- Dec 3, 2003
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- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
I missed the notication on this reply somehow. Great job, and that's just like what my luthier friend and I discussed a few years back.
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The Passinwind Open Source Preamp
- Thread starter Passinwind
- Start date
I missed the notication on this reply somehow. Great job, and that's just like what my luthier friend and I discussed a few years back.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,054
- 45,941
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- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Monthly update:
I've taken down all the newer open source board shares for now and may or may not ever reinstate them. I just don't have the time or inclination to support them properly at the moment and paying work has begun to pick up quite a bit recently. Several talented builders are already hard on the trail of per-pickup format filter preamps by now, and I've come to realize that this just isn't my thing. So eventually I'll probably release an updated version of the original three bander, which I still do like a very great deal, keeping it as DIY friendly as possible and making it a bit more compact. It's been a sweet five year ride, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what some of you guys come up with next!
I've taken down all the newer open source board shares for now and may or may not ever reinstate them. I just don't have the time or inclination to support them properly at the moment and paying work has begun to pick up quite a bit recently. Several talented builders are already hard on the trail of per-pickup format filter preamps by now, and I've come to realize that this just isn't my thing. So eventually I'll probably release an updated version of the original three bander, which I still do like a very great deal, keeping it as DIY friendly as possible and making it a bit more compact. It's been a sweet five year ride, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what some of you guys come up with next!
Interestingly, I own no headless basses
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,054
- 45,941
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
You're welcome, and I will continue to support the original design and any revisions thereof for as long as I can.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,054
- 45,941
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- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
For anyone contemplating doing an onboard install, Brad at Pick Knobs has been working with me on smaller quasi-chickenhead knobs and he also set me up with some round walnut ones to go with them:
The pointy ones are the "medium small" size, around 1.045" long before hand sanding and finishing. He made me a smaller set too, at 1" even, which I've put on a different bass.
The pointy ones are the "medium small" size, around 1.045" long before hand sanding and finishing. He made me a smaller set too, at 1" even, which I've put on a different bass.
- Feb 16, 2007
- 409
- 510
- Disclosures
- Owner, Underhill Bass Guitars
Thanks C! You were a huge help to me. I've developed a pretty good one now, and just got the first of my two PCBs back. Sure is easier than perf boards!
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,054
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- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Excellent! Always happy to help people who do their homework and follow through, and it's all the better when I learn a few new things along the way too. I'm really looking forward to seeing where you take things next.
This applies to many other contributors in this thread too BTW, and to various lurkers both here and elsewhere as well.
Wow! I'm kind of sad that you won't be working on this thing anymore. This thread, was very helpful in some of my preamp research and building, especially the help on finding the right potentiometers for the job!
Now not to double post, I have a question for @Passinwind and everyone else that has built this preamp:
Do you get extra noise (sounds something like a hiss) on the low-pass filter when you set the frequency to maximum and Q (resonance) to maximum?
I have built a somewhat similar preamp using the same filter topology and one using the state-variable filter topology, and both have this noise increase when the frequency and Q are at max. I know that noise increases with Q, but I'm interested if somebody has had this (at noticeable levels) and maybe solved it. And how of course?
I think I even heard the same effect in a demo video of the Lusithand preamp.
And how about the original Wal and Alembic preamps that are filter based, do they exhibit this behaviour as well?
Just to be clear, the preamps I built work as intended, except for that noise bit. Am I just being too much of a perfectionist?
Now not to double post, I have a question for @Passinwind and everyone else that has built this preamp:
Do you get extra noise (sounds something like a hiss) on the low-pass filter when you set the frequency to maximum and Q (resonance) to maximum?
I have built a somewhat similar preamp using the same filter topology and one using the state-variable filter topology, and both have this noise increase when the frequency and Q are at max. I know that noise increases with Q, but I'm interested if somebody has had this (at noticeable levels) and maybe solved it. And how of course?
I think I even heard the same effect in a demo video of the Lusithand preamp.
And how about the original Wal and Alembic preamps that are filter based, do they exhibit this behaviour as well?
Just to be clear, the preamps I built work as intended, except for that noise bit. Am I just being too much of a perfectionist?
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,054
- 45,941
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Wow! I'm kind of sad that you won't be working on this thing anymore. This thread, was very helpful in some of my preamp research and building, especially the help on finding the right potentiometers for the job!
Now not to double post, I have a question for @Passinwind and everyone else that has built this preamp:
Do you get extra noise (sounds something like a hiss) on the low-pass filter when you set the frequency to maximum and Q (resonance) to maximum?
