Nobelium - tube bass preamp project

vigilante398 said:
Psvane are Chinese. I recognize that they are one of the better Chinese tubes out there, but I personally don't like them. JJ are made in Slovakia so they should be easier to source than Russian tubes in Europe. JJ are my favorite because they're reasonably priced and kind of "middle of the road" tonally; I don't find them to be "too much" of anything.

TAD in Germany is also a reasonable option, though I recognize they aren't a manufacturer, they just test and relabel tubes from other manufacturers. I assume Musikding uses Psvane instead of TAD because Psvane are less expensive even when TAD is in the same country as Musikding. I don't think Musikding offered tube projects before he started carrying my boards, so I don't know if he does enough volume to warrant working out a bulk deal with a local source like TAD.
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I've just reached a specialist of tubes here in France. He has recommended me a matched pairs of JJ Gold Pins 12au7 after having studied the Nobelium schematic.
I also grab a pair of 12ax7 for my incoming Bassdude (Tad V1+ selected and Tad 12ax7B), same process, the guy looked carefully at the schematic before recomandation.
 
Just to add more wind to the windmill :
I have a new bass !! My first passive bass : a Maybach Motone P. With it, the Nobelium has absolutely no noise.
My other basses are all active fitted with Sadowsky preamps and even if noises had 99% disappeared with new tubes in the Nobelium, I could still hear some in a silent room when volume knob was full open.
With the passive Maybach nothing can be heard. Probably because this one has the pick up cavity isolated.
 
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vigilante398 said:
I got an email today from someone who bought a used Nobelium from guitar center and said the XLR wasn't working and asked if I could fix it. I explained that since it's a DIY project there's a possibility I didn't even build it, in which case I would charge for my time and parts. So before we went any further I asked him to send me a picture of the guts so I could verify if it was one of mine or not.

Was this built by anyone here? Because we need to have a chat.View attachment 109172
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Damn... this is beautiful... Which one of you guys did this... we want to know.
 
I like the paint colours that SamuelG used on the Reverend pedal, I wonder if he blessed the pedal before he sold it.
Hey Samuel, did you use the 2 stage HPF mod on this one as well?

Now if I could just convince Samuel to replace the "Feat The Rev" with C2CE and share the artwork I would be a very happy man, hint hint.
;);):love:
 
I didn't realised the C2CE finished pedal sits in a BB enclosure while the diy kit needs a larger box.

All 3 sound pretty much the same in my ears (at least the 2 Nobelium). Are they all using the same tube brand ? Makes me wonder if the person who made the video really makes us ear the 3 pedals or just faked it and used the same sound clip for the 3.
 
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XjFred said:
I didn't realised the C2CE finished pedal sits in a BB enclosure while the diy kit needs a larger box.

All 3 sound pretty much the same in my ears (at least the 2 Nobelium). Are they all using the same tube brand ? Makes me wonder if the person who made the video really makes us ear the 3 pedals or just faked it and used the same sound clip for the 3.
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The Rev version uses NOS tubes, not sure the brand. Neptunium and the C2C Nobelium both use JJ. The XLR signal path of Nobelium only uses one tube, so if you're just using the XLR then the Neptunium and C2C Nobelium will be identical. Same circuit, even the exact same components.

The Rev build uses top of the line (without going insane) quality components everywhere and a different transformer, plus obviously the NOS tubes, so I wouldn't expect them to sound identical, but differences will be subtle. But we're talking about musicians, people pay extra for subtle differences all day every day.
 
There was one sold on Reverb. It features NOS General Electric JAN 5814A triple mica military spec tubes which can be found, tested, for 42$ each. As you say, it also featured high quality components. 👍
I find the front colour and the golden knobs choice exquisite.
 
I just checked the tubes I have and I think they are the same as what is in the Reverends pedals, they are definitely GE JAN 5814A tubes, thanks Daniel for sharing the supplier with me. DanielG also likes to put a LC filter on the incoming power to the pedal that most likely helps a bit as well with noise.
I imagine he is just preparing his sermons for today since it is Sunday morning now in Au, well maybe not right now since I think it is 3.37am where he lives, it's already 6.37 am where I am.
 
I think it's Samuel, not Daniel.

SamuelG explains how he adds a filter to avoid pedal cross-talk. But as long as isolated power supplies (like Cioks, Strymon, etc...) are used, it can't happen, right ?

@Tassieviking , please can you explain again how to implement the 3 way switch allowing the 45Hz filter ? I can't find the thread where you explained it.

(Here, it is 11.43 pm, still saturday).
 
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