Russian Bass Balls

[Austin73]

On  the russian bass balls, what is the polarity of the 3.5mm socket as I am going to replace with a normal 2.1 tip neg to make it easier in my pedal board.

Also anybody know of any mods for it whilst its open?

Aus

[Mark Hammer]

I gather you want to change the mini phone jack (traditional E-H power jack) with a barrel-style (Boss type) socket.   With phone plug/jack power connections, the tip is always positive.

[Austin73]

so its a quick swap around to change it to the Boss style 2.1 mm tip negative.

Cheers

Aus

p.s stilll need some mod ideas though

[Austin73]

For anybody wanting to do this the lug that is at 90 degrees to the plug is the ground the one directly below is the sleeve and the one opposite is the positive. Hope that helps someone out there

Aus

[mountainking]

You can check out this link for some mod ideas http://topopiccione.atspace.com/PJ08EHBassBalls.html

A friend of mine recently gave me his bass balls to mess with and one of things he wanted me to try to do is to give it a more "blurp" kind of sound. I eventually realized that he wanted it have a faster sweep like most envelope filters have. The reason why the bass balls has such a slow drawn out sweep is because the 330k in the envelope detector section of the circuit is too large to discharge the 4.7uf cap, which is in paralell with the resistor, quickly. The smaller you make this resistor the faster the sweep will be.

So, you can either put in a switch to choose between the stock resistor or a smaller resistor, or you can wire up a pot as a variable resistor with a resistor in series with it so you can adjust the speed of the sweep. I tested this mod to make sure it would do what I hoped it would do, but I haven't nailed down any resistor value(s) yet.

Another mod I was planing on doing is to put in two switches that allow you to individually disconnect the 2.7k resistors that connect to the output cap so you can choose between having both filters on or just one or the other on. I haven't tried this yet but seems like it would be a useful/cool modification.

[Mark Hammer]

I've done all those mods.  Worth it.

Replace the aforementioned 330k fixed resistor with a 10k-33k unit in series with a 500k-1M pot for variable decay time.

The 2k7 mixing resistors can also be separated to provide "stereo" outputs.  Using a single filter output yields a sound very similar to a Dr. Q.  Not surprisingly, since it is essentially the same filter.

One circuit adjustment I find useful these days is to simply replace the two 2k7 mixing resistors (R11/R16) with a 5k linear pot and 470R-1k resistors on each outside lug of the pot.  The pot wiper goes to the mixing node at C8 where the two filter outputs are combined.  This additional pot lets you blend different amounts of each filter together for different tones.

A "deluxe" version of this pedal would substitute 10k chassis-mount pots for each of the two 10k filter-tuning trimpots.  In practice, though, leaving the lower filter preset and installing a variable "stagger" control for the upper filter is generally sufficient.  A version of the BB that has a sensitivity control, a filter stagger control, a variable decay, and filter blend is a particularly flexible pedal that can suit many different needs.  You could probably even fit it in a 1590B.

[mountainking]

One circuit adjustment I find useful these days is to simply replace the two 2k7 mixing resistors (R11/R16) with a 5k linear pot and 470R-1k resistors on each outside lug of the pot.  The pot wiper goes to the mixing node at C8 where the two filter outputs are combined.  This additional pot lets you blend different amounts of each filter together for different tones.

That makes alot more sense then my idea, thanks.

[mountainking]

One circuit adjustment I find useful these days is to simply replace the two 2k7 mixing resistors (R11/R16) with a 5k linear pot and 470R-1k resistors on each outside lug of the pot.  The pot wiper goes to the mixing node at C8 where the two filter outputs are combined.  This additional pot lets you blend different amounts of each filter together for different tones.

That makes alot more sense then my idea, thanks.

Well mabye I'll try both ideas, may sound cool with just one filter on at time, maybe not. Mark, I'll also probably try your distortion mod. Seems like it will make the distortion switch a more "useful" feature.

[Mark Hammer]

One circuit adjustment I find useful these days is to simply replace the two 2k7 mixing resistors (R11/R16) with a 5k linear pot and 470R-1k resistors on each outside lug of the pot.  The pot wiper goes to the mixing node at C8 where the two filter outputs are combined.  This additional pot lets you blend different amounts of each filter together for different tones.

That makes alot more sense then my idea, thanks.

Not necessarily.  The split filters thing has some useful properties, like producing a quasi-stereo output.  Note as well that adjusting the tuning trimpot doesn't just set the range of the filter section.  It also determines the "responsiveness" of the filter section to the envelope/rectifier voltage.  When the two filters are sent to different channels/amps, they can be made to sweep a little differently, and that creates some stereo motion across the field.  If you can find the right sort of toggle or slide switch, it would be nice to have an arrangement whereby either the upper filter goes to the alternate output, the lower goes to the alternate output, or both filter sections remain mixed in the primary output.  If you use only the one output jack, that works not only as a stereo output, but as an upper/lower/both switch for the main output.  The downside is that bypassing a dual-output pedal is a little tricky. 

The advantage of the filter-blend pot I suggested is that it provides a mono output that accommodates standard true bypass switching.  Note that it does not completely eliminate either of the filter sections from the output.  If your unit is like mine, though, you WILL notice that one end of the blend pot's rotation is much better for rhythm playing, and the other is much better for bass....which is sort of the intention of adding the controls.

[Austin73]

Cheers for the input guys will have to go shopping now! So much to try if I have the Balls pardon the pun

Aus

[Austin73]

I take it you managed to bypass your dual output box Mark if so how did you do it?

Aus

[Mark Hammer]

I didn't.   

I used a DPDT switch to bypass the input and primary output.  With no input signal going to the board, the secondary filter output was essentially dead.  Well, I shouldn't say "dead" because, unlike the primary filter output, it remains connected to the active circuit, which means that any noise from the circuit finds its way to the output.  On the good side, since the secondary output is fed from a bandpass filter section that, in the absence of input, is retuned to the lowest point in its range, the residual hiss is not particularly awful.  Noticeable, detectable, or whatever, but not awful.  The primary output is as dead quiet as you'd expect a TB output to be.

I imagine you *could* use a 3PDT to simultaneously link the two output jacks to the input jack, but you'd have to forego the indicator LED.

[Austin73]

Just to add on my russian bass balls it only has a dpdt footswitch so not sure whats going on there maybe a millenium type thing ?

Aus

[Mark Hammer]

If it has a status LED and a DPDT switch, chances are that it switches the output with one set of contacts and the LED with the other set.  Not ideal, but if the input is a high enough impedance, not the worst-case scenario either.  To the best of my knowledge, EHX does not use "augmented" status LED circuits similar to the Millenium Bypass.