I’m a massive Joe Meek geek (noticed a few others hang about on here) and I’m interested in building a Pultec style EQ in the manner of Joe Meek’s famous purpose built Racal unit from the early 1960’s. (http://arpjournal.com/take-the-last-...studio-1963-7/ has an appendix of all equipment left in his studio when he died)
The original was sold on ebay a few years ago http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Unique-Original-Joe-Meek-BLACK-BOX-equaliser-/261365159467?_uhb=1&hash=item3cda93d62b&pt=AU_Pro_Audio&nma=true&si=wP456LXzttioVcQMJpCjAip1JAo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557, and from this its possible to see it included:
Top Cut – A simple low pass filter?
Bass Out – Low Frequency Gain?
Bass Rejection - high pass filter?
Bass Lift
Middle Lift
Top Lift
(Bass rejection through to top lift appear sweepable with gain dials from 0-12 dB)
I’ve had a little experience with circuit building and audio units but still fairly amateur DIY. I’m not bothered about using completely original or vintage parts as I imagine these are expensive/hard to come by and I want to be able to use it functionally for my own recordings, but I would like as much as possible for it to work in a similar manner to Joe’s, even if it doesn't sound exactly the same.
I'm not sure if the pictures of the inside of the unit give anyone any idea about how it works, they're certainly a puzzle to me. There's practically NOTHING written about this piece of kit apart from its similarity to a Pultec.
Whats the best way forward here, should I modify existing DIY Pultec schematics and work from there? Would it be possible to have a simple three band eq for bass/middle/top lift, and high pass/low pass filters for ‘top cut’ and ‘bass rejection’ and a simple bass boost for 'bass out'? It is a powered unit so I presume that it consists of a passive EQ circuit with a tube line amplifier, but again I'm not sure. Would happily compromise with solid state.
Has anyone got any remotely similar schematics or circuit modification suggestions, or ideas about how I might proceed? OR alternatively, is this a lost cause for amateur me?
Sorry for the lengthy post and numerous queries, thanks in advance.
The original was sold on ebay a few years ago http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Unique-Original-Joe-Meek-BLACK-BOX-equaliser-/261365159467?_uhb=1&hash=item3cda93d62b&pt=AU_Pro_Audio&nma=true&si=wP456LXzttioVcQMJpCjAip1JAo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557, and from this its possible to see it included:
Top Cut – A simple low pass filter?
Bass Out – Low Frequency Gain?
Bass Rejection - high pass filter?
Bass Lift
Middle Lift
Top Lift
(Bass rejection through to top lift appear sweepable with gain dials from 0-12 dB)
I’ve had a little experience with circuit building and audio units but still fairly amateur DIY. I’m not bothered about using completely original or vintage parts as I imagine these are expensive/hard to come by and I want to be able to use it functionally for my own recordings, but I would like as much as possible for it to work in a similar manner to Joe’s, even if it doesn't sound exactly the same.
I'm not sure if the pictures of the inside of the unit give anyone any idea about how it works, they're certainly a puzzle to me. There's practically NOTHING written about this piece of kit apart from its similarity to a Pultec.
Whats the best way forward here, should I modify existing DIY Pultec schematics and work from there? Would it be possible to have a simple three band eq for bass/middle/top lift, and high pass/low pass filters for ‘top cut’ and ‘bass rejection’ and a simple bass boost for 'bass out'? It is a powered unit so I presume that it consists of a passive EQ circuit with a tube line amplifier, but again I'm not sure. Would happily compromise with solid state.
Has anyone got any remotely similar schematics or circuit modification suggestions, or ideas about how I might proceed? OR alternatively, is this a lost cause for amateur me?
Sorry for the lengthy post and numerous queries, thanks in advance.
