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if you need a configuration which is not possible with the jumpers, you can use wires with 

single pin connectors like patch cables.  

the LED is meant to blink red (as discribed on the last page) and you can also have it 

contantly green (not strong, otherwise it uses more battery than the whole circuit)

its enough to hold the PCB with the connector screws

you can saw off one of the 1/4 jacks if you do not need it

we provide a connector to the 2 Jack switch so you can automatically switch off the pas-

sive output if the active is connected

OutputPCB board

we made a board for our own guitar that may serve you to mount and configure the output 

connectors. it contains 

•  2  1/4” jacks with 2 independent on-on switches DPDT, partly configurable with jumpers

•  1  13pin DIN GK connector with gold contacts and metal fixing for two M3 screws

•  1  two color LED - green is always lit (softly to save battery) red blinks when Bat low

•  1  16pin header that matches Polybass X2

•  1  8pin header to configure the outputs (explained in picture below)

•  3  2pin headers for 2. jack audio out and return and for LED

Cable service

we offer the following flat cables:

1.  open wires to x to a 1/4 jack or two to X2

2.  two 16pin connectors to connect to our output board

3.  one 16 and one 14pin connector to connect to the RMC output board

Summary of Contents for Polybass

Page 1: ... there is space for a bass player there are probably more duos and trios of voice guitar and percussion or harmonica and clarinet and so on where one of those instruments takes the musical task of the bass player yet on an instrument which does not have the size to create a real low bass BUT we are lucky that engineers of the last decades created portable woofers that fill a big room with solid an...

Page 2: ... class preamp system Polybass is not only the low bass but a complete 7 channel low noise low power preamp and mixing system designed to give you the maximum possible options for configuring and mixing any kind of pickups in any guitar the 7th channel can amplify a magnetic pickup a body piezo or even a microphone and on the Shield there is another preamp with notch filter in case you need 7 strin...

Page 3: ...is the very experienced electronic engineer who simulated the details reduced power consumption draw the schema made the layout and finally thought me how to use the layout software so I am free to complete and modify what he did Tom Maier of 24dB de had the great idea to replace a RMC pcb s to make this plug and play Rein Taivo and Vahur of spicetone com organized the manufacturing and testing of...

Page 4: ...u need 15 What kind of controls are available 15 how to mount the controls in the instrument 16 What output connectors you need 16 Polybass Shield board connectors 17 Input connector 17 Output connector 17 Volume control connector 17 Tone control connector 18 Roland GK controls connector 18 WooDi Switch connector 18 Connectors Shield Polybass 18 Polybass board connectors 19 Input connections 19 Ou...

Page 5: ...o the spot indicated but we rather recommend to use a header con nector and possibly a flat cable to which you then can solder wires the header can be soldered on either side pref erably straight on the component side or an gled on the trimmer side we do not use the VCA necessary for RMC Godin and set it to maximum with a jumper or solder bridge as indicated we can send you a pre wired kit like th...

Page 6: ...ster volume control instead of the Clean volume as shown in the last paragraph you can install a master volume on X1 pin14 is the output from the sum amp and on pin7 it returns to the output stage so in the above example you would need to simply join pint7 and pin14 but you can also add a volume potentiometer a filter or whatever effect you like Pickup balance instead of separate volume controls y...

Page 7: ...you see on the picture above we deliver tested kits with the controls and functions you choose and the cable length you need Input connection connect Graphtec Ghost pickups or solder the pickups in one of the 3 ways shown below Output connection for a solid body or generally shielded guitar the output wire does not need to be shielded so its easier to use the output connector or on the left the so...

Page 8: ...n cables or with crimped wires one connector is for 2 3 volume controls the other for 2 3 tone controls for acoustic guitars the thumb wheel potentiometers in the sound hole are interesting be cause there is no need to drill into the guitar in this case we had no Aux and no Mid so two small connectors were sufficient ...

Page 9: ...ards you have to scratch the tracks Battery low warning the first sign of the battery becoming exhausted 5V is when strong attacks mainly on the D string cause a delay of the subbass sound when dropping further the delay also hap pens on lower strings and softer attacks we think this is a rather helpful indication since the musician will notice but hardly the public for those who want a visual war...

Page 10: ...ponent side as long as you do not use the VCA you can forget about this tiny trimmer it is set once to adjust the silent point see chapter VCA and GK control if you use the VCA to control the Polybass effect volume and its not totally gone when you close the pot adjust the trimmer Filter jumper the original RMC system has a treble enhancement on the input and a compensating treble cut on the outpu...

Page 11: ...e top for example by adding a bridge between top and bottom Roland GuitarSynth and compatible the Polybass is capable to drive polyphonic hexaphonic effects and sythesizers compati ble with the Roland GK 13pin DIN system you can install the GK Synth volume and the Up Dn buttons however you want them and connect them to X1 or the specific connector on the Shield note that due to the compatibility t...

Page 12: ...o can be choosen and placed acording to taste Les Paul family Graphtech and LRBaggs supply the Tune o matic bridge which is trivial to replace the wires need a little hole and can go from the bridge pickup to the potentiometer depart ment where the Polybass fits with some carv ing but with the original cover so no change is visible from outside Strat family several manufacturers offer direct re pl...

Page 13: ... you can create one if you do not mind so its rath er easy to build the board into the hollow body possibly screwing it to the back cover which can be the Paradis plexi we made for the RMC version we sell it separately if you do not want to drill into the instrument you can create a big enough pick guard and screw or glue the Shield to it ...

Page 14: ...same for your guitar or rather for your guitar model since you probably would find the development to expensive for a single instrument consider that this is nice in a pretty solid guitar but on a thin top you probably would not want the weight and resonances of the electronics rather cable it to the bottom Paradis Avalon this is not quite working yet but you see where the Polybass got her neat ro...

