Post by sumgai on Jul 16, 2007 16:16:49 GMT -5
Boys and girls,
Today's discussion is brought to you by spicer, the man with all the questions that everyone else is afraid to ask. ;D
He writes:
Well spicer, I can think of a few things you might keep in mind......
One, the original Linear Power Booster (LPB-1) by Electro-Harmonix was an ingenious device that did the job, at the expense of moderate battery consumption. The point was, it was truly linear in frequency response - whatever went in, it came out the same, only louder.
The same should be true today for anything that claims linearity, but with the market full to over-saturation with all kinds of devices, I don't expect any manufacturer to be too modest about what their products can do - they'd get eaten alive if they told the truth!
Shopping carefully is the only way to tell if a device is gonna make you happy. Either that, or build your own! ;D JohnH has a few articles (topics) on these Forums regarding that very topic. I might recommend that you start here, with JohnH's JFET Buffer circuit, and search for more info, should that whet your appetite.
Another thought to keep in mind is your amp itself - how will it respond to that additional "schnock" coming in? Sometimes, and I'm not saying this is true about your amp, but sometimes an amp can't handle too much more incoming voltage than what an ordinary pickup delivers. In turn, the results might be a pleasant distortion, or they might be absolutely intolerable, tone-wise. I might suggest that you cart your amp (and guitar) down the local music emporium, and try a few booster devices. See if the amp does anything strange with that added signal strength. If not, then buy the toy, or if it's too costly, come home and look at the above link again, with the idea of building your own.
I can honestly say that I've used these things in the past, both commercial and home-brew, and I generally like them. But lately I've been lazy, my current axe doesn't have one. My next one will though, and you can take that to the bank! ;D
p.s. If you do elect to put the new gizmo inside of your axe, don't forget to install a bypass switch. If the battery goes dead in the middle of a performance, you wanna be able to revert back to normal so's you can finish up without too much egg on your face.
(If you're not using the Rhythm/Lead circuit switch for anything else, that's a good candidate for this job. 
HTH
sumgai
Today's discussion is brought to you by spicer, the man with all the questions that everyone else is afraid to ask. ;D
He writes:
[sumgai], thanks again for all of your help.
As the resident J-master guru, I would like to get your input on this issue:
I love the J-master's pickups. I mean, love them. And I HATE humbuckers. They always seem to lack everything good in a guitar signal EXCEPT for volume.
My problem: I like playing at high gain levels through my AC30, au naturale, but the J-master lacks enough signal volume to really make it growl and take full advantage of what the AC30 can do.
Without replacing pickups (gasp!), are there alternatives? Have you used a linear power booster in your setup?
My fear is that the booster will alter the tone TOO much. I know to expect some difference (you can't have everything), but I really want to just be able to twiddle my volume knob and go from psychadelic to sick in a matter of moments.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for your time,
spicer
As the resident J-master guru, I would like to get your input on this issue:
I love the J-master's pickups. I mean, love them. And I HATE humbuckers. They always seem to lack everything good in a guitar signal EXCEPT for volume.
My problem: I like playing at high gain levels through my AC30, au naturale, but the J-master lacks enough signal volume to really make it growl and take full advantage of what the AC30 can do.
Without replacing pickups (gasp!), are there alternatives? Have you used a linear power booster in your setup?
My fear is that the booster will alter the tone TOO much. I know to expect some difference (you can't have everything), but I really want to just be able to twiddle my volume knob and go from psychadelic to sick in a matter of moments.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for your time,
spicer
Well spicer, I can think of a few things you might keep in mind......
One, the original Linear Power Booster (LPB-1) by Electro-Harmonix was an ingenious device that did the job, at the expense of moderate battery consumption. The point was, it was truly linear in frequency response - whatever went in, it came out the same, only louder.
The same should be true today for anything that claims linearity, but with the market full to over-saturation with all kinds of devices, I don't expect any manufacturer to be too modest about what their products can do - they'd get eaten alive if they told the truth!
Shopping carefully is the only way to tell if a device is gonna make you happy. Either that, or build your own! ;D JohnH has a few articles (topics) on these Forums regarding that very topic. I might recommend that you start here, with JohnH's JFET Buffer circuit, and search for more info, should that whet your appetite.
Another thought to keep in mind is your amp itself - how will it respond to that additional "schnock" coming in? Sometimes, and I'm not saying this is true about your amp, but sometimes an amp can't handle too much more incoming voltage than what an ordinary pickup delivers. In turn, the results might be a pleasant distortion, or they might be absolutely intolerable, tone-wise. I might suggest that you cart your amp (and guitar) down the local music emporium, and try a few booster devices. See if the amp does anything strange with that added signal strength. If not, then buy the toy, or if it's too costly, come home and look at the above link again, with the idea of building your own.
I can honestly say that I've used these things in the past, both commercial and home-brew, and I generally like them. But lately I've been lazy, my current axe doesn't have one. My next one will though, and you can take that to the bank! ;D
p.s. If you do elect to put the new gizmo inside of your axe, don't forget to install a bypass switch. If the battery goes dead in the middle of a performance, you wanna be able to revert back to normal so's you can finish up without too much egg on your face.
(If you're not using the Rhythm/Lead circuit switch for anything else, that's a good candidate for this job. 
HTH
sumgai
