jean
Rookie Solder Flinger
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Post by jean on Mar 29, 2016 9:54:04 GMT -5
Dear all, I'm building a guitar (well, with the help of a luthier) and I have the following components to put together: - on-board Boost/Wah from guitarfetish (Modboard) - sustainer fernandes 401 (single coil format) - Ghost acoustic phonic preamp from Graphtech - manson pickup MBK-2 - Di Marzio DP425 - midi screen XY The basic components connection are The idea is to have: - the sustainer driver and the Dimarzio pickups together in an Humbucker slot. The sustainer being used only as driver - both pickups (MK2 and DP 425) can be coiled tap via push pull on the tone control - magnetic volume has a push push to on/off the onboard effect (Modboard) via J3 and J4 - piezo volume has a push-push to switch from magnetic to piezo - the Modboard effect is controled via a 100k pot (J2) with push-pull for wah/Boost selection (J1) As I'm pretty new in modding and not far good in wiring, I would need your expert help on the whole wiring of that complex system, and additional though, namely: - I plan to power the midi XY screen thru the auxilliary power out of the phoni preamp and the Modboard from the sustainer board (as I understood the CN4/3 can be used for powering external active pickup or in my case the Modboard, right?). I can use two batteries then separately for the two "blocks". Is that a right choice or should I actually power the whole system with e.g. 2x9V battery in parallel? - the sustainer board and the piezo preamp are already making the whole system active/buffered, what is then better for wiring for the Modboard: true bypass or buffered? - The piezo preamp uses a 4 connector jack: how the sustainer and Modboard shall be connected then to be powered only when jack is connected? Sorry for so many questions but hope you guys can help...before I'm screwing up the whole thing with my new soldering iron ;-) Many thanks. Jean
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Post by JohnH on Mar 29, 2016 15:27:57 GMT -5
Hi Jean, welcome to GN2
It looks like you are putting considerable effort into creating this guitar, so obviously you want it all to work as you wish. But I see lots of risk in combining three additional complex active systems that you havent used before, together with a new wiring, particulrly when this is an area where you are learning yourself. The main issues, other than just fitting it all in and getting it wired up, are various electrical buzzes, switching thumps and cross-talk, and very possibly howling feedback due to the sustainer driver next to the pickups, the increased gain provided by the mod board, and all the extra wiring needed internally to connect everything.
Putting all of those systems into one compatible design would be quite a feat. The only way I would tackle such a project would be step-wise, with temporary builds, just introducing one extra system at a time, starting with just the magnetic wiring. Then add one active system at a time, keeping all parts seperated and shielded. There may be a need for temporary switching or pick gaurds until you arrive at a final system that works. Then wire up a final version based on experience, which will then hopefully not look like a science experiment!
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jean
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 16
Likes: 0
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Post by jean on Nov 16, 2016 4:52:02 GMT -5
Hi all, I'm progressing with my project and have solved most of the wiring. The final way was then to use 3 independent batteries: - one for the Acoustiphonic (piezo preamp) - one for the sustainer - one for the XY midi pad The MODboard will be powered thru the power out of the Acoustiphonic, as it requires only a few mA. I still have to figure out the switching on/of system. I really would like to have it all powered when the jack is inserted without the help of additional switch on the guitar (which has already quite a few ). Here are my initial thoughts that I would appreciate comments on: a 9 pole jack will be used for switching (only two elements as I need the TRS part for the piezo preamp): - the Acoustiphonic with its own battery (and thus the MODboard powered by it) - the sustainer with its own battery _ to use the CN4/3 red output of the sustainer board (normally used for powering active pickups) to activate a solid state relay which would be used to switch on the XY midi pad with its own battery Does that make sense at all? Any advise for better wiring? Thanks a lot.
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Post by JohnH on Nov 16, 2016 14:17:57 GMT -5
Welcome, back. I'm glad you have made good progress. So what kind of problems did you find along the way?, how did you solve them? and how much of the overall idea is working now? That may help us think about your power switching, particularly what led to using the three batteries.
If the reason for that was to do with stability and cross-talk, there may be other options, which you may already have tried. For example, feed each circuit from the one battery each via a separate resistor in the + line, of a size worked out to drop around 0.25 to 0.5V based on the current in each circuit. Then, after that, each circuit has a substantial capacitor (say 100uF) from its own + supply to ground. These measures will suppress signals from one circuit modulating the output of other circuits via the power supply. Beyond that, further active voltage regulation could be added.
If that could work, you could then consolidate the batteries into one, and maybe use something with better and more economical capacity such as a group of AA or AAA cells instead of a small 9V PP3. Then, the power switching is just one point, which could be as simple as the usual TRS jack with battery negative to the ring terminal (unless there are other ins and outs happening at the jack)
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