mellowgerman
Senior Member
My 1970 Starfire is my forever #1 player. I've never enjoyed an instrument more. It has gone through several stages of evolution, but has not been on the work bench for quite some time now.
When I managed to get My hands on a NOS ACG EQ-01, I knew it was time for the Starfire to undergo a new phase in evolution. The EQ-01 is an active filter-based preamp inspired by classic Alembic designs. It has separate low-pass filters for each pickup and a blendable high-pass filter. About 5 years back I tried the EQ-02 (same idea but only one master low-pass filter) in my Warwick Starbass. At the time however, I was gigging every week, often under wild circumstances (we'll leave it at that), and the Starbass was my main player then, so I didn't want to have to worry about batteries and super powerful but sensitive electronics on stage. I ended up going back to more familiar passive electronics, though admittedly still unconventional and overcomplicated in their passive homebrew design, with loads on switches and knobs.
Anyway, nowadays I'm spending my music time working on original music for/with my current band, mostly at home and in the studio, rarely playing out, so I'm going to give the remarkable ACG filters another go.
So far I've only pulled the former controls from the bass, which were master volume, Noll no-load blend, master tone, and passive high-pass control for the bridge pickup. Next I'm carefully plotting the creation of a cavity cover, which will be necessary since the preamp uses a 9volt battery and has internal trim pots to tweak pickup input levels and the blend of the high-pass filter. I have debated doing a top-loaded control plate kind of like Jack Casady's first modified Starfire had, but will most likely go with the back-door design instead. Either way, stopping by my local Rockler wood shop today to pick up the 1/8" wood sheet I'll be crafting the cover out of. What type of wood will depend on the grain and shades of what they have in stock.I
Once this is all done I'll post a demo of some sort, but for now, here's a teaser shot
When I managed to get My hands on a NOS ACG EQ-01, I knew it was time for the Starfire to undergo a new phase in evolution. The EQ-01 is an active filter-based preamp inspired by classic Alembic designs. It has separate low-pass filters for each pickup and a blendable high-pass filter. About 5 years back I tried the EQ-02 (same idea but only one master low-pass filter) in my Warwick Starbass. At the time however, I was gigging every week, often under wild circumstances (we'll leave it at that), and the Starbass was my main player then, so I didn't want to have to worry about batteries and super powerful but sensitive electronics on stage. I ended up going back to more familiar passive electronics, though admittedly still unconventional and overcomplicated in their passive homebrew design, with loads on switches and knobs.
Anyway, nowadays I'm spending my music time working on original music for/with my current band, mostly at home and in the studio, rarely playing out, so I'm going to give the remarkable ACG filters another go.
So far I've only pulled the former controls from the bass, which were master volume, Noll no-load blend, master tone, and passive high-pass control for the bridge pickup. Next I'm carefully plotting the creation of a cavity cover, which will be necessary since the preamp uses a 9volt battery and has internal trim pots to tweak pickup input levels and the blend of the high-pass filter. I have debated doing a top-loaded control plate kind of like Jack Casady's first modified Starfire had, but will most likely go with the back-door design instead. Either way, stopping by my local Rockler wood shop today to pick up the 1/8" wood sheet I'll be crafting the cover out of. What type of wood will depend on the grain and shades of what they have in stock.I
Once this is all done I'll post a demo of some sort, but for now, here's a teaser shot