sandy_r

Why isn't it?

This is why none of my mechanical toys, when I was a kid, lasted more than a couple of months... While waiting for the inventor of this acoustic pickup to reply to my enquiry, asking if there is any setup/adjustment info for the pickup, I scoured what remains of the interweb from the dark ages (200x, ish) Of the Sinsonido pickup, very little, other than it consists of 2 electret condenser mic. inserts gathered in a cave and grooving with a pick (think i may have got my broadband fibres crossed a bit there...) Reportedly, these 2 mics are installed inside the black plastic tube, which also contains some sort of baffle arrangement to 'tune' the acoustics 'Baffle' is obviously a very carefully chosen word in this context Anyroad, as a public service to all Sinsonido owners who don't wish to rock the boat when it comes to the well-being of these little blighters, I grabbed the tube by the horns... It appears that the 2 electret inserts are ...er, inserted at the extreme ends of the tube, being a press-fit. So the diameter is only slightly less than the tube, and its length is about 2x the distance marked by green arrows in this photo. the blue 'oval' marks the silver coloured body of the electret, half-extracted This answers one question which I had: 'could the distorted audio being reported in some Sinsonidos be caused by the electret becoming loose from its fixture?' It appears that the electrets are a tight fit between its enclosing end-cap and the tube wall, so there is little scope for it to 'rattle' (Also noted in the photo: - the strings are well-seated into the top surface of the tube (or 'saddle', as referred to by the originator); - a previous owner has obviously taken a dislike to the original pristine state of the string separator on the bridge) *...continues to wait for any official response to enquiry, while looking around for some other gizmo to disect !...*

...Nice case!

hi 2nd question first - yes, they do - and it's worth looking around to see what's available. Can be a good investment/birthday present for keeping some nice basses stored in best condition. I have a case for my Yamaha which looks vacuum-formed to fit, and it's probably the only case i'd consider for transporting in lesson/practice/gig situations In all other, er ...cases (sorry!), it's really a question of practicality and the robust lightness of gig bags just makes the whole transportation (and temporary, hide it behind the gear) aspect so much more manageable at gigs and practices Ideal things to ask for as presents! (don't skimp!!!)

Greetings Bass student! We're all novice at something, but not many of us have the determination to study to exam levels. Good luck with the next grades ...and hope you make some good new friends soon - in bands - and on BC

thanks David, yes, that's helpful to know - doesn't sound to me like the frequent problems found on the earlier board versions (which often involved uncontrollable, oscillation-type spontaneous noises, overloaded signal levels with no control of tone) i'm wondering now, having exchanged extensive audio test result details with @Aalin, if there aren't 2 unrelated issues which have been causing problems: 'unusual' design/age-limited components of earlier boards - and also mechanical vibration of the otherwise very pleasant-sounding electret mics in the bridge (one channel of which was shorted by the connection of a regular jack-to-jack instrument cable!) i've sent a message to Soloette/Creator of the Sinsonido pickup tech, to ask about any setup/adjustment info available - no response so far we three can keep each other in the loop, wrt developments thanks sandy

hi Fletch, thanks for getting back to us I'm sorry to hear that our requests have resulted in some likely damage to something - whether Sinsonido board, of PSU ! The LM386 IC is max-rated at either 15V or 22V** and it appears that, on your circuit, the PSU input has a serial diode which might be providing reverse-polarity protection, and a further 0.7V drop from PSU voltage to board. That new board version, however, now has 3 ICs, so at present i don't know anything about the 3rd one (** for the LM386N-4 variant) I will contact you by PM to discuss the best way ahead - but it may only be necessary to send the board (and i travel thro' london on a monthly basis, too) The controls unplug, so the board + jack could be unscrewed, if you are happy/able to either unsolder/clip the 2 grey/white electret audio cables from the board. Anyway, i'll follow up in PM As a quick initial overview, how would you describe the symptoms you were experiencing with the electronics/sound thanks ...and apologies! sandy

Dayyum - shortage of ritual gowns, maybe? Home turf could be a supportive start. Don't forget to post a link to the EP when ready

all the best with your new venture, Michael. Looks like a cool venue to kick things off! Hope the EP project completes smoothly

...cue story about Charlie not being Mick's "drummer"...

If you want to use this as a Xover, and you only have passive tops then your only option is to add amplification between the DR18SUB and the tops (a 'flat' 2-channel Class D would do, since the Behringer is providing the filtering - check out the Pulse Audio range, from Pulse.../Farnell/CPC) As others have pointed out, the DR18SUB is Line In, Line Out signal levels, not speaker drive levels - no Speakons involved - at either end

...Spinal Tap's warmup band?

...i usually am worried! not sure how i look tho'...

