Hellzero

Worth checking the early 90's Yamaha TRB Slap Cut series too. 😉

Calling @Andyjr1515 !

So was Hans J. Kullock, who died in 2021, the founder of the MAI in Nancy...

So the volume pot is after the preamp?

You still can wire the pickup directly into the preamp and put the 25kOhms pot at the output of the preamp, so it will work more or less like a real Stingray preamp. 😉

In Brussels, you can try these: https://saibrussels.be/ https://www.sound-academy.co/en-us/ville/bruxelles https://www.iad-arts.be/formations/son In Nancy, France, you can try this, the equivalent of the Berklee College of Music in Europe: https://maifrance.com/

Le Fay pickups are made by the Dobbratz brothers, the two owners of Le Fay. Andreas Richter is now making their preamps: https://www.richter-ee.de/

It's 4 pickups in fact... 😉

Congratulations @admiralchew ! I played a few Ritter's a long time ago at the Frankfurter Musik Messe when I still had hair (and they were very long) and I clearly remember Jens asking me to remove my perfecto brown leather jacket before even thinking touching an instrument... Amazing basses, amazing finish, amazing tone, amazing versatility, amazing ergonomics and amazing look, but I would be afraid to take it outside home... Talking about gifts, here is one, bought brand new, from my wife a few years ago, and not even on a special occasion:

Hélas, Anti, I only have that old Arpège schematic.

Waiting for the message for mine, what is your serial number range?

Superbly done deffreting job too!

I knew that I had the 1982 preamp version schematic somewhere. Here its is @p4ul : And the layout:

Not to frighten you @p4ul , but even Patrice (Vigier), when he was still active, simply changed the complete board as the earlier one were prone to big issues, but it's always fixable by a tech who knows what he does. 😉

Looks wonderful, and at 1424.9925 Zlotys, it's an excellent price for a brand new one. 😉 Congratulations!

There you can find real LM 4250CN: https://elw-elektronik.com/epages/d0dee231-ab0f-4fe3-b9b2-78e23c1b0b52.mobile/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/d0dee231-ab0f-4fe3-b9b2-78e23c1b0b52/Products/00092517&Locale=de_DE

The preamp from Musik Ding is available by batches, worth checking the site from time to time. The TL061 is certainly the closest replacement for the LM4250CN in terms of sound. There's a difference in tone with the tantalum capacitors, it's tighter with less emphasis in the bass region compared to the usual electrolytic ones. I've compared loads of different iterations of this preamp from the epoxy to the last version. On a fretless, I tend to prefer the tantalum version, but with flatwounds on a fretted bass the electrolytic version is just fantastic.

Where did you get that fretless neck @BassAgent?

This preamp is an exact copy of the 1978 model: https://www.musikding.de/Classic-Bass-Preamp-Preamp-kit And yes, the price includes everything including the potentiometers, except the battery clip... If you have an LM4250CN chipset and some tantalum capacitors, you can get an exact clone. Here's the one I, of course assembled, and put in my Pueblo Pink Sterling by Music Man Ray4:

I'll happily receive £20 not to see that show(off).

Indeed, but as the pickup is wired directly into the preamp, its resistance, inductance and capacitance are turning the whole preamp and pickup couple into a resonant filter, so a pickup wired in series as well as any resistor put in between (pot or blend in case of a second pickup) will interfere mainly with the frequency resonance of the highs by changing their reference point, but also with the bass frequency too. That's why a lot of Stingray clones don't sound right at all.

Better check if the pickup is wired in series or parallel. Sounds way better in parallel as it's how the preamp (if there's one as some were passive) is designed to work with the pickup. Remember that the preamp is designed like a real resonant filter.

Your pickup is indeed wired out of phase, so wire it integrally the way Dunable says (not only the red and white) then it should read a high kOhms value and sound the right way.