Another Sparkle Top

[PianoSam]

Hello.
I've been in the process of fixing a silvertop for a while, nothing cosmetic, yet, but mostly on the electronics.  After I get this settled, I'll moveon to action issues.  Anyway, I had a reputable shop do some work on it at the beginning of the year.  They tuned it, of course, and checked out the electronics for me.  As I do not have the bottom, I wanted a way to power the pre amp, and I couldn't find a product for this series that offers that.  So, the tech installed a 9 volt battery that provides that power.  I was happy, but it seems that there is a considerable amount of noise when I plug into an amp.  Granted, the amp I've been using is a simple 15 watt peavey, but it just seems to me as though it should hum or buzz as much as it does.  I've been running the piano off the harp and split into a bass amp and a Leslie 825.  It sunds good, but like I said, I really want to have more control at my fingertips than my feet, so to speak.  Any thoughts that can put me on the right path?  Incidentally, when I ran the pre to the bass amp and rolled off all the high's and mid's, the buzz was not apparent in the lo-end.

Another thing I've been running into is that while the mid range is hot, the hi- and lo- ends leaves something to be desired.  The eq on the bass amp allowed for some fairly fat bass tones, but there is no such eq control on the foot pedal for the Leslie which I've been using for the mid's and high's.

[pianotuner steveo]

Once again, I am not an authority on electronics, but I had a similar situation many years ago with mine, and it turned out to be the power source I was using did not have enough amperage to run the preamp effectively. This would be similar to a battery losing effectiveness as it drains...
I was attempting to use an ac adapter rather than a battery, but switching to a more stable, higher amperage power supply did the trick in my case.

[PianoSam]

So, maybe if I switched the battery to a 12 volt, do you think that might do the trick?  Thanks, by the way, for the quick response!

[PianoSam]

I think I'm going to have a wall wart built rather than having a battery inside the piano.  Would the voltage for this model need to be 12 or 15VDC?

[pianotuner steveo]

I used a 12 volt, but again, the wall warts back then did not have enough CURRENT (amperage). I ended up buying a 12 volt power supply from Radio Shack that was meant for bench testing things like car stereos, and CB's  and mounting it inside the bottom of the piano.


Remember that power supplies usually put out a couple of more volts than what is stated, so my 12v was enough. I believe 15v is what is asked for, however.

[PianoSam]

That's awesome. Thanks.

There seems to be a wealth of products for Mk I and Mk II pianos, but I'm having a hard time finding what I need to do a proper (as proper as I can manage, anyway) job on this one.  I lust after the products I've seen online, but I don't think that many, or any, of them are compatible with my piano.  I'd welcome any advice on this matter that I can get.  I want to, eventually, completely refurbish this piano.  What should I look for, and what should I avoid?