Delano Sonar 3 wiring

[Malta]

Hi,

I just won a Delano Sonar 3 preamp on Ebay. The pre comes standard with 5 knobs: treble, mid, bass, balance, & volume (push/pull), but my front routed j-bass only has room for 4 pots.... I'm guessing I can just re-wire 2 of the tone pots to a stacked pot, but I'm unsure what pots to order. Could someone point me in the right direction?

Delano wiring schematic: http://delano.de/uploads/tx_smtdelano/Sonar_wiring_2pages_01.pdf

thanks in advance!

 

[Wyliee]

You might want to contact Delano directly.  Their schematics do not give pot values.

 

[Malta]

I emailed them about a week ago, but have not heard back yet. I'll shoot them anotherl. Thanks.

 

[Malta]

I heard back from Mr. Reinhard Jedamzik over at Delano (super nice guy) and he informed me that the tone controls are standard 50k pots. I've looked over the wiring diagram, but this will be my first active bass and I need some help to figure out how to wire it all up.

I should be able to re-wire the individual vol & blend pots to a single stacked pot, 2 of the individual tone pots to a single 50k stacked pot, and swap the other tone pot to a 50k push/pull pot for active/passive, right? Anything sound funky?

thanks in advance!
-Joe

 

[Patrick from Davis]

The blend pot is usually two pots with one shaft.  You can have it part of the active system or before the preamp as a passive blend, so that means the values will vary depending on the application.  In my experience it is usually passive, or a 250K one.  The volume pot is generally an A250K pot on basses, and it is also not part of the active system, unless the pick ups and preamp are active.  If the Volume knob has a push pull application, it most likely will not have the option of being stacked with the switch.  The Bass, Mid, and Treble are all part of the preamp and generally 50K pots (or somewhere around that.  These are the pots that are generally stacked.  The other option is to put one of the tone pots in the control cavity once you find the proper setting.  Definitely not the best solution, but by far the easiest.
Patrick

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I looked up the preamp on Best Bass Gear and the preamp is as expected.  The pick ups are passive, the volume should be an A250K pot with a push/pull switch for active/passive switching, and the blend is a 250K-2 pots-one shaft doohickey, normally just called a blend pot.  In this setup you can use the three tone pots you can do some form of stacking with, the Vol and the Blend have to be left alone because they are more specialized.
Patrick

 

[Malta]

I think I've got it figured out now:
(1) 250k Volume Potentiometer with Push/Pull Switch
(1) Dual 250k Potentiometer For Dual Pickup Blend
(1) Dual 50k Stacked Potentiometer For Treble/Bass Stack
(1) 50k Potentiometer for Mids

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Looks good.  Sorry about the choppy English in the previous posts, but sometimes I have to stop a post to actually do work at work.  When will they learn how I prioritize, sheesh.  I would also take a pict of the wires going to the bass and treble pots so that you have a template/key to wire them to the stacked pot.  Nothing worse than having to guess, and guessing wrong.
Patrick