Clav Pickups into External Preamp?

Hi

I have an early D6 without shielding. It's fairly noisy and I've been meaning to shield it. As an alternative or additional output method, can I tap the pickups directly and route that into an external preamp? For example, a mic preamp (I own a VoiceMaster Pro), to bring it to a line level?

Sorry if this is obvious, but I don't want to damage anything.

Thanks

willi

After doing a little further research, it would seem that the voltage of the battery not only powers the preamp, but the circuit board also sends power through the pickup to increase its sensitivity. I guess this is the difference between an active and a passive pickup? I was thinking the pickup was purely passive... Am I correct in my understanding? Would my original idea work in principle if the pickup was passive?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Willi,

I thought the D6 was never shielded, and the E7 was. Not sure if the pickups are active. But either way I think you will lose alot of the distinctive sound if you tap the pickups directly. You can find a customization of the D6 preamp by Stevie's tech by plonking here:

http://www.gti.net/junebug/clavinet/d6upgrade.htm

He mentions a balanced XLR output, which isn't part of the mod he details.

Also, http://www.vintagevibe.com sells a D6 preamp shield.

good luck with your Clav!

Before you wreck a clav trying to mod it, just line the inside of the case with aluminum foil, and run a ground wire to it.

From what I understand, earlier D6 units were not shielded but later units were. Considering the line between D6 and E7 is blurred with crossover units, it is not surprising.

Clavinet.com does sell a new preamp that includes the 'Stevie' mods and is supposed to be self-shielded. I've seen suggestions to use copper sheet to build a box, and I had considered trying to use foil tape to shield the unit, or to get/build a little box. I suppose some extra foil tape shielding around the pickups would help noise in addition to putting shielding around the preamp.

I'm going to be restringing it, too. I sort of abused it by leaving it in my car for a month or more in some high heat, with the mute enabled the entire time. Oops. When I took it out (at a gig, of course), I found that half the strings were a note flat. I retuned it, but the strings stretched and won't hold a tune now. So I have ordered a set of strings. Fun!

I think that should solve most of my immediate problems, but there were a few notes that seemed to stick or pop. I inspected the hammer tips, and there are no serious grooves in them; the previous owner replaced the hammer tips a couple of years ago. I'm going to clean the anvils when I restring, but it occurred to me that the tips might be a little sticky. They don't feel sticky, but if the popping continues, I'm considering spraying a little silicone spray lubricant on the anvils, strings, or hammer tips. Silicone is not supposed to react with plastics or rubber, and I have a spare hammer tip that I can spray as a test, first. Anyone tried something like this as a temporary fix?

Just wanted to mention that a while back I completed the restring, which is a bit of a pain, and I also more or less completely rebuilt the preamp. I didn't order any fancy WIMA caps but just replacing everything I could with locally sourced parts seems to have made a large improvement. I also constructed a shielded box by using a plastic project case and then lining the exterior of the box with metal plates connected to ground. Seems to work quite well.

Oh, and 2 modded D6's arranged in a proper Clav-o-stack and routed into individual envelope filters is absolutely sick.

sorry for digging up old posts,but I'm looking through the archives for clavinet stuff,since I just got a Duo.