Aguilar AG500SC:



One of the earlier ones that still used the Tripath modules. New Korg-made ones use an ICEPower brick or something, I assume.
Sold as borked. Went straight into protection mode on startup. Found the two output MOSFETs were shorted and the +/-90 V output rail fuses were blown. 12V gate-drive regulator was also fried. Removed the RA2500 driver daughter board and found this:



Found a used Tripath TA0105A module on ebay that didn't appear to be counterfeit. It's the previous gen board, but still functions nearly the same in this application. Slight differences in the protection circuitry. Dropped it in, replaced the discontinued STW34NB20 MOSFETs with some more modern types (IRFB4227), and replaced the fuses and blown regulator. Decreased the MOSFET gate resistance from 5.6 ohms to 3.3 ohms and added a reverse-biased Schottky diode to the gate to help with MOSFET turn-off times.
Fired it up, and it immediately blew the fuses again and made a sound that was most likely arcing. I found a melted spot in the case of the output load relay, so I pulled that off and found some carbonization on the PCB that had presumably been there before and started arcing again. Also had to replace the MOSFETs a second time, as they were now shorted again. Methodically checked everything in stages, then fired it up again and it's working fine now.

The Hippie Sandwich has been finished. Including the Fralin Unbuckers from FM MoreSpaceEcho.

I originally had no-hole chrome humbucker covers on them, but because I had only affixed them to the pickups with copper tape, there was still a little distance between the pickup and the cover. Any gain turns into Feedback (bad) as soon as you get anywhere near an amp.

I also had a pickguard drew up on the computer then sent into a metal fabricator to get it cut on aluminum. I wish I had picked a material with a chrome finish to match to rest of the hardware. I may yet get another one done in the future.

After I got it back from the shop to get the nut cut, initial setup, and to clean up my piss-poor soldering job, and after I pulled off the pickup covers, it’s pretty much done. I don’t have my good amps at home right now so I can’t really get a taste for how it sounds, but I do have a cheapo Fender solid-state practice amp at home. Compared with my ASAT Special, the Unbuckers seem to have slightly stronger mids, which I’m not a fan of, but it definitely has plenty of highs, which I do like. Will have to suspend any judgment before I can play through a good amp. For what it’s worth, the shop nailed the setup and the action was excellent. I felt like I could almost play a Mahavishnu Orchestra song on this thing.

I usually only keep di sounds to mix with an amp or reamp later, but I got a pretty great Motown-esque sound on bass.

Ovation Magnum with flats > electrical audio di > soyuz launcher > sphere preamp > sphere eq > compressor

The sound is just short of great. It does that thing where it sounds goof and sits well in the track, but isolation reveals more grit than you really hear in context. It certainly doesn’t sound overdriven in the song. Not unlike when you listen to isolated Beatles bass line and realize how dirty the bass is sometimes, even when they’re not using fuzz bass as an effect.

I just had the Soyuz launcher (48v colored mic booster) in to see what would happen after the direct box, but it probably needs to go as there’s a hair too much grit 5th fret and below with fingers and then too much buzz with a big felt pick. Almost there.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sat Sep 28, 2024 3:03 pm I usually only keep di sounds to mix with an amp or reamp later, but I got a pretty great Motown-esque sound on bass.

Ovation Magnum with flats > electrical audio di > soyuz launcher > sphere preamp > sphere eq > compressor

The sound is just short of great. It does that thing where it sounds goof and sits well in the track, but isolation reveals more grit than you really hear in context. It certainly doesn’t sound overdriven in the song. Not unlike when you listen to isolated Beatles bass line and realize how dirty the bass is sometimes, even when they’re not using fuzz bass as an effect.

I just had the Soyuz launcher (48v colored mic booster) in to see what would happen after the direct box, but it probably needs to go as there’s a hair too much grit 5th fret and below with fingers and then too much buzz with a big felt pick. Almost there.

I've gotten in the habit of taking a DI guitar and bass every time through either my warm API clone or Golden Age never clones. Bother sound good dry or through a amp plugin.

I used the -30db pad instead of the -15db pad on the Sphere preamp and it cleaned up the DI sound, although too much, even compensating for the gain loss on the pre fader. Still, it sounded very good. Might reamp later but I certainly don’t have to.

The bass is done, but next time I’ll go back to the -15db pad and blend it with a cleaner sound.

Kniferide wrote: Sat Sep 28, 2024 5:56 pm
I've gotten in the habit of taking a DI guitar and bass every time through either my warm API clone or Golden Age never clones. Bother sound good dry or through a amp plugin.

That’s cool, is there much difference between the DI on the two pres?

