I’ve changed my mind and am going to use my Rickenfaker bass for this. It’s got the right kind of barrel-style bridge saddles and more room in the control cavity for the board and electronics.
For a while I was on an Aria Pro II kick, hoping for some kind of magic from the first new guitar I ever bought which was an Aria Pro II ZZ Standard, back in 1985. My doubleneck is an Aria Pro II and I also have a ZZ guitar that I bought a couple years ago. This bass I bought on eBay a few years ago and the seller didn’t seem like he knew much about instruments from the description and photos. I took it apart, cleaned it up and actually found mud inside the control cavity. Weird.
It had a couple other issues such as the truss rod was maxed out and I coudn’t get the neck straight no matter how much I turned the truss rod nut. I emailed the eBay seller and we compromised with a him giving me a partial refund. Come to find out, the truss rod was maxed out. After reading up on things to try, I was able to fashion a double thick washer and put it under the truss rod nut. This allowed me to torque the rod a little bit more and straighten out the neck. I took it apart and it’s been hanging in my basement, ready to be sanded and repainted. My thought was Cliff Burton’s black Aria Pro!
In my quest for new projects and guitar and bass MIDI controllers, I have decided to turn this bass into a MIDI controller. I have a few different kinds of MIDI pickups for my guitars and basses and I’ve never been a fan of having a big box mounted on the outside of the guitar (see photo above) or bass so when I came across some of the hardware I needed for this project, I figured it would be an interesting project. The Roland units I have use a special 13-pin connector that talks either to a Roland guitar or bass synth module or to an interface that splits out the MIDI data and audio so it can be connected to a synth, amp, etc. My MIDI guitar or bass rig consists of a Roland GI-20 interface that accepts the 13-pin connector and then I can MIDI into my Mac and run my software instruments inside of Mainstage. The unaffected bass or guitar (magnetic pickup) signal then goes into my pedalboard (such as my Helix LT) for effects.
MIDI & Piezos
Besides the instrument itself, I need some things to make all this work. First is some kind of pickup to capture the notes I want to turn into MIDI. For the Roland and Fishman systems, they have some kind of long pickup array that’s about as wide as a pencil and almost as long that fits next to the bridge of the instrument and is attached by cable to the control box or hockey puck box (see photo above). Roland systems call these divided pickups and Fishman say theirs are mini humbucker pickups. My setup is going to be internal for the most part, so in the words of Nigel Tufnel, “And…uh I can play without all the mucky–muck.” No external box, no wire on the outside and no pickup that I need to mount. The way companies such as Godin, Kiesel and others do it is by using piezo saddles. (I pronounce this word as pee-ay-zo but many people say pie-zo. It’s a Greek word.) These are essentially little microphones or pickups that are embedded into the instrument’s bridge saddles. Most electrified acoustic instruments use these types of saddles but the ones used for MIDI are a bit different as there needs to be one per string like the ones I bought. Lots of good info in this thread.
The Parts I Need
GraphTech Ghost Saddles. These will replace the regular saddles on the bass and the tiny wires attached to each saddle will send the vibration of the string into the circuit board. The wires need to be attached to one of the cables, below and they’ll travel from under the saddles into the interior of the bass. That’s about the only wiring that will be visible aside from the cable going from the instrument to the GI-20 box.
An 8-pin JST ZH Series cable (1.5mm pitch) to connect the Ghost Saddles to the GK circuit board. I found a multi pack on Amazon. I just need one, so I’ll have some extras! While these fit the Roland GK boards, they don’t work on the GraphTech Hexpander boards.
Roland GK circuit board, volume pot and 13-pin jack. This one is basically the same thing that comes inside one of those Roland GK pickups but made so guitar builders can embed the system on the inside of the guitar, which is what I’m doing. It comes with a 13-pin jack for the cable to plug into as well as a MIDI volume control. I can also plug other things into it if I have the correct connectors such as audio signal from the bass’s magnetic (built in) pickup, a couple of buttons to control MIDI functions such as up and down patch lists or parameters and a switch that chooses MIDI, magnetic pickup or both. My plan is to get the main parts working before I mess with adding features.
The parts are in! I’ve just got to get off my arse and get started. What I may do is make some kind of makeshift sled for mounting all of the hardware as well as a magnetic pickup, tuners and string it up so I can make sure I have everything working before I take apart the Ric. 2-19-24
Update, 2-21-24:
Yeah, so that didn’t go as expected. I should have done some more research. The impedance of the Ghost saddles are much lower than a Roland hex pickup, so the Roland GK board didn’t even pickup the signal of the Ghost saddles. Lesson learned. I ordered the Graph Tech Ghost Hexpander kit, which is designed to work with their saddles.
Update, 2-27-24:
I made a test sled with a bass bridge, tuners and strings, that I could use to see if stuff was going to work. Was I able to get a signal from the Ghost saddles to the GK board for instance?–no is the answer. When I received the Hexpander kit, I plugged in the saddles into the board and then the 13 pin cable interface and my Roland GI-20 was able to hear the strings through the saddles. Awesome. Now onto getting everything to fit in my Ric. Here’s a link to a video I posted on Instagram about testing the Ghost saddles.
