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Post by blademaster2 on Oct 6, 2020 19:06:00 GMT -5
I am amazed to be the first to post this in the coffee shop. I am very, very moved by the passing of Eddie Van Halen.
Eddie took guitar playing somewhere no one had before, and he appeared by all accounts to be a decent guy as well. I regret very much that I never met him, even to say thanks to him for the gift we all now have in his recordings.
Very, very sad. I cannot write any more than this.
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Post by blademaster2 on Oct 6, 2020 15:03:25 GMT -5
If the On/Off switch was, say, DPDT, then the off position might be configured to connect this bleed resistor to ground, but only when the system is switched off - saving heat and power loss needlessly at other times. That does also rely on remembering to flip the on/off switch, to the off position -- which might not necessarily happen if switching off at the wall instead (prior to unplugging). Hmmm. I am in Canada, so we do not generally have wall-switching for the outlets (I wired my studio for that, but I would never use that in place of the amplifier's power switch). Otherwise if there is no "Centre-off" for the DPDT you could get that bleeder in there and never need to give it another thought. However ... I would not expect manufacturers to add this to their products only to make servicing their equipment safer - that seems like something they would discourage (unless by qualified service personnel, yadda yadda, who already know the hazards).
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Post by blademaster2 on Oct 6, 2020 9:29:07 GMT -5
Okay - here is a question/comment for you, Sumgai:
The bleeder resistor, if connected across the power rail at all times (I think that is what you said), should dissipate heat from the small amount of current passing through it at all times and not just when the system is turned off. It would need to be sized such that the added power demand and dissipation was tolerable. If the On/Off switch was, say, DPDT, then the off position might be configured to connect this bleed resistor to ground, but only when the system is switched off - saving heat and power loss needlessly at other times.
I, too, have tried the 'old screwdriver' method with a high-power audio amplifier to discharge the caps. I actually waited for many minutes after shutting it off and measured the rail voltage until it was around 18 volts (operationally these sat at +/- 90Vdc). Then I grew impatient and used the screwdriver to take the rest of the charge away - and the arc melted off the corner of the screwdriver even at that low voltage.
I would definitely look at a resistor, suitably sized for power rating and bleed current, if I do this in the future. No component, caps, screwdrivers or otherwise, are happy to see current of that magnitude passing through them.
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Post by blademaster2 on Sept 28, 2020 14:07:42 GMT -5
I have used the NE5532 and it is wonderful for low noise, high fidelity operation. Its distortion was not at all pleasing when I tried it in place of another op amp in a solid state amplifier, but this application is also not driving it into overload conditions.
However the TL072 devices are also pretty low noise, so it is not a surprise to me that both sounded good when used in a clean application like this. The primary source of noise I get from a guitar comes from the guitar itself and is usually a hum or a buzz from power lines, which would be better handled by the low pass filtering of that capacitor.
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Post by blademaster2 on Sept 20, 2020 18:49:36 GMT -5
It just sounds like you need to get the volume control cleaned. Often debris or dust can accumulate there and kill the signal. It is easy to do - you open up the electronics cavity and spray cleaner into the control that is dirty (all of them probably need it) and turn it back and forth to dislodge whatever is there.