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 7:07 am I used the -30db pad instead of the -15db pad on the Sphere preamp and it cleaned up the DI sound, although too much, even compensating for the gain loss on the pre fader. Still, it sounded very good. Might reamp later but I certainly don’t have to.

The bass is done, but next time I’ll go back to the -15db pad and blend it with a cleaner sound.

Kniferide wrote: Sat Sep 28, 2024 5:56 pm
I've gotten in the habit of taking a DI guitar and bass every time through either my warm API clone or Golden Age never clones. Bother sound good dry or through a amp plugin.

That’s cool, is there much difference between the DI on the two pres?

Yes. The warm API is a more mid-range forward sound I like better for guitar. The stock warm audio ic breaks up a little ugly but 2 of the channels are modified neve BBC console designs from shiny box and they are more smooth and sound great. The Golden Age neve clone is a nice flat fill range preamps with nice tight low end. I have the "premier" versions with fancy transformers. They are really great for bass guitar. The hi z on the front of my black lion ardeur MK2 and mk3 (same with different transformers) are also very good if you want clean and quiet. Those are really fantastic preamps for the money. They have taken over the role of my syteks due to being a little more flexible.

Ok so a few months back I got this beastly Stagetec Nexus system:
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I've finally got it updated and working. This has involved a lot of slow, email correspondence with the folks at Stagetec in Germany. I had to find an olde enough laptop to run WIndows XP to talk to the system and start the upgrade journey from there. Had to re-write the USB VID's so newer OSes could see it. The Stagetec folks provided the configuration files for the system, and subsequently an updated version to work with the latest version of their Matrix5 software. Once I got it up to speed I actually ran some sound through it for the first time. I just plugged a dynamic mic into one of the A/D inputs and out to a DAC/headphone amp via AES/EBU. I had the fullscale level set too high, and also a mic in a Line input, so I had to crank the gain and the headphone amp to really hear the signal. Signal sounded good, but more notable was the complete lack of noise. Like, damn quiet.

I haven't done much else with it yet, as I got another 6U unit that actually has 24 XMIC+ Mic A/D's which I'm currently working on getting going. I ended up getting 2 configs from Stagetec for this one, as the original one didn't match up with the version loaded to the unit. Apparently it was most recently part of a system with 28 of these base units for some Riot Games Esports event or something. This system came from some event company in Vegas. Frustratingly, the configs show this as having both Dante and a MADI cards, but neither were included when it was sold.

Apparently stagetec stuff is on another level. Like, if you have to ask you can't afford it, high end Classical recording stuff. Supposed to be sonically top of the line. Somehow even the 20+ year olde hardware. I called a local rep about getting a MADI or Dante or AES67 card for this and the cards are like $3K each plus like hundreds of dollars to change the system configuration to add it in, so I guess I'll be patient and hope something shows up on the second hand market that fills the gaps and then figure out the most affordable way to roll it all into one system.

In the meantime I'm slowly grinding my way through the ~500 page operation manual trying to get a handle on the software and all the crazy shit it can do. The Matrix routing is pretty amazing. Can set up sub matrices logic triggers and all kinds of cool stuff. I haven't gotten to the serial/midi/relay control and logic stuff yet, but stoked to see what I can do with all that. A dude in Australia who runs a stagetec system developed some module for triggering events in Bitfocus Companion, which is a whole other rabit hole. Really stoked on this stuff.

thecr4ne wrote: Tue Oct 08, 2024 2:09 pm Dante or AES67 card for this and the cards are like $3K

At $3000 for dante, that would be a lot of IO conversion for the dollar actually. No idea how open their routing environment is but That isn't a lot ot pay for that much connectivity.

Kniferide wrote: Tue Oct 08, 2024 3:48 pm

thecr4ne wrote: Tue Oct 08, 2024 2:09 pm Dante or AES67 card for this and the cards are like $3K

At $3000 for dante, that would be a lot of IO conversion for the dollar actually. No idea how open their routing environment is but That isn't a lot ot pay for that much connectivity.

Definitely didn't mean to imply it's not worth it. Honestly, paying full price for that is still a deal considering I got all this for like ~$650. Just need to save for that bit and make sure I know exactly what I want out of it at that point.

Not sure what you mean by "open" re: routing environment. Definitely not open int he open source, transparency sort of way, but as far as the routing capabilities, you can do any input to any output(s), so yeah, lots of connectivity to Dante if that's part of the system.

thecr4ne wrote: Tue Oct 08, 2024 4:47 pm
Not sure what you mean by "open"

I mean plays nice with daws and other applications. Like is there any kind of software mixer router that say, a Reaper or Cubase or Pro Tools (barrrf) can utilize. I know these are sort of engineered for a proprietary console system. Not sure how "open" the system is outside of that ecosystem.