Update 3-1-24: I need to have the Ghost Saddle wires disappear under the bass’s finish/paint/wood somehow (see below this paragraph). There’s a video on YouTube where a guy fishes them under his bridge, which might be a plan. I could also try and extend the wires under the bridge pickup surround, which might be a bit easier. There’s about a 1″ wide ribbon cable that the saddle wires plug into that will ultimately plug into the Hexpander board (left). So either way, there’s going to be some kind of cutting going on.
Wiring plan 2.0
Update 11/2024
I still haven’t gotten around to working on this again, we had a flood in the basement and that left bad memory in my head that I can’t get out. In the meantime, a boy can dream, can’t he? My Kay Bass VI Conversion was an abysmal failure–the neck geometry was all off and it wouldn’t stay in tune or intonate–anyhew, I have a set of EMG 85 and 81 pickups that aren’t being used so I figured I’d throw them in the MIDI-faker since it already has an active circuit. (Spoiler Alert: The Hexpander is powered by the 13-pin connector, not a battery)
Update: First Week Of 2025
Yeah, I know, I haven’t finished this yet. It’s on my radar. I’ve got some parts coming for it. One of the things that blows the wind from my sails when I go down to the workshop to put this thing together is the connectors for the Hexpander board. I ordered a couple different kinds of kits to make my own connectors to plug into the Hexpander board but they were too big and I’m too much of a cheapskate to buy the Graph-Tech branded ones–or at least I used to be. There are a couple of these Graph-Tech branded connectors on their way now. For anyone who’d like to know what kind of connector they use, here’s a link to DigiKey’s site. It took me lots of Googling to find that info.
One other thing I’ve never been totally happy with on this ‘faker bass is the pickups and after consideration, I’m not going with the EMGs because the MIDI stuff I’m adding does not run on a 9V battery after all. It’s not active, it’s powered from the 13-pin cable.
The Schaller neck pickup is great, but I’ve never been satisfied with the bridge pickup. So far I’ve tried the crappy stock one (left or above if you’re on a mobile device), my Model J Dimarzio and even a Seymour Duncan Sscpb and they all have not given me the sizzle I’m looking for. Hopefully the Bartolini 9CBJS-L1 I just got does the job. Fingers crossed! Who knows, maybe I’ll put the pickup cover back on, a la Chris Squire!
Update: 1/15/2025
I installed the Bartolini with the Alpha 500k pot that I had installed in the pickguard but wasn’t happy with the tone. It wasn’t quite as bright as I has hoping, plus the output was so much lower than the Schaller that when I decreased the volume on the Bart’s pot, it dropped way out. So I swapped the Bart’s pot out for a 250k pot and that is the secret sauce! Plenty of sizzle now and it doesn’t drop way out when I turn the volume down–although I like to turn the neck pickup down a tad.
In the photo to the right (or above if you’re on a mobile device), you can see the wires & Hexpander dangling and notice the Ghost Saddle wires coming off the bridge, going into the pickup cavity. I also installed the MIDI volume pot and that works great. Not so sure about the Pin 7 harness. That’s not working properly, so I’ve got to figure that out and do a fret leveling, because unlike me, MIDI pickups don’t like ultra low action and a little bit of fret buzz!
Also, for those keeping score, I have replaced EVERY piece of hardware on this bass. The only original pieces are the wood, frets, trussrod cover and pickguard!
Update: 1-20-2025
Picture (left, or above if you’re viewing on a mobile device) is of the neck of said MIDI-faker, prepped for a fret-level, crown and polishing. I’m putting the finishing touches on this, which includes making it look purdy, polishing the shiny bits and oiling the fingerboard since it’s not clear coated like a real Ric bass.
I heard back from the blokes at Graphtech about the 7 pin harness from the previous update. Their instructions were clear but I wasn’t plugging the harness into the correct part of the board. My bad, bro.
This time around everything was working, but I smelled a hint of electronics/plastic burning. Hmm, that’s odd. Nothing scorched on the Hexpander board. Seems to play fine, I got the audio signal via the 13-pin cable, the MIDI volume works, it’s tracking nicely after the fretwork. I guess it’s time to button everything up.
Picture (right, or above if you’re viewing on a mobile device) is of the the neck after I had my way with it; you know, level, crown, polish and oiling. After that, it was time to plug everything in one last time and make sure everything works before I screw the pickguard back on.
This was the culmination of a long process, a year in progress–I checked my receipts. I’ll be glad to put this one to bed and actually play it as I’m excited about the lighter guage strings, new pickup configuration and especially the MIDI capability!
I got everything buttoned up and decided I’d make a short video showcasing its MIDI-awesomeness. So I plugged the 13-pin cable into the bass, the other end into my Roland GI-20 (it converts the 13-pin signal into MIDI in, out as well as splits the magnetic pickup audio so I can run it to an amp or a channel in the mixer, etc.
Hmm, no signal. Let’s try unplugging and replugging. Nothing. Turn everything off and back on? Nope. Nada. Sigh, let’s unscrew this pickguard–oh no, that burnt plastic smell is back. It’s fried, I can tell.
I emailed the blokes at Graphtech again and I await their answer. Maybe they’ll exchange it under warranty. Of course NAMM is this week, so I’m sure they’re busy with that.