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Post by blademaster2 on Sept 2, 2020 10:39:12 GMT -5
Welp, time to dust off the ol' wand-of-weird-things, and wave it around for a bit. 'doc, newey's "Fat Electron" has more than a grain of truth in it. Here's the skinny: Let's assume a perfect solder joint, absolutely no resistance at all to any kind of current. Now ask yourself, "why did sumgai just call out, specifically, any kind of current?". It's because no solder joint ever made by man or machine is perfect. And therein lays the rub: know that solder, like almost anything else in electronics, has a wetting current. This is the minimum value for a signal to cross the joint from one conductor to another. If that current is less than the minimum, nothing gets through. (Which is why we say, don't depend on solder to carry a current - it's supposed to be a mechanical back-stop that ensure a connection won't break physically. Soldering to the back of a pot is considered a kludge at best, and is absolutely forbidden by high-stakes manufacturers. (Think medical, aircraft, satellites, etc.)) Now to apply that new-found knowledge. Your pickups generate somewhere between 1/2 and 1 vAC, and at not much more than a few milliamps (mA). That's a pretty low level of power (amps x volts = watts (power)). Contrast that to a meter, any meter ever made, I don't care what brand it is or how much it cost - they all use a 1.5 vDC cell (you call it a AA battery when you go shopping for one). And that cell can output not only 1.5 vDC, but do so at as much as 300-500 mA. (Perhaps an exclamation point would be appropriate here.) Back to the "any kind of current" motif. If (and I did say it) volts x amps = power, then it should become obvious that if a pickup can't generate enough volts and amps, i.e. generate enough power to exceed the solder joint's minimum value, then nothing is going to get through. Whereas if a meter's battery has enough juice to operate the display, then for sure it will have enough ooomph to force a non-zero reading onto said display. ( EDIT: I did mean to say "force a significant value onto the display, be it zero or otherwise. A reading of "OL" or something like that would indicate a "no continuity" condition, and that's what I meant by "non-zero". Sorry for any confusion.) ash and newey are correct - you had a bad solder joint, no matter what you may have believed from your testing. But don't feel bad, most Electrical Engineering students don't get the kind of detailed info I just gave you, that only comes after some time in the field, whereupon an old-and-experienced tech or Engineer passes along this kind of stuff whilst on the job. </today's lesson> Questions? sumgai Wow - wetting current. I was aware of that for contacts where oxidation forms, usually in switches, but I never considered it for guitar circuits. Isn't the use of gold plating on contacts (as opposed to other metals that oxidize less, but still do to a small extent) supposed to eliminate oxidation and prevent this? Certainly in a solder joint, where flux was used, there should be a gas-tight connection whether or not there is direct metal-to-metal contact besides the solder itself and oxidation would be prevented or seriously impeded. That is also different from "contact potential" of dissimilar metals, right? That would then be a dc voltage offset, which I think would be inaudible (until they form oxides, which brings us to the first point).
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Post by blademaster2 on Aug 29, 2020 16:45:04 GMT -5
To be honest, I would not resolder it if it is already soldered in - since the heat can harm the potentiometer and any soldering operation adds risk. I would leave the solder intact and trim the resistor lead where it is. Repeating the soldering for that purpose is to me a needless risk as I see it (oxidation like I mentioned is not a likely risk for guitars, more for spacecraft). Sigh, last night after snipping the ends off, I ended up accidentally pushing one of the snipped ends back with my soldering iron tip, bc the solder hold had melted, so its now flush with the pin it is soldered to. It moved back only like a 16th of an inch. The volume for the neck pickup is louder than the bridge pickup now. Any ideas? And my guitar does sound slightly different. Though, the hum seems less. Well for sure a hanging end of the device lead is not going to do either of those things. It is possible that the soldering iron caused damage to the control contacts (they are usually riveted on to the part). I suffered with a poor connection on one of these volume contacts for years and never knew it until I saw that it was physically loose. It had exhibited good days and bad days for 20 years and I never knew why, but once I replaced the volume control part it was far better and very consistent. Without seeing it I cannot say, but for sure a longer or shorter lead protrusion from a properly-made connection is not going to be audible.
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Post by blademaster2 on Aug 29, 2020 8:26:12 GMT -5
To be honest, I would not resolder it if it is already soldered in - since the heat can harm the potentiometer and any soldering operation adds risk.
I would leave the solder intact and trim the resistor lead where it is. Repeating the soldering for that purpose is to me a needless risk as I see it (oxidation like I mentioned is not a likely risk for guitars, more for spacecraft).
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Post by blademaster2 on Aug 27, 2020 14:02:42 GMT -5
Ummm - okay.
I am generally unwilling to tell someone that they are not hearing any difference, but in this case I might.
The only thing that the excess lead trimming *might* do is cause a potential for oxidation where the copper is exposed and not tinned (unless the cut tip is then soldered to prevent that). In reality, this oxidation would not be evident for many, many years and/or exposure to guitar-killing humidity environments.
It is more of a risk to leave it untrimmed, due to the possibility of a short to other contacts or wires to the extra length hanging off the end.
In theory, at very high frequencies that added untrimmed length of wire acts as an antenna, but it is only efficient at receiving signals where the wavelength is nearer to the wire length and that is many orders of magnitude higher than human hearing.
For me, I would cut the lead to length and then tin and solder it in, to achieve the longest lifespan of the connection and to keep the wiring neat and lot likely to short to anything.
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Post by blademaster2 on Aug 12, 2020 5:27:37 GMT -5
I have stayed with 9/42 sets for my electrics with a few exceptions, and I have used D'Addario for most of them.
