Exposed early 78 preamp - is this possible?!!?

[teonigil]

B007797 all original natural StingRay bass, body date 01/78, neck date 02/78, pots dated to early 78, untouched original soldered circuit AND ..... a non epoxied preamp !!!
Also notice the ic dated to jan 78.

Is this possible? maybe a rushed job? maybe they ran out of epoxy that day...

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

IMO the pre-amp should be a black epoxy. From my experience, the non-epoxies (like yours) appeared early 1979.

The yellow protective sleeve tubing on the white wire (left) doesn't appear original. All the ones I've seen use clear transparent plastic. That would suggest rewiring/soldering at some stage.

The ICs were easily damaged if the guitar lead was short-circuited. After the epoxy was deleted from the amps, the IC was mounted to the board via a socket (perhaps for easy replacement). They also added a protection resistor latter on.

Although the IC may be dated early 1978, I think that may only be coincidence. To me, that would be an indicator the the pre-amp was made after the date of the IC.

 

[phatduckk]

OT: Gav i added a few serials for u in the sticky thread.

 

[SteveB]

IMO the pre-amp should be a black epoxy. From my experience, the non-epoxies (like yours) appeared early 1979.

The yellow protective sleeve tubing on the white wire (left) doesn't appear original. All the ones I've seen use clear transparent plastic. That would suggest rewiring/soldering at some stage.

The ICs were easily damaged if the guitar lead was short-circuited. After the epoxy was deleted from the amps, the IC was mounted to the board via a socket (perhaps for easy replacement). They also added a protection resistor latter on.

Although the IC may be dated early 1978, I think that may only be coincidence. To me, that would be an indicator the the pre-amp was made after the date of the IC.

Gav,

Now that's just sick.

 

[teonigil]

The yellow protective sleeve tubing on the white wire (left) doesn't appear original. All the ones I've seen use clear transparent plastic. That would suggest rewiring/soldering at some stage.

Gav,
The yellow sleeve holds the shielding sleeve that was added to wrap the pickup wires.

BTW, was the socket added only after the epoxy was deleted in 79?

Well, that may probably be a factory replaced preamp, maybe the original preamp was damaged. The harness and soldering looks old factory "clean" job.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

The black epoxies have their ICs soldered direct to the board. The non-epoxies use IC sockets. The socket was added only after the epoxy was deleted.

The early Ernie Ball 2 banders (which are the same) reverted back to soldering the IC direct to the board. But they also included the protection resistor.

Your pre-amp appears to be an original Pre-EB amp of the non-epoxy variety.

Below is a 1979 amp. The different coloured capacitors are due to different batches:

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

>>>>OT: Gav i added a few serials for u in the sticky thread.

Thanks.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

>>>Gav, Now that's just sick.