Soundlab SST 19 (Nobels SST 19) Broken

[rabidgerry]

From my experience, a bad input jack jack doesn't give an error code?

Yeah, but who knows what else may have happened when he put the plug in, may be a short somewhere.  Anyways I know what you mean.  I think there is a battery in the unit for patch memory, wonder has that something to do with it.  Apparently a switch on the front panel no longer works either.

I have the manual and schematics.  PM me with your email address.

I will do indeed.  BTW how come you have the documentation?  Are you familiar with the unit?  All info regarding it is welcome 

[rabidgerry]

Posting the schematic for yall!  Thanks a million GB for that, much appreciated.

How long have you had the SST 19?  You own Rockman modules also right?  How do they compare?

[GuitarBuilder]

Posting the schematic for yall!  Thanks a million GB for that, much appreciated.

How long have you had the SST 19?  You own Rockman modules also right?  How do they compare?

I've had mine for about 10 years now; I run it side by side with a Rockman XPR, which is the unit that Nobels emulated with the SST-19.  Although Nobels claim they came up with theirs first!  Who to believe?  I'm betting on Tom Scholz.  The SST-19 has some fun different features, such as mixing of clean & distorted channels.  Both units are a little noisy; I like putting a Rockman Smart Gate in the effects loop.  The XPR is pure Boston, the SST-19 distortion is different, more "raw".

[rabidgerry]

I like that it's rawer distortion, that is better.  @GB, I have a sustainor which I know is designed to be used with flat speakers either direct in recording or flat sounding cabs and power amp.  Is the SST 19 the same?  Or does it lack that speaker emulation quality that say the X100 and Sustainor and Distortion Generator have?

Just curious as I would love to run the SST using real cabs.

[GuitarBuilder]

I like that it's rawer distortion, that is better.  @GB, I have a sustainor which I know is designed to be used with flat speakers either direct in recording or flat sounding cabs and power amp.  Is the SST 19 the same?  Or does it lack that speaker emulation quality that say the X100 and Sustainor and Distortion Generator have?

Just curious as I would love to run the SST using real cabs.

The SST-19 does not have any speaker emulation, so you could run it into a cab sim + power amp + FRFR speakers or into the effects return of a guitar amp.

[rabidgerry]

Oh well I wouldn't need a cab sim, I have real cabs so it's good to know I could just hook the preamp up to my power amp and unleash some rockman ESQUE goodness!


However if I use it in the studio I'll be using a cab sim.  Fingers crossed this unit can be resurrected. Still waiting on the guy sending it to me, he was held up this week,  it's killing me waiting on the dam thing!!

[rabidgerry]

Ok so I got it today!

Tried messing around with is, for the few seconds it was on and off with intermittent signal, this preamp sounds excellent.  Sounds so smooth.  I really need to get this unit working.

Ok my observations so far:
The unit starts up with the error 2 message "e2".  I don't really think this is the issue.  Then it will kick back into life again and then jump around presets from what I can see.  Other times it just has two dash marks on the display.

When it has the two dash marks as the display, there is noise, like hiss.  And you can play the guitar a little bit.  What I mean by that is it allows sound to get through and to some extent the controls at least for the input worked.  Nothing else seems to work though.

The very first time I powered the unit on, the controls all of them seemed to function normally until the thing went haywire jumping presets before settling on the - - screen.

Things I have noted, the rear input is dead, doesn't allow signal.  The ext effects 2 Left send jack doesn't allow anything to be plugged into it at all.  It's jammed with something and I do not see why it will not accept a plug.

The button on the front panel for footswitch one is broken.  Seems like the switch beneath its is broken and needs replace.  It's like one of those switches you use to open the tray on your cd dvd drive on your pc.

This unit needs a 3v battery surprise, surprise to store the presets.  I tried to replace this thinking it was a simple slide out job but know the dam thing has some kind of strange metal clip that looks almost soldered to the bottom of the 3v battery some how.  May be not soldered but it's attached some how.  And since I tried to wedge a screw driver on the top side between the metal clip and the batter I have f*cked it up a little bit.  Still seems to hold the battery in place, not sure what the contact is like though.

Here are some pics.

[rabidgerry]

ps unable to upload the pics as I keep getting an error has occurred message.

[rnolan]

Hey RG, we seem to have a file upload issue in recent times, even though the board is configured to take up to a 20MB file anything over a certain amount fails (eg I tried to upload a 3MB MP2 manual and it wont let me  (and used to be fine).  I've asked Dante to check with the ISP and try to work out why.
Great you like the sound, now just have to get it all working.  From the schematic, that back jack is interactly associated with the front input.  My take on it.. send it to MJMP the guru of all things electrical  .

[rabidgerry]

Well he has to be up for it of course, he's a busy man!  I don't want to burden him with some random piece of kit.

Yeah something weird about that input I feel, when it's doing it's strange behaviour, bizarrely all the l.e.ds interact with the input signal like something is shorting to somewhere else and interacting like the input meter.

I was thinking of just removing the rear jack altogether to start with process of elimination.

[rnolan]

Hey RG, I'm sure MJMP is up for it  , he'll enjoy it LoL, and it's not some random piece of kit, it's a very cool preamp  :whoohoo!: .  Also there is a bunch of stuff going on with this unit, just get him to sort it for you.  Removing the back jack may not be wise  (though replacing it is), have a look on the schematic how it's interconnected with the front jack, definitely MJMP territory IMHO.

[MarshallJMP]

I'll be more then happy to take a look at it Gerry, I like random pieces of shit, euh I mean kit 

Mail me!

[rabidgerry]

I'll be more then happy to take a look at it Gerry, I like random pieces of shit, euh I mean kit 

Mail me!

I wasn't going to ask you, but that would be great man.  Honestly I don't think this is a piece of shit, it's really well made.  Say's made in Taiwan on the outside (the sound labs where made in Taiwan but the nobels where made in hamburg), but the circuit said it was made in hamburg so not sure why nobles out sourced to Taiwan in 1987 and I'm not sure if it was only the outer chassis that was made in Taiwan and the rest made in Hamburg.


But yes man, I think you would like this unit.  From the brief period that I could use it, it sounded and felt a lot better than my Rockman Sustainor.  More gain and 100% better feel.  This may be because my Sustainor is old and done (I dunno), but the SST 19 seems a lot better, plus it has a lot of very useful routing capabilities and control options.

For the price I got it I think it was worth a shot to buy it.  If the worst comes to the worst, I could easily sell this online and make my money back or even a profit.  Plenty of nutters out there where interested in it before I pipped them to the post on ebay.

[rnolan]

Hey RG, Told you LoL, I'd be the same if I had MJMPs electronic wizardry/understanding,  :whoohoo!: .  This looks like a really nice unit, wouldn't mind one myself (I also (as you know) have a rockman(esk) soft spot).  Your sustainer probably just needs re capping (particularly from what I read when you first went down this rabbit hole and I started to consider doing the X100 refresh, then I lent it to Mike and have forgotten about it), I'd send it to MJMP as well and get him to do his thing  :whoohoo!:

[GuitarBuilder]

I suspect that a thorough cleaning of switches and pots, along with a new battery, will bring this baby back to life.