Rick Beato has some excellent YouTube videos and one of them says that people should consider lighter strings. That is, of course, a personal preference but I have heard some people claim vociferously that "heavier strings sound better". Rick's video makes the much more reasonable statement that the different gauges "sound different", and that lighter strings have less high frequencies. To me they sound more balanced and I like the tone of 9/42.
I also prefer to have less fret wear and the 9/42's are the ones that I have now become used to, and will be easier and require less force to press and bend so I infer that this is easier on the frets. My one electric that has .011 high E-string sounds fine, but my calibration for bending them is off (I used that gauge to try to reverse a back bow on the neck).
One thing that also influences the feel for the same gauge is the string anchoring at the bridge. My doubleneck has a longer string length behind the bridge with that and the same strings on the 6-string neck feel looser and bend more easily than on a Fender-style bridge. I might even consider going up to 0.010s for that guitar.
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Post by blademaster2 on Aug 4, 2020 10:00:45 GMT -5
Those are not terribly far out of tolerance for capacitors, and I would be astonished if anyone could hear a difference in a guitar circuit.
If it was me, I would use them without hesitation.
Some types of dielectric materials do change their properties over time (I have seen ceramic capacitors become far out of tolerance, but they were brought back into tolerance by heating the parts in an oven up to the curie temperature of the dielectric).
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 30, 2020 17:14:55 GMT -5
Voltage fields are always present when anything that has voltage on it. If it is a frequency - and not DC like a battery - it will propagate (like ripples in a lake if you move your finger in the water up and down) in many if not all directions. This is the way that radio signals travel. Power lines (50Hz or 60Hz) do the same but have large wavelengths (on the order of kilometres). Anything metal in the path of these waves that is *not* connected to ground will pick up the propagating voltage waveform on them (grounding the metal takes this picked up signal to the earth and very little of this voltage signal will be able to be sustained on the metal). If these metal objects are coupled to the signal wires in a guitar (by being close enough to the metal to transfer the voltage to them via capacitive coupling) then the wires will have this small signal superimposed on any other signals that they carry, such as your guitar signal. If the metal in the guitar is large enough - and not grounded - it will have this voltage waveform on it and a better capability to add this signal to your guitar signal. Also, remember that the actual earth ground is more or less the amplifier connection to the wall plug ground, and hence the guitar plus the cord offer enough resistance to current flow that this noise signal is not terribly-well connected straight to ground even if they are grounded in the instrument. Perfectly noise-free guitars are therefore not achievable.
There are a number of electromagnetics courses in university electrical engineering programs that teach the above phenomena in detail and allow them to be mathematically modeled, so I *know* I am not able to clearly distill it all into one paragraph. If I spent a lot more time I might be able to describe it better or more accurately than the above, but that is a job unto itself.
... and yeah, what Frets said .....
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 30, 2020 16:22:47 GMT -5
If the metal parts that are not grounded are not themselves picking up noise from the environment (this depends on many factors such as lights, proximity to large electrical loads, or large loads in your home), then it will not inject more noise into your circuit. If the environment is electrically noisy, then grounding all metal will prevent these pieces from carrying any noise that will couple into your circuit.
Like I said earlier, the ungrounded toggle switch handles on my guitars have never caused noise to my knowledge.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 30, 2020 15:53:49 GMT -5
You do not need to know anything about electricity theory for guitar wiring, except to connect everything correctly according to a good diagram.
The grounding question is best summarized to say that any metal that does not carry the pickup signal should be connected to "ground" - which on your guitar is the bare wire from humbucker pickups, or the negative wire of a single coil pickup. That in turn is also connected to the backs of the control casings, and the ring connection on the guitar jack, and any other metal on the guitar. If it is not, it is *not* going to definitely cause trouble except it might create a little more noise (in the form of hum) in your guitar sound. When grounded metal is made to create a "cage" that fully surrounds the rest of the electronics it is called a shield (like the copper foil you sometimes see inside the cavity, but also sometimes done using conductive black paint), since it will somewhat/mostly block noise from getting into your signal. The more complete, low-resistance and unbroken the shield, the better the capability to block this type of noise. The guitar cable also has a shield (braided little wires that form a tube within which the signal wire goes) that connects to the ground on the guitar (and this is what should be connected to "earth" ground via your amplifier).
