Boosting signal from Ovation Magnum 1?

[richrips]

Hi,

I have been playing my Ovation Magnum for a couple of years now and it sounds great when dialed in nicely. My biggest problem is output. My amp is the Ashdown Little Giant 1000w, which has a rather weak preamp as discussed elsewhere. The amp is pretty good apart from that with a good EQ, and as I payed very little for it I am more than happy. The big problem is swapping basses. My other bass is a 3EQ Stingray which is great because between them I can make most sounds that I need. Trouble is, whilst the Stingray has a super high output, the Magnum is a whisper at the same settings. I find it really hard to swap between them as the compression (Aphex Punch factory) and preamplification totally change when I do so. Ideally I would like to be able to plug the magnum in and have the same output level from it as the Stingray. The magnum has stereo output which I don't use currently but did sound totally badassed on my previous rig with a stereo valve preamp/compressor/poweramp/speaker setup. I am not totally keen to lose the stereo feature, but is there an onboard preamp with a stereo signal path that would slot in to the current wiring setup in the magnum (2 vol, 2 tone, stereo and mono output)?

So far I have tried turning up the individual volume pots on the magnum and raising the pickups as high as is practical to play on. I don't want to spent loads on a tone-shaping beast of a preamp as the tone is fine as is (although fairly large volume change as tone is rolled off...). I don't particularly want to have to carry around another pedal if it can be helped.

Any suggestions?

Magnum 1 schematic:[url="http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/chino555/Magnum_I_schematicrevised_zps60eb9a7e.jpg"]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/chino555/Magnum_I_schematicrevised_zps60eb9a7e.jpg[/url]

Many thanks,

Rich

[BassHertz]

The schematic shows that this is a totally passive tone control. You are going to need some sort of buffer circuit with a bit of gain. Are you handy with a soldering iron and is there space for a battery in the control cavity?

[richrips]

I can solder alright. In my mind I have a highly efficient onboard buffer with enough gain to bring the output up to within tweaking distance of my stingray. The cavity is huge and the scratchplate is non-original so I'm not precious about that either. Read a little about the redeemer onboard buffer, but not sure if that's what is needed precisely. What do you suggest?

[richrips]

Any recommendations on a clean onboard boost with low battery consumption? I don't want to be unscrewing the scratchplate more than necessary... Thanks, R

[paul_5]

You could use this:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kXoByAOQ73U/UQkZnBNFGwI/AAAAAAAAEp8/agyYHuzaeao/s1600/Emerson+Custom+Guitars+Em-Drive+-+compact.png
as a line booster - just remove the 'Gain' control and it's a really clean level booster.

fits on a 6x6 piece of veroboard too!