The Aleph - A Call for Opinions

[michaelwayneharwood]

I have worked with both Red Oak and Cedar. My very first "build" was a replacement body for an Ibanez bass that was dubbed the Chimera as it had Redwood and Cedar wings with a Pine center. I have found pretty good success using an Iron Acetate solution on woods that have a high tannin content such as Redwood, Oak, and Cedar.

I am not terribly worried about the patent issues - I am pretty small potatoes and the only place these designs are being used are for my own experimentation, which is allowed under US patent law. If a customer decided they wanted to use one of these designs I would have to make enough changes so that all of the "claims" of an existing patent are not used - it's a complicated area and gives me a headache.

The piano pins have worked out well for me, and I am excited to see other's work with them. @gmjhowe is considering their use in his reclaimed piano wood build.

Thank you for the kudos!

 

[gmjhowe]

Good progress on this, always love seeing the first cuts when it comes out the wood. Its always nice to get it out and get a feel for it.

I have to admit, I was a bit unsure about the body design, however it is starting to look nice now 'in the flesh'

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Good progress on this, always love seeing the first cuts when it comes out the wood. Its always nice to get it out and get a feel for it.

I have to admit, I was a bit unsure about the body design, however it is starting to look nice now 'in the flesh'

Thanks so much! My favorite transition is when the round over is applied to the top and back - that's when it starts to feel like an actual instrument to me. The biggest worry I have at this point is balance. The wormy maple neck is the heaviest part of the build.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Components for the piezo buffer are laid out and awaiting some quality time with a soldering iron. I am using Scott Helmke's circuit design for the mint-box piezo buffer, but I may make some modifications. I have a few small circuit board mountable 500k trimmers that I can potentially use as volume pots for the piezo and a potential magnetic pickup, and a third one can provide a tone control on the circuit. My hope is that this will allow me to eliminate all external knob while still providing some tonal options. The back control panel cover will be mounted with small magnets to allow easy access, and with this layout the control cavity itself can be fairly shallow.

Some might say that I am trying too hard to preserve my version of ideal aesthetics and sacrificing on stage options of tonal control. Those people would be right, but once I dial in a tone I like I rarely move very far from it. All said I am pretty boring.

 

[Deep Cat]

I think stage control and tonal variation is highly overrated.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Circuit completed. I honestly did not think I was going to get to this tonight, but I managed to squeeze in some time. My perf board trimming skills are obviously lacking, but the circuit tested as working with a piezo disc I had handy. I should be getting the under saddle piezo tomorrow and I might just have to slap together a quickie bridge to test it with the Lady 5Jane.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

The preamp was disappointing to say the least. I either messed something up, or this preamp is NOT a good fit for my intended use. The signal from the buffer is much lower than the signal from the piezo by itself... I am going to give another circuit a try, but this time I am going to breadboard the darned thing first.

Sending the raw piezo signal through my Sansamp Bass Driver DI sounds pretty darned good, and I am wondering if I can get the sound I want without an on-board buffer. Cable length would be an issue, but it's worth considering.

 

[gmjhowe]

The preamp was disappointing to say the least. I either messed something up, or this preamp is NOT a good fit for my intended use. The signal from the buffer is much lower than the signal from the piezo by itself... I am going to give another circuit a try, but this time I am going to breadboard the darned thing first.

Sending the raw piezo signal through my Sansamp Bass Driver DI sounds pretty darned good, and I am wondering if I can get the sound I want without an on-board buffer. Cable length would be an issue, but it's worth considering.

As I understood it, the Peizo buffer you linked was more about getting a stable signal than being a pre-amp.

I was planning to build an MXR Micro Amp pedal clone as a preamp for my project.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

As I understood it, the Peizo buffer you linked was more about getting a stable signal than being a pre-amp.

I was planning to build an MXR Micro Amp pedal clone as a preamp for my project.

I agree, but that the signal was dramatically reduced was not an expected result. I would be very interested in your results.

 

[ctmullins]

I'm a fan of the Invalid Link Removed. I hate soldering, so $50 is super-cheap for me. But if you want to DIY, he even Invalid Link Removed.

 

[gmjhowe]

So my two plans were either this kit - Invalid Link Removed

Or to just buy and use an external Pre-amp pedal, which would actually be a handy thing to have/use along side experimenting - Invalid Link Removed

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I'm a fan of the Invalid Link Removed. I hate soldering, so $50 is super-cheap for me. But if you want to DIY, he even Invalid Link Removed.

Thanks! I have seen that design. I am basically building everything I find that may work until I find something that meets my desired outcome. that one is actually next on my list if the design in queue next is less than optimal for some reason.

So my two plans were either this kit - Invalid Link Removed

Thanks! I am avoiding OPAMP based circuits initially due to a fair amount of criticism of the unmusical noise those circuits are infamous for.

Or to just buy and use an external Pre-amp pedal, which would actually be a handy thing to have/use along side experimenting - Invalid Link Removed

Nice! I found that my Sansamp Bass Driver provided a fairly nice tone - I wonder if the pedal you reference would sound similar.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I received my Artec PP-537 5 string bass under saddle piezo pickup and built a quickie bridge to test with on the Lady 5Jane and I am pretty impressed. I was not expecting much and assumed I was going to need a buffer for it to sound decent, but it's got strong output and pretty decent low end plugged straight into my amp. For the Aleph build I getting more and more convinced that I may just forego the on-board pre-amp altogether.

 

[gmjhowe]

I received my Artec PP-537 5 string bass under saddle piezo pickup and build a quickie bridge to test with on the Lady 5Jane and I am pretty impressed. I was not expecting much and assumed I was going to need a buffer for to sound decent, but it's got strong output and pretty decent low end plugged straight into my amp. For the Aleph build I getting more and more convinced that I may just forego the on-board pre-amp altogether.

Which is why I liked the idea of a self contained pre amp pedal if and when needed.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Here's a quick sound clip of my comparison tests between the piezo and magnetic pickups on the Lady 5Jane. It's laid out like this:

1. Piezo recorded raw
2. Magnetic recorded raw
3. Piezo recorded through Sansamp Bass Driver DI
4. Magnetic recorded through Sansamp Bass Driver DI

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I'm using a pzp1 on my semi hollow body bass. It sounds good. Deep and woody.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I'm using a pzp1 on my semi hollow body bass. It sounds good. Deep and woody.

What piezo transducers are you using?

 

[HaMMerHeD]

EMG AT125 piezo film undersaddle transducer.

 

[JustForSport]

The tones in sound clip sound great- all the frequencies are there, avail for shaping to taste.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

The tones in sound clip sound great- all the frequencies are there, avail for shaping to taste.

I agree wholeheartedly! I was pretty surprised at how small the differences in tone are between the magnetic and piezo sound clips. The thing that jumped out at me was that neither one sounded bad, and the differences were more a matter of taste. I have played some piezo systems that sound terrible and count it very good fortune that this transducer performs so well at such a low cost.

I find myself preferring the piezo system over the magnetic. The tone is more evenly balanced over the different strings, and the tone is more consistent in general.