On a toggle switch, the handle and casing are not connected to the terminals on the switch so they are not grounded that way, but they can be grounded by the collar that goes through the mounting location if there is a grounded wire or metal foil at that location. I have guitars where the toggle handles are not grounded, and I cannot say that I ever felt that this was causing trouble of any kind.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 28, 2020 14:58:49 GMT -5
my logic is the same amount should get in and get out. if one side of the equation has too much metal then it drinks the electricity.
maybe we are talking here in a diferential of potential maybe negligible, or maybe not, i'm not the electron to feel the flux, but my common sense dictates that the pole of the guitar jack that is using the biggest part of the plug deserves an smaller gauge wire, just in case.
I cannot see any electrical theory that supports that notion, at least not at audio frequencies. Nothing drinks electricity, but your intuition here might be that the larger amount of metal will have a higher level of capacitive coupling to the surrounding metal and therefore will 'suck' out the high frequencies from the signal. This is possibly true for very high frequencies, but I cannot say that it would be at all noticeable at audio frequencies.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 28, 2020 14:54:09 GMT -5
frets have you tried it yet ? Or still considering ? I think I’ll get one and give it a shot 😎 here was a review with some potential issues. It was from 2018 tho “Excellent product apart from 1 minor issue.. The threads didn't match any of the other jack socket nuts I had or the original socket plate in my telecaster which made fitting them a minor problem as I had to fiddle with them to fit them correctly to my guitars.” I have often seen jacks have difficulty fitting in to the cavity, and this added bulk might worsen that. Mostly, however, I can see larger insertion and removal forces (which is already sufficient in regular jacks). The standard jack design pushes against the tip connection from the side, and thereby creates force at two locations on the sleeve against the barrel of the shield of the jack. That seems good enough and I seldom have trouble there - mostly I have seen trouble on the tip connection and even then far less than I see on the guitar cord. If I were to improve the system I would look first at the design of the cord connection to the plug.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 24, 2020 9:08:31 GMT -5
Although many systems use the power supply negative connection connected to ground (at a single point), and speaker connections also connected there on the negative terminal, I do not think that you can rely on that. Especially battery powered systems might not have this connection and the negative signal is also driven with half of the speaker signal amplitude (this would be a differential output and not single ended), so for those systems connecting the negative speaker output to the ground will short that driven signal out.
Also, seeing sparks is an indicator that these cannot be connected happily.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 12, 2020 13:09:57 GMT -5
dunloo tortex purple (1.14mm?) for both guitar and bass....sometimes I'll use the slightly thinner blue... Same. Except I have a bunch of the black ones that are the same thickness as the purple. I sometimes use a heavy gauge stainless steel pick when I want that specific extra zingy sound. Somebody around here recently mentioned a bronze pick made out of an old cymbal, and I kind of want one of those now. I'd also be interested in trying maybe a stone or wooden pick, but I'm not sure I want to spend that kind of money on such a thing. I'm generally perfectly fine without a pick, though, and kind of only grab one if I'm doing something specific where I really want that precise sharp attack or really playing hard and fast for an extended period. Most of the time, I just flail at it with my fingers, and even when I have a pick, it's often suplemented with the other three fingers in one way or another. I tried metal picks a few times - inspired by Brian May's use of a coin. Each time I liked the attack, but I cringed at the notion that any contact with the guitar finish would carve out chunks and be cosmetically damaging. Seeing close up photos of May's guitar illustrates how damaging this can be to the finish after long term use - even down to the wood. I avoided metal for that reason.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 12, 2020 13:04:34 GMT -5
That sounds about right. I made mine in 1977, so it was possibly less than 6 years. It was limiting, I agree, but for recording acoustic it added back the attack that the microphone sometimes lost depending on its placement. Useless for melody and lead playing. I have had a few variations in mind for picks recently. I might try them and report back to the Nutz if they have any merit.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 10, 2020 23:19:06 GMT -5
I always used to use Fender teardrop mediums, but lately I have been using fingers mostly to get more variety of volume and attack. It is limiting at times, and I am getting rusty on my picking but I still like the use of fingernails (when I can grow them).
Years ago I thought that the attack of a 12-string guitar was interesting, so I made a 'double-pick' using two thin nylon picks glued side by side with a spacer in between them (approximately the thickness of the spacing of 12-string high E strings). The effect was very nice, especially on acoustic guitar and when recording because it accentuated the transient of the pick attack. A guitarist friend said I should patent it, and although I never did try to patent it myself I saw that someone else has since then (around 6 years later than when I invented it). I have never seen one offered for sale, but I have made a few and I do like to use them occasionally.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 5, 2020 16:33:15 GMT -5
White won't work? Okay - I gather this is for clients of yours who are looking for an authentic-looking vintage wiring cavity.
