Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Had several requests for on-board bass preamps and what better place to start than the original StingRay circuit? Simple 2 band-EQ with low current draw and should be small enough to tuck into the control cavity of whatever bass you’re wanting to add it to. Other single opamps can be used, but the current draw … Read more
Stumbled across this schematic on FSB. It’s a buffer/EQ/preamp for peizo pickups, specifically all Barcus-Berry electret microphone systems. I figured most would be building this into an instrument and not a pedal, so all the pots are off-board. If you’re planning on running it only off a 9v battery, you cab get away without the … Read more
Here’s a pretty simple but effective bass preamp from EWS. It’s a 3-band EQ being pushed by a MOSFET gain stage. Looks like EWS made a version for Xotic with the same name. Not a lot different between the two other than some value changes laid out in this schematic on FSB. I’ve laid it … Read more
Here’s a simple bass preamp circuit derived from the Sunn 200S using JFETs. It’s pretty similar to the Bassman Preamp, but with the EQ section at the end of the circuit instead of the middle. Original S200S amps didn’t have the Mid control, but it’s kind of necessary IMHO. Bias the JFETs to 4.5v and … Read more
The Ashbory bass was first introduced in 1986 and is/was a half scale (18″) fretless travel bass with a piezo pickup and built in preamp. That preamp is essentially a Baxendall tone stack feeding into the volume control, into an op amp based gain stage. I stumbled across the schematic and thought it would be a … Read more
Here’s an older design from Catalinbread, but an interesting design as usual. It’s a preamp/boost with a wide range of tone shaping capabilities. Schematic can be found here.
Here’s a loud one for you (I am not responsible for any blown speakers that may happen as a result of you building this thing! haha)! It’s a popular preamp and used as a booster by the metal band Meshuggah. It apparently sounds best run at 18v. I didn’t include an onboard charge pump since … Read more
Got several requests for this one. Basically, it’s small preamp to plug into a mobile device for use with apps like iRig. Pretty simple circuit. Shouldn’t be hard to fit in a 1590a or even smaller since you don’t need to include a footswitch.
If you’re a Dead Head, you’ll probably be interested in this one. It’s the pre-amp from Jerry Garcia’s Tiger guitar used from ’79-’89 and built by Doug Irwin. It’s a unity gain buffer to prevent signal loss with long cables. It can be built into a guitar like the original or into a 1590A. Other … Read more
The EchoPlex Preamp emulates the input stage on the old EchoPlex EP-3. It provides up to 11dB of gain and is mostly used as an always on pedal to sweeten the user’s tone. If you want to add the volume control, use a 500k pot and connect lug 1 at the junction of the 100n … Read more