Page 15: ...sks for is that the strings are picked up separately we tested it with the following piezo pickups Paradis pickup need a special bridge that lets you adjust pitch and hight RMC works out of the box Graphtec Ghost just needs more sensitivity open trimmers to half those pickups should work but we did not test yet LR Bags maybe some level adjustment like the Ghost Cicfy Roland GK little bass when ins...

Page 16: ...perior to small sliders and thumbwheels be cause they are conductive plastic live a lot longer and feel smoother than carbon or cer met and the shaft is solid how to mount the controls in the instrument in a solid body you want potentiometers but threads are usually only 5 or 6mm long so you may need to look for a special guitar pot or work into the wood for acoustic guitars potentiometers are les...

Page 17: ...tery note that the battery is not equal ground GND GND is a mid voltage generated on the Polybass board the power switch needs to short the BatSwitch signal with GND 1 Mix 2 PBass 3 BatSwitch 4 GND 5 Battery 6 Battery Volume control connector this connector serves for 3 potentiometers the pinout is selected so that you can also connect only a 6pin female in case you need only the standard 2 potent...

Page 18: ...ry switches it can also control the PBass vol see chapter VCA and GK control 1 GK Vol top 2 Switch UP 3 GK Vol mid 4 GND 5 GND 6 Switch DN WooDi Switch connector the Polybass Shield contains the wooDi attack smoothing circuit which may be populated or not if not this connector is not either its layouted as a 6 pin connector like the others but only 3 pins are used any maybe only those 3 pins are p...

Page 19: ...put usually connected to pin7 pin15 input 7th string or body piezo or magn PU pin16 output Pbass for mixing after SN P0040 pin15 output 7th string or body piezo or magn PU pin16 output Pbass for mixing pin17 input 7th string or body piezo or magn PU pin18 return 1 for mixing pin19 return 2 for mixing pin20 battery switch can be the ring of the output jack needs to short with GND pin21 battery pin2...

Page 20: ... repeated from X16 X16 is a 2mm header with the Mix volume control switch and GK control pin1 return to mixer pin2 send 6stringMix pin3 Mute GKSynth pin4 ground jumper sets Synth vol to silent pin5 Vol GK send pin6 Vol GK ret remove jumper to not control Synth VCA LED and Priority connectors those two connectors are next to each other like one 12pin for several small tasks X11 is a 2mm header with...

Page 21: ...th low profile headers it only needs 5mm distance from the main board and is another 3mm high itself if you use the Polybass Shield this module can also be inserted there some say that 2 wooDi sound better than one but the difference is small Insert connector for wooDi M etc jumper for Insert connector In case you do not use the insert connector it takes a jumper to make the signal flow through it...

Page 22: ... additional to the parallel solution one con trol for the general volume all is possible but there is one more control thus a very rare option Master and Balance this makes most sense when there are pick ups of equal importance like magnetic and piezo the PBass or body piezo can still added like in the previous option Hex Mix Octav VCA LP Aux 7 Magn PU Body Mic etc wooDi tone Mix Main Out PBass Ou...

Page 23: ...B board we made a board for our own guitar that may serve you to mount and configure the output connectors it contains 2 1 4 jacks with 2 independent on on switches DPDT partly configurable with jumpers 1 13pin DIN GK connector with gold contacts and metal fixing for two M3 screws 1 two color LED green is always lit softly to save battery red blinks when Bat low 1 16pin header that matches Polybas...

Page 24: ...Guitar DIN13pin7 PBass Remove the PBass from the Main it seems obvious to remove the PBass signal from the main output but think about those flexible options first same control for PBass to both outputs open the PBass control on the guitar just a little so it does not create a problem on the main amp then open the bass amp enough to get the full bass now you can still adjust the amount of bass on ...

Page 25: ...make a cable which is stereo on one side hide 2 ca 22k 1 10W resistors in it and mono on the other side solve it with the volume control as described as last solution in the Remove the PBass paragraph Implementation of the Split PBass out if you do not use our Polybass Output board or the Shield the PBass signal is available on X2 pin16 ring Pbass out pin7 tip pin9 Gnd or X15 pin4 if you want to a...

Page 26: ...th world the PBass effect volume we built in a VCA which can be controlled by such a CV probably you do not need the VCA for your application so set it to full volume with a jump er between X14 pin1 3 if you want to use a 0 5V DC voltage to control eh PBass volume connect it to X1 pin8 and set the jumper on X14 between pin3 4 three volume steps for PBass some users do not want a slider for PBass v...

Page 27: ... to zero the input impedance is 2 2M which is higher than the RMC but the usual value to not charge the piezo and get a flat response increase gain for Ghost pickups the Graphtech Ghost pickups and maybe others have a lower output signal does not mean lower quality which we fix by removing the input capacity divider this is done by removing the C4 and replacing it with the C6 so C4 turns into 2n2 ...

Page 28: ...dxf files just ask for what you need Polybass board Shield is the same Mounting height top 5mm board 1 5mm between boards 7 or 10mm depending on whether we use extra short pins for X1 or extra long for X15 16 OutputPCB FingerWheel PCB ...

Page 29: ...r TT P09X Potentiometer TT P160 so far we ony have solid shaft with L 15mm needs a screw in the knob many versions are available with different shaft types and length we only work with flattened T 7mm knurled L 15 ...

Page 30: ...Thumb wheel control Slider Alpha RA3044F we use Travel lentgh 30mm 10k lin 10k log 10lin with center click ...

Page 31: ...Paradis Rubin Piezo Pickup Paradis Avalon Piezo Pickup ...

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