I am sure there will be folks out there who would say that the tone is better with orange braided sleeves like you showed. Although I usually avoid discounting other people's claims as to what they can and cannot hear, this is probably where I might draw the line and express my extreme skepticism (there would be a difference in the dielectric constant of differing insulation materials, however I expect that to reside in extremely high frequency range due to the tiny capacitive changes).
You seem to get lots of interesting finds for materials and parts. Sounds like fun.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 23, 2020 13:22:15 GMT -5
Oh - yes. Do a quick check on that green wire. It looks like a short to ground.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 16, 2020 21:51:09 GMT -5
It *is* amazing isn't it? Resistors seem to have had it together all along with the colour codes (apologies to the US folks for the Canadian/British spelling), whereas capacitors have always been poorly standardized and confusing. I know the reason (farads being huge and therefore necessitating small fractions for essentially any practical component value). Still, I have always been frustrated by this.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 15, 2020 16:19:36 GMT -5
pablo, Hello! I have observed that most guitar wiring uses a resistor and capacitor network for tone control functions. I'm just wondering why inductors are not generally used? I have seen inductors being used in active onboard preamp designs. I want to understand why do we prefer capacitors over inductors? And if capacitors have some advantage, why do some on-board preamp builders use inductors? Thank you! Short answer: Cost. Long answer: Because the main idea of a guitar (and a tone control) is to be able to obtain broad-frequency response, or to be able to trim down the higher frequencies. The former is good for most things rock, country, or much of blues (Albert King, anybody? Howzabout Roy Buchanan?). The latter works nicely for a great amount of jazz, some blues, and lots of contemporary "new wave" type stuff. Capacitors do this in comfort, inductors can't do it without a fair amount of circuitry shenanigans. Inductors are best suited to trimming away much lower frequencies, or when used in combination with caps, such a pair can either reinforce or scoop out a mid-frequency portion of the audio spectrum. A fair number of guitarists like this latter possibility, but it does add cost, and it does add potential points of failure. Any questions? HTH sumgai Agreed - it is probably cost driven but they do exist. My Framus Nashville Delux has an 800mH inductor in the tone circuit. It acts as a notch filter rather than a low pass. I also used inductors (1000mH) in all of my own home-built guitars. I call it 'fatness control'. To me it is very nice sounding because it preserves clarity.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 10, 2020 20:10:43 GMT -5
I *wish* that was true about wine! I would love to save money and enjoy a $8 bottle as much as the $21 bottles we buy - it is nothing to do with prestige for me, but I do prefer the ones that I buy and that makes it worth the added cash. Same goes for single malt scotch, although I have tasted blends and cheaper ones that I quite enjoyed. It is quite possible that the scotch is influenced by some level of shaming, but the wine in my case definitely is not. People can't tell the wines apart in taste tests, in various tests that have been performed over the years. If you can tell wines apart, you ought to showcase your abilities, they wine industry would surely thank you for it. I'm not so sure about Scotch, I could believe it mellows with age, I like 12 years the best, not too "aged". I with the PIO cap lovers (and vintage enthusiasts) would take the attitude that they just want their guitar to be authentic to the era, and quit with the idea that old things sound better, because there's no shame in appreciation of the past, but spreading myths about old growth timber, or nitrocellulose sounding "better" drags the level of discourse waaaay down. I will just say the following: 1) Woods do grow differently with differing density depending on the surroundings and growing conditions, and I understand that newly-planted trees grow faster with more light available. 2) The amount of finish penetration into the wood and its stiffness/hardness will change the resonance of the wood. I ruined the excellent tone of my first guitar by refinishing it with a thicker and more penetrating lacquer replacing thinner urethane (not expecting the finish to make any difference at all). ... and although I can never (not usually) tell which wine is which, if you poured me a cheaper wine alongside one of the wines I like so I could do a blindfold test I am quite sure I would like my usual type much more. If not I would be pleased to save the money.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 10, 2020 16:12:37 GMT -5
I *wish* that was true about wine! I would love to save money and enjoy a $8 bottle as much as the $21 bottles we buy - it is nothing to do with prestige for me, but I do prefer the ones that I buy and that makes it worth the added cash.