There is another technique which might work for you: - make a suitable amount of DIY MDF using coarse sawdust from scap piece of the original wood material, rolled thoroughly in sufficient PVA wood glue to coat all sawdust fibres and make a dryish, malleable fully-compacted mix; - pre-coat the replacement bolt shaft with thin but complete layer of vaseline (or drop or two of washing-up liquid); insert the bolt through small stack of large washers (or DIY washer of ply) sufficient to take up slack on outside if wood hole; - insert bolt through existing hole, screw on T-nut from rear, leaving sufficient gap to tamp in ball of DIY MDF and completely fill your recently created 'moat', scraping excess material to approximate height of surrounding wood; - leave like this, to harden, for around a day; - slowly tighten bolt to pull T-nut into hardened DIY MDF, and then remove bolt and remove/dry traces of lubricant whichever method you choose - good luck!

lol - i had not long previously upgraded my fretless Yamaha RX to a fretless BBN4, but i was starting to get the itch to build a new bass for myself, and even sketched out what i wanted: a headless, 'stick' bass with one bout, to use as an upright... ...soon after that sketch, i walked past a shop and saw a used Sindonido in the window - woof - ditched the sketch - hardly ever used the BBN again!

i believe that there are 2 electret mic pickups, mounted against the bridge. i haven't seen any evidence of piezo sensors amongst any Aria documentation One or two owners have implied that they've disassembled the pickup tube to investigate problems with the sound and then moved away from electrets to other pickup types: i think @lemmywinks may have seen the internals? If you wanted to copy the electret approach, there are probably any number of inserts which you could use - the key factor would be mounting them and achieving similar acoustic characteristics. An interesting project!

Thanks, these photos are fine - interesting to see that this later revision of their PCB has already had some of the problematical capacitors replaced with a more reliable type My current replacement board was designed to match the earlier versions of the Sinsonido Bass PCB, where the V & T controls are fixed to the preamp board - i see that this later version has moved V & T to a sub-board, and has added headphone and (9V ?) DC jacks to the circuit on the main board I suspect that the basic audio circuit remains the same and, practically, my replacement board could be adapted if there will be space for the 2 new jacks plus connectors for the 2 moved controls Let me get the current prototype for the earlier versions confirmed in a separate installation first and then i'll ask for a couple more photo views of your boards to work out the adaptation needed In the meantime, could you describe the fault symptom(s) you've got with the electronics here, please? Thanks

...serrated washer(s) only need to be outside the control plate, locking the nut above it?

...just a general comment about grounding pot casings (since @itu has mentioned it in passing)... i suspect that the practice of grounding all guitar control pot casings originated in the early days, before conductive paint and metallic foil started to make an appearance If the wiring routs are fully-shielded, it shouldn't be necessary to ground the pot casings; this would save a lot of stress, solder, potential dry-joints, and unnecessary heat-trauma to the potentiometer parts! It's worth leaving out this step of grounding pot cases, until you've tested the new wiring with (correctly-shielded!) pickguard/rout covers back in place - no hum? no need! Better to spend the time confirming/installing complete (sides, under & over) enclosure of the wiring spaces/channels by something conductive (and itself well-grounded) (It's hopefully well-known that any wires actually needing to be grounded should all be grounded together at one point - the ground lug of the 1/4" jack is the best contender) ...just my 2 cents worth...

Your concern, for possible misapplication of this question & answers about the GP11 preamp to other TE systems which contain power supplies operating at greater then 20x the OP equipment here, is very worthy Now - let's be clear for this actual question: - The OP equipment 240V mains fuse (in series with the power switch) is rated at 100mA (ie. 0.1A) by TE; - The OP suggested switch is a suitable replacement for the OP power switch ATTN. Everybody else possibly thinking of replacing a power switch in some different setup: YMMV Keep Calm and Carry On, Kev

This new circuit is awaiting beta testing in another similar version Sinsonido, to confirm that it will operate as required, after independent installation The circuit provides what must surely have been the expected operation of the original design, but with more reliable capacitors (no suspect caps to cause oscillation/distorted output, as they age), and without losing the output from one electret mic when connecting output to amp, compared to headphones. It also reduces current consumption to <5mA, doubling battery life Some of the physical dimensions of the Aria wires and the control mounting are challenging and need some further attention, to ease the installation process - tbc In the meantime, here are a couple of preliminary audio clips of the prototype board in my Sinsonido, recorded direct from the bass into my Android tablet. Note that the Aria Tone control design, retained from the original PCB design, is a simple 'Treble cut' arrangement as used in passive basses, so one clip is the unaltered output, and the other is with tone control at max treble-cut. The bass is fretless, with medium-guage groundwound strings It should also be noted that the circuit on the new board retains the same core audio characteristics, using the same IC chip, as the original, without some of the questionable design 'features' (eg. extraneous electrolytic capacitors added in parallel to the ac signal output). The clips will sound to have either slightly more bass, or more treble, than your Sinsonido because this new circuit mixes both mic outputs within the electronics, rather than losing 1 channel when connecting to an amp via a standard jack to jack cable New board, Vol ~75%, Tone flat: NewSinsoBoard-Tflat.mp3 New board, Vol ~ 75%, Tone max treble-cut: NewSinsoBoard-Tbass.mp3 (decent headphones advised, for best audio listening)

The TE Service spec for the GP11 Preamp with 240V input, specifies a 100mA rated fuse in series with this switch The switch example shown in Kev's link earlier (thermal current rating, Ith, of 3A) meets and exceeds the indicated requirement

No - really - using cocktail sticks to fudge the repair of a hole requiring accurate locating of drill and screw highlights the difference why some people became luthiers and others, such as you and i, were just 'working as a waitress in a cocktail bar' 😉 (no-one is disputing the merits of using threaded inserts)

...i believe that those particular switches do in fact contain LEDs (operating from 9-24V, AC or DC). The latched version has 3 connectors for the 240V mains switch and an additional 2 (smaller?) tags for isolated connection to the internal LED and current-limiting resistor) the link which Kev provides above contains the relevant details

I would start with the existing 1.2k resistor in place, as before (if you find that the switch LED is too dim, however, then you could re-connect the switch LED to the other end of that 1.2k resistor)