sandy_r
-
Posts
554 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Recent Profile Visitors
sandy_r's Achievements
-
Dear Sandy,
Aria Sinsonido
Just found your circuit board notes re above bass and would welcome your comments on following since my understanding of electrics is just above zero!
I have a fretless early version Sinsonido bought new many years ago and all working fine - which I fitted with Thomastik - Ingfeld phosphor bronze strings - the ones developed for Rick Turners range of Renaissance basses. The aria is my go to fretless on lots of gigs.
I've been keeping an eye out for a spare at a sane price and one has just arrived. It appears to be a later model without the headphone output ( which I never use anyway ) and the two controls on the bottom of the body not the top. It all works (tone ok, balance across strings ok) except the output is probably a third of the volume to my "old" Sinsonido and not sufficient to gig.
Pots both work, jack cleaned with alcohol but not sufficient output ....
Indications are the "gain" element of the circuit is duff and any pointers from you to resolve will be much appreciated.
Fretless ( sunny Plymouth )
- Show previous comments 4 more
-
hi Patrick
thank you for kind words. my advice is to stick resolutely to 65, when reached.
7 years on , and i've never seen the insides of a hospital so often!
i can't comment on the serial numbering issue (Aria helpfully don't provide a lookup service AFAIK)
There are a few members here with different versions of the Sinsonido and it is evident that the design has evolved over the few years of production
Version is important because Aria completely rejigged the PCB electronics layout when evolving to the version with controls on top of body, plus having a mini headphone jack and DC power socket on the underneath.
The PCB circuit was also changed, adding an extra IC (to drive the external phones jack?) and removing the Controls into a separate cavity
The final evolution appears to offer a stacked Bass&Treble control in place of the single Tone control (with controls on top}
@Lemmywinks has posted a photo-compilation of most versions (in approx reverse order of appearance}
He has one of the early versions with straight sided body with controls below
i have the next gen which keeps the controls below but widens the body around the control area
On these versions a stereo headphone signal is provided on the main instrument Output jack (ie. disconnecting the cable to the Amp and connecting headphones instead)
my JFET PCB is designed as a replacement for the versions with controls below, and wouldn't be suitable for the 'controls on top' versions
i'll try to get another PCB milled asap in the New Year
regards
sandy
________
-
Dear Sandy
Thanks
I attach photos of the low output bass which is definitely poorly - I think your JFET PCB is what is required !
Off to gig the double bass tomorrow which, in stark contrast to the Sinsonido, is a very physical challenge! My first Sinsonido will be on hand as an emergency backup.
Patrick
-
Hi Patrick
Thanks for photos
yes, this is one of the versions for which my PCB is designed
I empathise about the physical challenge. I was glad to find and use a Sinsonido (then fretted), instead of my heavier & larger-bodied basses whilst my Blues Rock continued. A small offset to the weight and hassle of transporting, loading setup of my bass gear and all the PA
Since playing the Sinso (now fretless, and used as EUB) with more acoustic-oriented line-ups, it's been a real joy to use with only minimal gear
-
[TL; DR] ...salient posts collated at the beginning of this thread
-
[TL; DR]... Salient posts now collated at beginning of thread
-
Need help with an Aria Sinsonido bass electronics
sandy_r replied to K Barad's topic in Repairs and Technical
Feel free, Paul, that's what they're there for Now that i've made a CNC PCB version, my vero prototype for the JFET circuit is available if you'ld like it (you said your Sinsonido is the version without built-in DC and 2.5mm headphone jacks?). The JFET circuit provides output mixed from both bridge mics (as opposed to only 1 on the Aria), has better Tone variation, and 2-3 times longer battery life than the original Aria board - but no headphone drive direct from the jack socket. You'ld have to replace the pots with a slightly smaller size, or slightly enlarge the cut-outs like i did let me know if you want this - no cost, feed it forward -
right! hah - you could try DIY, like an article around the time they first appeared: Make yer own ES headphones ...can you imagine? Layers of polarised plastic with highly-charged conductive strips wrapped around them nestling snugly against your ears - i think i'd rather swim with piranhas!
-
yes ...pretty sure the speakers were bigger and flatter tho'! 😉
-
Quad amps ..."Wire - with gain"!
