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Alembic Club » Owning an Alembic » Troubleshooting » Archive through December 18, 2006 » Need clarification on modifying old Series 1 for mono cable « Previous Next »

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lbpesq
Senior Member
Username: lbpesq

Post Number: 980
Registered: 7-2004
Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 6:21 pm:   Edit Post

I am interested in modifying my 1976 Series 1 guitar so that I can use both pickups on battery power. I read Mica's post in FAQ, as seen here:

http://alembic.com/club/messages/16271/24370.html?1138068087

I'm a little confused. After adding the two resistors, do you have to actually wire a stereo plug to one end of a cord and a mono plug to the other, or will a regular mono-to-mono cord work?

Second question. After performing this mod, does the power supply still work too? If so, in stereo or mono?

All help appreciated.

Bill, tgo
davehouck
Moderator
Username: davehouck

Post Number: 3220
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 6:44 pm:   Edit Post

Bill; I might be completely wrong about this, and I may be completely misunderstanding your question, but I believe the modifications, the adding of resistors, are done to the cable plugs themselves and not to the jack in the guitar. So yes, I would think one end of the cable has to be a TRS plug. Once you get a power supply and 5-pin cable, you won't need to use the stereo jack when using the power supply; so since there is no modification to the guitar, only to the 1/4" cable plugs, the functioning of the power supply and 5-pin cable will not be affected.
davehouck
Moderator
Username: davehouck

Post Number: 3221
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 7:02 pm:   Edit Post

I think I misunderstood your post. I've just sent you an email.
dfung60
Intermediate Member
Username: dfung60

Post Number: 131
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Friday, February 17, 2006 - 11:35 pm:   Edit Post

Bill -

Mica's description of the mono mod is geared toward building a mono cable or adapter. I built just such an adapter cable (about 8" long) years ago so I could use my Series with a wireless transmitter pack.

You can do it externally like this, or you can do this inside your bass, if you don't want to have stereo out on the 1/4" plug. The only problem is that the 1/4" plug has a *lot* of stuff wired to it since it includes power switching for the batteries (I've seen a lot of guitar electronics and the Series wiring is probably an order of magnitude more complex than anything else you'll ever see).

Basically, you need to identify the neck and bridge output wires on the existing plug, then cut them, splice in the resistors, then join the two outputs together and connect them to the tip conductor of the 1/4" jack. It's really fairly simple.

You'll still have stereo output on the 5-pin connector (and you can still get mono at the power supply as you do now).

The one thing that you would want to look into is the circuit that switches between external power from the 5-pin connector and the batteries. I believe that this switch is part of the wiring on the 1/4" jack. If you're making this mono mod to use a wireless transmitter, then you probably want to leave the power switching alone (obviously, you want to be on batteries when something is plugged in here). You would want to make a change if, for some reason, you wanted mono out at the 1/4" jack but you also had the power supply plugged in. That's a pretty odd case - since you have the power supply connected, you can just get the mono signal at the DS-5. If you were thinking abou this mod in case you didn't have the power supply or 5-pin cable with you, then you really need to run off the battery. So, I probably wouldn't change the power switching part.

Good luck,

David Fung

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