I have built a somewhat similar preamp using the same filter topology and one using the state-variable filter topology, and both have this noise increase when the frequency and Q are at max. I know that noise increases with Q, but I'm interested if somebody has had this (at noticeable levels) and maybe solved it. And how of course?
I think I even heard the same effect in a demo video of the Lusithand preamp.
And how about the original Wal and Alembic preamps that are filter based, do they exhibit this behaviour as well?
Just to be clear, the preamps I built work as intended, except for that noise bit. Am I just being too much of a perfectionist?
No such thing as too much of a perfectionist in my book, I live to kill white noise!
I generally hear the most noise more or less wherever the inherent pickup resonance lives, often 4-5K-ish. At higher frequency settings it may still be there and either I don’t hear it or perhaps my speakers don’t reinforce it as well.
I’m definitely not stopping work on various DIY oriented filter designs, just stepping back from sharing and especially supporting them for a while. I have some cool stuff happening on the commercial side and NAMM is only few months away, but that’s all I’m going to say about that here due to the CUP.
No such thing as too much of a perfectionist in my book, I live to kill white noise!
I generally hear the most noise more or less wherever the inherent pickup resonance lives, often 4-5K-ish. At higher frequency settings it may still be there and either I don’t hear it or perhaps my speakers don’t reinforce it as well.
I’m definitely not stopping work on various DIY oriented filter designs, just stepping back from sharing and especially supporting them for a while. I have some cool stuff happening on the commercial side and NAMM is only few months away, but that’s all I’m going to say about that here due to the CUP.
Glad to hear you're still working on DIY stuff
And also "glad" to hear the noise isn't an issue just for me. You're probably right about the the max noise being at the resonant frequency of the pickup. It's just that my multi coil probably has a resonant freq above the max filter freq (6kHz), so I automatically assumed that's where most of the noise is.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,054
- 45,941
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Update:
Still plugging away on a more compact DIY friendly build spec before I fade away completely. If and when I release something it's likely to be in pedal format since the vast majority of DIYers have seemingly always done it that way.
I finally got around to building up one of the Tayda boxes I posted back in September 2021:
The 1590BB box format is a bit of a tight fit and I'm now trying 1590BB2 and also the more uptown Gorva S90 enclosure from Lovemyswitches.com. With the Tayda/Alpha 50K dual RA pot LPF sweep range is ~400-8.8KHz, so I went with more complementary mid frequencies switchable from 280/480/700Hz, which seems to work pretty well all in all.
My second batch of Tayda UV prints were a bit wonky, which is probably mostly on me. Using Adobe Illustrator on a 7 day leash (free trial) was not ideal, and I'm now trying a US printer in Portland, Amplifyfun. Should have a couple in from him by next week. Cool guy to work with, and he's OK with Affinity Designer PDF export files or any vectored PDF in general. He can supply Tayda cases or you can drop ship anything else you like better. LMS are also in Portland so drop shipping was an overnight deal, FWIW.
Still plugging away on a more compact DIY friendly build spec before I fade away completely. If and when I release something it's likely to be in pedal format since the vast majority of DIYers have seemingly always done it that way.
I finally got around to building up one of the Tayda boxes I posted back in September 2021:
The 1590BB box format is a bit of a tight fit and I'm now trying 1590BB2 and also the more uptown Gorva S90 enclosure from Lovemyswitches.com. With the Tayda/Alpha 50K dual RA pot LPF sweep range is ~400-8.8KHz, so I went with more complementary mid frequencies switchable from 280/480/700Hz, which seems to work pretty well all in all.
My second batch of Tayda UV prints were a bit wonky, which is probably mostly on me. Using Adobe Illustrator on a 7 day leash (free trial) was not ideal, and I'm now trying a US printer in Portland, Amplifyfun. Should have a couple in from him by next week. Cool guy to work with, and he's OK with Affinity Designer PDF export files or any vectored PDF in general. He can supply Tayda cases or you can drop ship anything else you like better. LMS are also in Portland so drop shipping was an overnight deal, FWIW.
Have you tried Draw Freely | Inkscape
Always free and pretty good for most things. I use it for all my vector work.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,054
- 45,941
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Yep, I've used Inkscape since the beta 0.45 version, IIRC. If and when they ever get a sugar daddy like KiCAD did it could be a great one stop solution, but right now the export functions and color management functions are still just a little too wonky for many things I find myself needing to do. Affinity Designer is less than $30 during their fairly frequent discount promotions and has been working pretty well for me along with Inkscape and GIMP.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,054
- 45,941
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Aaaah…. finally time to devote more time to pole dancing. I get it.Nah, just time to reinvent myself as I stare down being 70 years old next year.
