Able Bassmaker

The Able Bassmaker: no longer in production, very rare. Made in Wales by a John Rodgers. Supposedly, it "reproduces ONLY the lowest note that you are playing as a bass guitar sound, be it single note playing or chords. It does this very cleanly with absolutely no cross-over into the direct guitar output." In other words, it does an octave down thing, but only on the lowest note being played.

So, the magic question: anybody here got one of these? Does it do a square wave + filter thing, or does it contain an oscillator to re-generate the lowest note?



(pic originally from an Ebay auction, now archived in this thread
http://basschat.co.uk/lofiversion/index.php/t7603.html

Some contact info for Able Electronics is in this thread, but I can't vouch for it at all... anybody in Wales who wants to make a local call?
http://www.firebottle.com/fireforum/fireBB.cgi?cfg=fx&forum=fxdc&thread=280652-000000.msg

cheers,
Leigh

My friend in Sweden has one of these. I took pictures of the circuit board, should I try to post them here for further investigations? I don't want to cause any trouble from reverse-engineering, but if these are not made any more it might be OK?

Martin

Martin B. Kantola said:

My friend in Sweden has one of these. I took pictures of the circuit board, should I try to post them here for further investigations? I don't want to cause any trouble from reverse-engineering, but if these are not made any more it might be OK?

Click to expand...

If you ask me, then yes, post them! People have posted circuit board shots here of units that are definitely still in production. The Bassmaker is sadly no longer in production... fair game I'd say!

cheers,
Leigh

I'd be interested in reverse enineering that one too, looking forward for some more info.

OK, found and looked at the PCB photos and the resolution was really bad. Useless for rev-eng. Must have taken these before I got my new camera. But I should be able to take new ones, can't say when though.

Martin

Martin B. Kantola said:

OK, found and looked at the PCB photos and the resolution was really bad. Useless for rev-eng. Must have taken these before I got my new camera. But I should be able to take new ones, can't say when though.

Martin

Click to expand...

Hi Martin,

Despite not-rev-eng-ready, do you perhaps recall what kind of stuff was 'going on' on that PCB ?
Curious to the simplicity/complexity...

Thanks,

  Peter

Here's a bunch of blur... so sorry.


Martin

Thanks for the photos! If you could list which ICs are on that board, it would give me an idea of their approach to the bass synthesis.

cheers,
Leigh

that guy really liked tantalum caps...

and jumpers...  ???

Could the 22pin? IC be an SSM 2120 in which case you are probably stuffed as they are not available any more!

StephenGiles said:

Could the 22pin? IC be an SSM 2120 in which case you are probably stuffed as they are not available any more!

Click to expand...

There's almost always a way to do a modern replacement, even if it's not a drop-in switch, pin-for-pin.

In this case, a quick Google seach turned up this handy document, courtesy THAT Corp:

Replacing the SSM2120 Level Detector

For anyone interested, I invented, designed and produced the Bassmaker mainly during the 1990's, and am currently working on a DSP design to realise the effect. It is very difficult to achieve the desired result in the analog domain, but the digital domain should solve most problems. the big chip someone refers to is a switched capacitor filter to provide 24dB/Octave dynamic filtering. The guitar produces an unruly signal which is never the same, and the Bassmaker sometimes has trouble handling this.

If you are interestd in this, you may notice this comment/letter, and let me know.
Best wishes,
John R

John, thanks for joining us. Always a thrill to have it from the horse's mouth.

I bought one of these, and the strings maker, and gigged it around London and the south east for several years. For a soloist it gave me a full band sound.
I stopped gigging 15 years ago but I'm starting again soon to get my daughter on stage. Are you selling these and any other effects products?

Hi John,

I've just stumbled across this post, admittedly a couple of years since you've posted it, but I'd be very interested in the digi version of the bassmaker. Of course I'd love to be able to have the actual pedal itself but they're next to impossible to find. Have you got a finished product yet in DSP version? and/or would you be interested in building me a hardware version?

Many thanks
James

Any news regarding the digital bassmaker? Or does anyone have a schematic for the old analoge version?