Schatten Design MicroPre Preamp One Channel

My 40 year old preamp in my Ovation 1618 12 string had gone bad. I found the original Ovation replacement part to be ridiculous expensive. The MicroPre in combination with a stacked potentiometer is a very cost effective alternative, provided you are not scared using a soldering iron.

Installation: instructions are available online. For me a huge plus, cause it allows you to assess it pre-purchase. Diagrams are well documented and showing different installation options (volume only, volume + tone control). If you know how to solder, you can install it. Only downside is that the instructions don not include the tech specs for the volume/tone potentiometers and tone capacitor. Based on the pots sold by Schatten seperately I figured out that both volume and tone pot need to be 500K Ohm log versions. The tone capacitor needs to be 47nF.

Sound: Sounds good to me for live playing. I could not notice a significant difference between the original one and this one.

I've tried a number of eBay preamps for piezo installations and for which a Fishman is usually the 1st choice, however for installing a piezo under the saddles of a Vegatrem on a Strat I needed something really compact that would fit in the control cavity. The simple, compact Schatten single channel preamp-on-a-chip is functionally not as clever as a multi-control Fishman installation, but it is super compact, works and blends well with the magnetic pickups.

Was hab ich nicht alles probiert? ... meinen alten Harley Benton E-Kontrabass mir passivem Piezo zum Klingen zu bringen ... diverse Fishman-, Behringer-, Peaveyvorstufe produzierten vor allem nur eines: "Rauschen!" ... den Empfehlungen eines Bonedo-Testers folgend, habe ich auch noch den Amp gewechselt sprich mir den Ampeg-PF 20 T samt 12er Box zugetan, die passive Elrktronik aus dem Bass raus und den "Schatten Design MicroPre Preamp One Channel" rein, Klangregler weggelassen ... und die Sonne ging endlich auf! ... mein Fazit: also passive Piezobässe, mit diesem Preamp und ein Röhrenbassverstärker ... dann sollte es klappen
Verbesserungswürdig sind die Anschlussmöglichkeiten per Lötkolben (nichts für Anfängerim Basteln!), wieso nicht ein kleines Gehäuse mit Anschlüssen ala Lüsterklemme!