Bass Guitar Preamp Design [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Bass Guitar Preamp Design [pdf]

docs.google.com

66 pointslifeondave12 comments

Its nice to see an in depth report on the design of an analogue device in a world cluttered with binary. Wow slew rate, common mode rejection, clipping and the like, love those terms. It also shows that in spite of the digital revolution its still very much an analogue world we live in and experience.

That analogue world we live in is the macroscopic manifestation of a lot of quantized stuff underneath. It's just that the steps are (a lot) smaller!

LOL - yes, you are quite right, I wondered even as I commented (or it may have been slightly after posting) about the digital-ness of ones own DNA that has provided a way for one to evolve to the point we can appreciate (and build) a bass guitar and the pre-amplifiers to go with it. Yes, thanks. Still it was nice to see some circuitry with resistors, capacitors and opp amps, and to read a little about the design.

I am not a musician and don't know much about analog circuits but one thing I could tell is that it was a work of love. Someone has to be really passionate about the topic to write and share that. I admire that.

Cool document! Looks like a lot to take in. I really want to understand more about this side of instrument building so this kind of thing is much appreciated. I will share out with my bass building friends!

FYI, doesn't seem to open in Chrome? Maybe it's just me. Worked find in FF and IE.

I'm a little confused about the Final schematic. There are unlabeled wires floating around, and even after reading the whole document I'm confused as to where exactly the EQ modules fit into the design. Can anyone shed some light on how these pieces fit together?

If you look on the previous page, it is the same schematic with everything connected.

TLO7x? Really? There are better opamps out there.

Such as?

This article has a nice shoot-out between opamps:

http://www.cycfi.com/projects/six-pack/op-amp-shootout/

The OPA2209 looks pretty nice - an order of magnitude less noise and two orders of magnitude less distortion than the TL072.

In general, Burr-Brown, THAT corporation, some of Linear Technology's offerings... the rest will be the usual datasheet pain and suffering to find the best fit for the application.

For instrument amps, you often want something with a bit of coloration. Being too "hi fi" sounding is usually a bad thing.

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