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thomas911

Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
7
Location
Sweden - Växjö
Hello!

I'm a newbie to the world of DIY-projects. I'm going to build the SSL-clone but before that I was thinking of building something easier and smaller to get started. I really need a DI-box to use between my guitar/bass and my mic-preamp. Can anyone help me find info on this? Would be great. Like component placement,PCB layot and component list. Good quality and sound is importand offcource. :) I was thinking of making a passive DI-box.

/Thomas
 
Welcome Thomas!

Wow!
Are we getting a lot of top quality new guys around here or what?

We have two flavors here at the moment, Countryman DI , complete with PC board artwork, and a ProCo DB-1 type passive.

Which one you want?

cj
 
Hmm... Didnt realize we had a Countryman layout! I'd like to build a few more. I only have one that i bought a while back..

-Jay
 
Hi Thomas,

Take a look here  www.hansenaudio.se/techpage.htm  the "Active DI-box 1975" you can find here are a good DIY project to start with.

--Bo
 
Bo, I built your little DI...and I want to say thank YOU! It is so transparent and the point to point wiring was a no brainer. I used silver magnet wire for my interconnections and it is so very quiet...no noise at all, no hum, nada.

I would like to build 3 more of them. I highly recommend this project to get it going.

I actually ended up building the box out of machined stock..heavy but killer.

It is a good one!

(fender jazz bass useage)
 
Note:
Plexi, Bo has a circuit that is very similar to the Country DI.
And it has been proven for many years.
So you would be building pretty much the same thing, probably better, since Bo is a genius and has probably tweaked that thing to perfection.
The countryman is a fairly new project with a slightly unproven schematic, and you might want to wait til GroupDIY completes the webpage befor building the Countryman.

cj
 
Interesting, I'm looking at Bo's schematic as well as the Countryman schematic right now. Bo gives a definition of a good range of 5:1 to 7:1 for the transformer as well as possible models from the main tranny makers. No so with the Countryman schematic, would it be safe to assume the same specs?
Kellard
 
audiowkstation,

Nice that you have succeed with my DI DIY project, and thanks for the kind judgement.

I have some more DI projects that I will display here forward.
It is a FET/transformer DI-box and a TUBE DI-box, and of course both shall be easy to build and the components easy to get.

--Bo
 
Hello folks, thank you for the replies!

cjenrick: He he...I don't know about "top quality new guy" but I will aim for it!

Thank you Bo for the link! (eller ska jag säga Bosse? Allt väl i Götet? :wink: ) *swedish* Looks interesting indeed. But like I said, I'm new to this and the easiest thing would probably be a to have a complete PCB layout to begin with...do I need to drill my own PCB to buld this?

The Countryman DI and the ProCo DB-1 type passive sounds interesting.
Where can I get info on those?

/Thomas
 
Jensen Transformers has a couple DI's in the Schematics section of their web page, and they even sell a kit of the resistors and caps for the full featured passive DI. The schematics are a way to get you using their transformers, but that isn't always a necessity. Lundahl's US dealer doesn't seem to be offering their recomended transformer outside of a $200 kit, though. No thanks.

Bear
 
In the USA, K&K Audio sells Lundahl. I got a pair of 1538XL's for $69 each from them that I'm about to put into a pair of Bo's DI boxes. Also, picked up a pair of cheapo whirlwind DI boxes for ~$7.50 eaach on eBay that I'm going to house them in. :thumb:

~ Charlie
 
Hey Bo I'd love to see that tube DI. I've dying to build something for my poor bass. All I have at home is a oooooooold tascam digital mixer with maybe 1db of gain :( in the preamp section. I have to actually use a whole lot of digital gain from one of the onboard compressors just to get any decent output. I'm ready to build something and chuck this old thing!!!

Chris
 
Hi Chris,

Yes, I let you know when it ready.

This tube DI-box is one of the forerunner to my TDB-1, but it is a prototype since 10 years ago, so I must do a construction and drawing for DIY use.

--Bo

TDB-1%20bild.jpg
 
[quote author="moosapotamus"]In the USA, K&K Audio sells Lundahl. I got a pair of 1538XL's for $69 each from them that I'm about to put into a pair of Bo's DI boxes. [/quote]

I'm in the US. K&K didn't have the transformer Lundahl recomends for DI available outside of his kit. Let me know if that has changed, as I'd like to check the price.

Bear
 
I'd imagine a single 12AX7 with the first triode set up like a typical first stage of a guitar amp, followed by a volume pot feeding the second triode setup up as a cathode follower, then to the output tranny to XLR. Would that work?
Kelley
 
Just wondering if its neccesary to use an output transformer for a DI, i notice there's one or two circuits that use just an op amp and no transformer. I was after a circuit to send keyboards down a 100 foot multicore.
Vikki(uk) :grin:
 
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