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Adding a preamp to my Iceman


Woodinblack
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I don't play the iceman as much as I should. It has 4 string and no preamp, so it tends to stay at home a lot, which is a shame as it really attracts attention. 

Having said that, its mostly down to the balance and the base straplock coming out that i haven't played it much

iceman_before.jpg

My Ibanez SR5005 pre-amp is a bit flakey, as it seems they all are, so I took it out with a look to repair it. I see on the net it is £150 which clearly it isn't worth, especially as they all seem to lose treble control after a while, so I thought I would get a new one. The artec pre-amps are really cheap and seem ok build. So I bought one for it. At the same time I realised that a stacked bass / treble for the iceman would be £20 and some knobs so I bought that. Looks like this:

artec_2a.jpg

So opened it up, put the other one in:

iceman_pre.jpg

Looks like they already had plans for the battery.

iceman_post.jpg 

 

and it ends up like

iceman_after.jpg

The only problem is that artec in their wisdom swapped the red and black wires from the balance control to the preamp around, and as a result it didn't work. If it had I would have gigged it yesterday, but it was mute.

In fact it was fine when I first put it together, as I forgot the earth wire, so it buzzed when i touched it, but when I soldered it up, it went dead. Took it all apart, seemed something was shorting the balance (it was, it was the balance output being grounded!).

 

Apart from that, whch was a bit frustrating, not a bad upgrade for less than £30. The sound is very transparent when flat, ie, you can't tell there is a pre-amp, which is a sign it is a good preamp, the tone has a good range and frankly I prefer a balance to two volumes.

Only thing I am not so keen on is that I think the balance is a bit of the wrong value, it is only about half its turn that it is that useful..

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Woodinblack
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I'm a big fan of those Artec Preamps. have them in 2 precision's and got another on route for a MM precision build. they're simple cheap and sound good to me! i haven't actually hooked up the ground in one of mine but it doesn't hum so a lucky accident!

also i now have iceman GAS thanks for that!! ;)

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