Yamaha PB-1 preamp

[James Hart]

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140108

my last post has my exact settings... it's a great sounding pre! I wish it was still made. Anyone have the manual or schematic in digital form I'd greatly appreciate it.

I play and fiddle till it sounds good.... never needed a scope or a manual

 

[Doug Parent]

I had two of those over the course of many years. (even though I couldn't get a real hi-fi tone out of it, It was the most solid, quickest responding pre- I ever had. Always kicking myself for selling it)
Use a Y cord to hit both inputs on your power amp.

The flattest setting I ever got was using the parametric EQ. I centered the frequency at 2K (highest freq) and selected a somewhat narrow "Q", then I CUT it 3-4 DB. I had the tone controls at: treble all the way up, Mid 3:00 o'clock, Bass 12:00 straight up. (you can blow speakers with that bass all the way up) I was playing with a top 40 funk band with a MTD Grendel so I was going for that Marcus Miller slap tone. (never quite got it with that pre, but Mr Eden WT-800 helped out some)

My favorite signal path if using two different cabinets, I would use the low out going to a 15 (as a sub, crossing over around 120-150)and use the main full range output going to a 2-10 cabinet. (Or a single 12/tweeter cab) hope that dosent confuse.

 

[A9X]

it's a great sounding pre! I wish it was still made.

+1!

Anyone have the manual or schematic in digital form I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'd also really appreciate a manual and/or schematic.

 

[bigbajo60]

...if a company like Thunderfunk can resurrect an old but classic design... why can't that same company (or another) do the same for the PB-1?

Just a thought!

By the way, wasn't there a version with not one, but two parametric banks? PB-2? I seem to remember seeing something along those lines once upon a time.

 

[submelodic]

I've got scans of the manual that I downloaded when I had this preamp. If anyone would like them, PM me with your email address. The file is about 1.6M zipped.

 

[James Hart]

I've got scans of the manual that I downloaded when I had this preamp. If anyone would like them, PM me with your email address. The file is about 1.6M zipped.

You sir, rock!

for those that still need it... Link Removed

now to track down the schematic

 

[James Hart]

...if a company like Thunderfunk can resurrect an old but classic design... why can't that same company (or another) do the same for the PB-1?

Just a thought!

Dave Funk didn't work for Yamaha... and Yamaha didn't sell him the leftover stock from the production lines


Too bad, he made some nice additions the the AMP BH line (I owned a BH-260 through most the 90's)

 

[KeithPas]

My 2 cents. Owned that pre for most of the '80s. Ran it through a power amp and Mesa Boogie 4-12. Rocked. If you can find a BB series Yamaha Bass from that early 80's period, buy it! That pre was made for that bass, great combo. I had a green,5 piece neck through BB1200S stolen from me in Atlanta, miss that bass to this day.

I'd like to second what Nola said. I use my PB-1 in church as a direct out and I use it as a backup to my normal rig and it is great. The 80's BB series basses are great; you can get them cheap and they sound and play really nice, very Fender like with alot of detail in the tone.

 

[A9X]

You sir, rock!

for those that still need it... Link Removed

now to track down the schematic

So do you. Thanks for the manual.

 

[Chef]

back from the dead question:
are the bass/mid/treble cascading and interactive like the old fender tone stack; or, independent in their operation?

 

[hrgiger]

back from the dead question:
are the bass/mid/treble cascading and interactive like the old fender tone stack; or, independent in their operation?

cascading and interactive - based on fender tone stack - as far as I have been told...

- my stereo preamp has no tone controls and even has a 'bypass' button to cut out a whole section of the preamp, giving a really unadulterated signal. I wish someone would start including a 'bypass' button on bass preamps to totally take the tone controls out of the signal which would give a truly 'flat' setting...

 

[Chef]

ack!
i was afraid of that: the fender tone stack...my nemesis.

 

[hrgiger]

Do you have the owner's and service manuals?

 

[Chef]

no sir, but i found james's zip of them...

 

[hrgiger]

no sir, but i found james's zip of them...

That's the owner's manual, if you need the service manual...

 

[slyjoe]

Service manual is too large to upload - send me your email address and I'll try that way if you still need it.

 

[Chef]

i don't, yet, but, thx!

 

[figuredbass]

Here is the link to a pdf of the older PB-1 manual, complete with the actual internal circuit schematic. The bass-mid-treble controls ARE in fact a Fender tone stack, with the treble frequency moved down a bit (25%) to bring in a little upper midrange with the treble.

Link Removed

 

[Chef]

ahhh, well, i try to like it anyway
it's pretty much a deep fallback position/experiment.

 

[Jazzdogg]

<SNIP> my stereo preamp has no tone controls and even has a 'bypass' button to cut out a whole section of the preamp, giving a really unadulterated signal. I wish someone would start including a 'bypass' button on bass preamps to totally take the tone controls out of the signal which would give a truly 'flat' setting...

My EA iAmp800 provides this feature; it's great to be able to push a button to engage/disengage the EQ section. That said, I've never seen a plot that shows its frequency response with the EQ section bypassed, so I can't claim it's truly flat in the bypass mode.