-
Actually it dates back to early wireless (er, radio) days, i believe - when the 'Tone' function was usually limited to a single control (if any)
-
Figure 1 shows the single-adjustment tone control which provides a symmetric EQ response that is flat at the center of the adjustment range Figure 1. Single-adjustment tone control for Bass Moving the control in one direction simultaneously boosts the bass and cuts the treble until about 5.5 dB of boost and 23 dB of cut are obtained. Moving the control in the other direction boosts the treble and cuts the bass in an identical fashion. Figure 2 shows the typical curves obtained from approx 5 Hz to 20 kHz with a 340Hz centre frequency, for the lower half and upper half of the control range, respectively Figure 2. The tone-control circuit delivers good response characteristics in both the lower half (a) and upper half (b) of the control range Insertion loss (at centre) approaches 6 dB. Since this is a passive circuit, all component values can be scaled, if required, without affecting the AC transfer-function.(Keep the source impedance low and the load impedance high. In this application the source is <10k ohm, and the load > 400k ohm) The audio clips posted above were recorded at the EQ flat, Max Bass and Max Treble positions
-
Need help with an Aria Sinsonido bass electronics
sandy_r replied to K Barad's topic in Repairs and Technical
Hi Paul (and welcome to Bass Chat!) In common with many circuits in equipment 15 or more years old, Sinsinido preamp PCBs are also starting to need attention, due to ageing of the electrolytic capacitors. Symptoms of the failing caps can vary between inoperative controls, oscillation, loss of signal and heavy current drain from the battery Early attempts to replace PCBs from Aria have been somewhat successful, but over the last 10 years or more even this level of support appears to have dwindled Several BCers have been able to make good progress with repair/replacement with different approaches: @lemmywinks replaced the Aria electret bridge-mics with a piezo element and standard preamp PCB; @Richard R initiated & led a successful team effort (whilst on the SoS forum) to reverse-engineer an Aria PCB, identify the issue and repair the unit; i've been able replicate Richard's work as well as successfully creating a hybrid pcb loosely-based on the Aria design, and in addition just create a new circuit based on a single JFET preamp/tone stage All these different approaches have successfully overcome the component-ageing issues of Sinsonido PCBs - none are commercial enterprises, however, so if you prefer, or need, to obtain a drop-in PCB rather than DIY you'd have to arrange for someone with the relevant skillset and tools to use the designs posted here and build (or mod?) a PCB for you Until recently i've been able to do some practical work on these preamps, with a view to assisting other Sinsonido owners here, but recent health issues have started to refocus my priorities Apologies - probably not the answer you'd hoped for (...nor the grammar, up with which one is prepared to put, eh @Dad3353 ? 😉 ) -
A big shout out to @rwillett, for kindly donating some 3D-printed pickup plates for my DIY bass to set off my rather funky attempt at a cover over my homespun windings - it looks the biz now. Many thanks, Rob! (...plans inhand to feed-forward the kindness)
-
Whatever the requirement, the answer is always a Fender Rumble - just change the number following, to suit the budget, so in your case that would be a F R 100
-
Kramer DMZ4001A preamp help - decode schematic?
sandy_r replied to bloke_zero's topic in Repairs and Technical
Wow - what were the others like?!? What to say about a schematic which: takes pain to state the circuit is 'positive' ground - but then shows both transistors as types which would require 'negative' ground (NPN type); doesn't show any bias voltage arrangement for the 1st transistor (unless - it's really a PNP type... in which case they have the collector & emitter connections drawn incorrectly) ...but apart from that - we can trust the remainder of this circuit absolutely, yes? Good ol' Uncle Ernie! PS. if that foil is uninsulated, it might be an idea to check it can't make contact with any component leads on the PCB (...and if you ever get any hum or other elec type noise, more shielding wouldn't go amiss 😉) -
What a geezer - leave the door open, Steve...
-
Erm .. "Ricky styled PB-Bass (Perfect balance)"
sandy_r replied to Bassfingers's topic in eBay - Weird and Wonderful
Okaaaaaay - so let's see if i can summarize... for some reason, best known to him and his cat, he likes to scallop the edges of fingerboards (**might be related); when he obtained the bass, the finish on the top horn was present and correct (in one photo), but whilst scalloping the fingerboard at the 12th fret, his concentration slipped ...and so did his rotary file/sander; he fitted a new (longer) neck, and didn't take into account total string-length and possible neck-dive**; so now he has to fit a bridge which overhangs the rear of the body - he desperately loses some forward weight, by chopping the headstock in half, horizontally - and in the process has to cut the corner off a tuner plate (see rear headstock), so it will all fit on the new 'skinny' head; but all this still hasn't solved the neck-dive, so he has to extend out the top strap button by an inch I believe this approach is known among Luthiers as 'Lateral Thinking' - ie. wide of the mark
