The current layout is just a cleaned-up version of the original PCB. It wouldn't be hard to rework the layout and make it smaller and tighter - my best guess is that it could go down to 2/3 the current size without moving to SMT parts.

I like the strain relief holes. I'd consider doing that on other designs as well.

 

[Passinwind]

I want to give a small report. I installed one of these in my '87 Ibanez with my Neo Jazzbuckers and did a gig last night. My previous tests had been at my shop.

With the 220k resistor, the gain is pretty hot from the preamp. So if you have high output pickups, you might want to stick with the 100k. I might switch mine back. It works fine, no distortion or anything, but is a lot louder than my passive basses.

IIRC, I settled on 180K for my build, in which I used an LT 1351 opamp. Sounds really great in my old Travis Bean fretless.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

IIRC, I settled on 180K for my build, in which I used an LT 1351 opamp. Sounds really great in my old Travis Bean fretless.

That's a good idea. I'm thinking of using a trim pot.

 

[Passinwind]

That's a good idea. I'm thinking of using a trim pot.

That's a good idea too, I might give that a whirl the next time. In any case, this was a very successful experiment for me.

 

[tdvt]

I just did a custom control plate for someone that had a stacked volume and passive tone control, a blend and a stacked bass/treble control. It also had a bypass and a passive tone bypass:

So how exactly were the controls interacting with the pre-amp? Did you set it-up with fixed values instead of pots?

Reason I ask is I'd like to use stacked tone pots but the dissimilar bass & treble control values (& reverse taper) didn't look doable unless you started rebuilding pots.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

So how exactly were the controls interacting with the pre-amp? Did you set it-up with fixed values instead of pots?

Reason I ask is I'd like to use stacked tone pots but the dissimilar bass & treble control values (& reverse taper) didn't look doable unless you started rebuilding pots.

For the stacked bass/treble pot I used one of the 100K/1M pots for Danelectros.

You don't need the reverse audio taper for the treble. Linear works fine, and even audio taper. I usually use linear taper.

 

[tdvt]

Excellent, thanks for the info.

 

[tonymcbony]

Hey folks, can we buy the PCBs anywhere any more?

 

[Spencer!]

my best guess is that it could go down to 2/3 the current size without moving to SMT parts.

I could whip up an SMD board if anyone was interested. It would be tough to get it that much smaller, though - those 10uF electrolytics in the signal path don't get any smaller.

 

[Dominic D]

I could whip up an SMD board if anyone was interested. It would be tough to get it that much smaller, though - those 10uF electrolytics in the signal path don't get any smaller.

If you used tantalums like SGD does with his boards, you can get very small 10uF tantalums.

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[Spencer!]

I wouldn't use tantalums in the audio path (or anywhere, really). The absolute best 10uf caps are the Nichicon MUSE series, which only come in through-hole.

 

[Dominic D]

I wouldn't use tantalums in the audio path (or anywhere, really). The absolute best 10uf caps are the Nichicon MUSE series, which only come in through-hole.

That's actually what I used in my most recent build. That and 1uF Fine Gold caps. I don't know how much those caps affect the tone, but the end products really sounds great.

 

[Ric5]

I went with the Duncan 3-band and am very happy with it.

I have the Seymour Duncan preamp in my SX stingray and it really sounds good ...

 

[Spencer!]

That's actually what I used in my most recent build. That and 1uF Fine Gold caps. I don't know how much those caps affect the tone, but the end products really sounds great.

They're probably not going to affect it to a degree that you could perceive, but the MUSE caps have lower leakage than anything else out there (making them great for output caps in pedals) and being bi-polar, they have lower distortion when you run audio through them. I'm going almost totally SMD in my newer pedals, but the MUSE caps are the one through-hole part I'm keeping.

 

[Dominic D]

Here's a picture of my most recent build. It's currently in my G&L L2500 Tribute bass.

 

[Darkstrike]

Here's a picture of my most recent build. It's currently in my G&L L2500 Tribute bass.

I'd be very curious to hear one in a 1500/1505.