NancyJohnson Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 I'm starting a new thread here - sorry if this gets too wordy. I'm trying to install a Darkglass Tone Capsule into a bass with two pickups and three potentiometer holes. Struggling. I've had a short exchange with @KiOgon about this too. As I have insufficient holes to accommodate the wiring, I'm wiring the pickups to a concentric pot, the two mid controls from the Tone Capsule to another concentric pot and (just to keep things tidy) the bass control from the same unit to one half of a concentric pot. Nothing fancy or stupid. The black and shield wires were already soldered together by Lull. I've sorted the pickups, wired as follows - if I connect the black and yellow wires to the output jack, all is well; output is fine, no buzzing (even without the ground attached to the bass's grounding fixture). The tone capsule (and wiring) looks like this; in theory, I should be able to take the yellow from the above (hot out) and screw it into the 'Audio In' below, the battery is straightforward enough (you'd think). I'm assuming 'Input Jack shield' (the black wire) is from the ground : I've spent about three hours today trying to get it to work and all I'm getting is zero...it's been getting to the point where I've just tried hooking things up with Wago connectors! The schematic below is off the Darkglass site - the black and yellows off the pickups is essentially all handled by the concentric pot. Does the 9v black go to the jack tip or shaft? Need a beer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 "Input jack" should of course be "output jack". Battery negative goes to output jack ring. Ground and pickup wires go to the output jack sleeve so when the jack plug is inserted, the battery negative is connected to "GND" on the board and the ground side of the pickups. Audio out goes to jack tip. If you want to test it without the jack complicating things, just connect the battery negative, ground from the concentric pot, and jack sleeve to GND and OUT to the jack socket tip. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 As @tauzero is mentioning the black battery negative wire goes to the ring of the output jack which is the shortest connector. The blue output wire goes to the tip which is the longest connector. I think you've reverted those two. The ground goes to the sleeve. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 Sorry, late to the party, but as said above, @Hellzero and @tauzero both right - you should be sorted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 The Darkglass schematic above doen't show a stereo jack - but that's what you need for sure and the blue audio out is shown to the wrong contact of the mono jack anyway, in fact the battery negative black is shown wrong also - to the jack tip. BAD Drawing Darkglass 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 10 Author Share Posted August 10 27 minutes ago, Hellzero said: As @tauzero is mentioning the black battery negative wire goes to the ring of the output jack which is the shortest connector. The blue output wire goes to the tip which is the longest connector. I think you've reverted those two. The ground goes to the sleeve. Stereo jack? Gadzooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 10 Author Share Posted August 10 Everything is getting a bit of a mess and covered in solder, so I've pulled everything out except the mids/bass pots. I'm going to put an order in for new wire and a bloody stereo socket. This was supposed to be a 20 minute job. What a load of arrrrrse! 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 1 hour ago, KiOgon said: The Darkglass schematic above doen't show a stereo jack - but that's what you need for sure and the blue audio out is shown to the wrong contact of the mono jack anyway, in fact the battery negative black is shown wrong also - to the jack tip. BAD Drawing Darkglass I think it does show a stereo socket - two contacts (the downward V and the inverted V) and, to their right, the sleeve. The Darkglass diagram is the mirror image of this so they correctly show the blue going to the tip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 10 Author Share Posted August 10 I'm a bit lost here. With the stereo socket, I can still use a regular cable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 24 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said: I'm a bit lost here. With the stereo socket, I can still use a regular cable? Yes. The stereo socket simply makes the circuit switch on and off. When you put a mono plug into the stereo socket, it connects the ring and the sleeve together. So if you connect the battery negative to one (generally the ring) and the GND of the amp (along with all the other grounds) to the other (generally the sleeve), the battery negative will be connected when the plug is inserted and disconnected when it is removed. Hence always taking the plug out of an active bass when not playing it, so the battery isn't run down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 10 Author Share Posted August 10 13 minutes ago, tauzero said: Yes. The stereo socket simply makes the circuit switch on and off. When you put a mono plug into the stereo socket, it connects the ring and the sleeve together. So if you connect the battery negative to one (generally the ring) and the GND of the amp (along with all the other grounds) to the other (generally the sleeve), the battery negative will be connected when the plug is inserted and disconnected when it is removed. Hence always taking the plug out of an active bass when not playing it, so the battery isn't run down. I have a small hole in the bass body that allowed switching between active/passive on the old John East circuit; I was going to use that for an on/off switch. No worry, I'll just put the new switch in and leave it unconnected. Thanks for your input chaps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted August 10 Share Posted August 10 1 hour ago, tauzero said: I think it does show a stereo socket - two contacts (the downward V and the inverted V) and, to their right, the sleeve. The Darkglass diagram is the mirror image of this so they correctly show the blue going to the tip. I see now - I wasn't looking at it like that 🙄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 7 hours ago, NancyJohnson said: I have a small hole in the bass body that allowed switching between active/passive on the old John East circuit; I was going to use that for an on/off switch. No worry, I'll just put the new switch in and leave it unconnected. Thanks for your input chaps! You could use a switch as an active/passive but it would simply bypass the entire tone control system so you'd just have the two volumes. I'd recommend getting it working as it is first. Then if you should want to put in an active/passive, you will want a double pole double throw switch - that is, a switch which is actually two separate switches, each of which switches between two terminals. Then the audio in from the volume controls and audio out from the jack socket are connected to the two poles, one of the sides is connected to the audio in and audio out of the tone module, and the other sides are connected together. It's a true bypass for the tone module, just in case your battery management ever gets a bit slack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 Everything is here, but arrived too late to get it sorted. Tomorrow. In a moment of clarity/madness, I ordered a pack of Dupont connectors, which I can strip back and use for connecting everything, limiting the amount of soldering I'll need to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 Still not working. Because the pot connections are so tiny, I extended the black/ground and wired them all together, then took this to the ground and then out to the jack socket. (Does anyone actually make a pot with large tabs and a long shaft? I need a screw thread of about a centimetre.) Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Don't you think you should stop now ... or you'll end up destroying everything. Why don't you ask someone with the knowledge to do it as it's a 10 to 20 minutes job and watch what he is doing? By the way your green and black wires should be reversed at the output stereo jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 2 hours ago, Hellzero said: Don't you think you should stop now ... or you'll end up destroying everything. Why don't you ask someone with the knowledge to do it as it's a 10 to 20 minutes job and watch what he is doing? By the way your green and black wires should be reversed at the output stereo jack. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 2 hours ago, Hellzero said: Don't you think you should stop now ... or you'll end up destroying everything. At present, it's just a bit of soldering. The tiny size of the tabs on the pot is a bit of a ballache; god knows why I can't find something that isn't Hornby sized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 First things first. Take the yellow and blue wires out of the "IN" and "OUT" connectors and connect them together, and see if you get a signal - I think you did that right at the beginning, worth checking that things are all still well. Also, have you connected the various tone pots up? Also, check that you've got 9V across the +V and GND on the tone module when the jack plug is inserted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 13 Author Share Posted August 13 Need to get a new soldering iron. FFS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 30 Author Share Posted August 30 After a couple more abortive attempts, you'll be pleased to know that I've passed everything over to Julian Mullen in Reading. I've given up on installing the bloody thing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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