Same goes for single malt scotch, although I have tasted blends and cheaper ones that I quite enjoyed. It is quite possible that the scotch is influenced by some level of shaming, but the wine in my case definitely is not.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 10, 2020 12:22:27 GMT -5
I've said it before, I'll say it again- double-blind study using a statistically significant number of ears, or it didn't happen. As ChrisK would have said (and did, on several occasions), a capacitor provides . . .capacitance. Now, if the capacitances of the caps one is testing differ, that could explain a difference in sound. But if we test all the capacitors before our double-blind test, and they all read identical (within some margin of error), we still aren't doing "science". One would need to be able to identify some electrical feature of the PIOs, apart from capacitance, that is causing a difference in the sound. So, unless one can identify some other electrical quantity besides capacitance that one cap provides that others don't, we may have a result, but we don't have an explanation for that result. Without an explanation, the result might be mere happenstance or coincidental. I will take the usual risks by chiming in here. The difference in capacitor types is usually determined by their dielectric material (some aspects regarding reliability and lifespan come into play with the metal used, but I will ignore that). The reason that ceramic caps are considered poor is that their capacitance is poorly controlled, varies with age (heating them above the dielectric's Curie Temperature can bring them back into spec), and also varies with applied voltage. The latter will in theory influence the tone if a circuit uses that type of part, especially if it is in a bass-cut circuit, but I have never experimented and I cannot personally claim this. I would call this an intermodulation distortion (if anyone disagrees ....). Other factors in capacitor construction might introduce higher resistance or inductance in the part, all varying in extent depending on frequency - after all a "capacitor" is a physical thing that is ideally only intended to exhibit capacitance, but other things also result from unavoidable non-idealities of materials used. For that reason highly-precise filters and high quality audio circuits like speaker cross-overs and circuitry in stereos, *not* necessarily guitar tone circuits, will avoid ceramic capacitors and stay with capacitors made from other more stable dielectrics like mica, polypropylene and polystyrene. I have no knowledge of the PiO capacitors, nor their electrical properties, but I think that if they are similar to electrolytic capacitors and that they have rolled-up electrodes then their resistance and inductance will be higher than, say, polystyrene capacitors. I would, however, *never* tell people that what they claim that they hear does not exist, and as always no lab measurements or scope traces will change my mind on that. Now if people say that they can hear a difference between polystyrene, PiO, or polypropylene capacitors - or if they can hear it when the tone circuit is on full - then I will remain skeptical, but I would not tell them otherwise.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 10, 2020 11:52:37 GMT -5
I have used many types of solder removal tools during my earlier career years, from bulbs and spring-load suckers to braids to electric, vacuum operated stations. I hated the bulbs and spring-loaded ones because they induced motion or kick that was not conducive to finer circuit assemblies (but they might be fine for guitar circuits). The expensive station worked well, but became clogged far too often and needed a lengthy cleaning process (after it cooled down enough).
If that tool is well built and does well in guitar cavities where the parts are large and the amount of solder is also large, then that is great to hear - and the price is quite reasonable.
My preference is still solder braid, with a drop of liquid flux added to it. I have achieved excellent results that have been as good as any other tool has achieved, and some of those results are orbiting the Earth right now.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 6, 2020 19:57:23 GMT -5
Predictive models are interesting but I prefer to see what the sound is like for actual pickups and to compare actual physical pickups qualitatively, with the measured and predicted data on hand as a reference.
If it can be done, I would be interested to see test results that can measure distortion due to non-linearity in order to have that comparative quantitative data (perhaps as a THD value, plotted as a function of frequency or amplitude, or any other means of using a measurement that can compare pickups with regard to this attribute).
I can only suggest spectral analysis from a pure sinusoidal stimulus input as a quantitative method, but I am aware of other methods such as spectral analysis of the response to square wave stimulus. Alternatively, possibly a transfer curve plotted for various frequencies, but this would require an accurate measurement of the displacement of the string (or equivalent stimulus source). I am not an expert in the laboratory techniques typically used and what could be done, but these results would be fascinating to see.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jun 6, 2020 8:27:01 GMT -5
I think with the complexities of the motion and interaction of a vibrating string and the nonlinearities of magnetic material behaviour in general, fitting models to observed phenomena might be the pragmatic approach for now.
After all, the root cause of magnetization curve shapes being what they are is not (as I understand it) known at a molecular level, so we characterize materials through test results to obtain a model. If the magnetic material is part of it, then other strings would also intermodulate the signal as they move near the same location as the string in question. It becomes a very. very complicated relationship.
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