FreeLoader!!??!!

[ashcatlt]

Don't have time now to comment on this, except to say: $135 for what?

Discuss. I'll be back around.

[newey]

Or, for $310, you could buy their "steel guitar black box" which apparently does the same, but with a tube.

How this is any different from a simple Hi-Z/Lo-Z buffer (coupled with the tone control on one's guitar) is beyond me, unless there is something in particular with the volume pedal on a pedal steel (they call for placement between the steel guitar and the volume pedal). Never played a steel with a volume pedal so I don't know from that. . .

Of course, since it's made in the USA, it commands a premium cost . . .

[ashcatlt]

This recieved a glowing review in the most recent issue of TapeOp magazine. My initial reaction to the price tag came before I actually looked it up to find out more about it. Hearing that it's got a discrete buffer in there helps a little. If you were to buy singles of reasonably high quality components for this it could come out pretty quick to around $50, I guess. I'd imagine they're buying in bulk, and probably not using much in the way of gold, though.

It claims to be different than a tone control, but it just plain isn't. Unless they're doing something really strange (and using more components than necessary - not good for profit margin), the "load" control must be a variable resistance to ground. A typical guitar tone control is exactly that until you get way down toward 0, where the cap starts to have an effect.

I don't know much about a pedal steel either. Do they usually have tone controls? If the volume pedal is a passive device, then putting this buffer before it would tend to reduce it's tone affecting effect.

[sumgai]

At a guess......

It's more than a tone control, I'll give 'em that. What they say in the blurb is pretty right-on, about loading impedances, resonance peaks, and all that. Where they get "foot loose and fancy free" is in describing the range of sonic effect - you can flatten the peak a little, or even a lot (by comparison), but in reality, there's no real sharp peak to begin with. If there is, then it's a mechanical component adding that "extra something". Changing the bridge saddles on a Strat from plain steel to graphite-impregnated will prove that in a hurry.

Any coil will, in conjunction with any connecting "transmission line" (your guitar cable, dude!), will exhibit a frequency response curve such that there is likely a slight rise just before a very obvious drop-off in the treble range (and continuing to drop ever further, as the frequency goes up). That's what this device is trying to counter-act.

To make a short story longer (my forte, hehehe), the better way to reduce the peak is to increase the frequency response, i.e. reduce the cable's crapacitance. This has been stated by many contributors here, but most notably by JohnH with his many experiments and pSpice modelings. Do a search (of this site) for more info, if you so desire. Still and all, if this were a concern to me, I'd opt for ChrisK's favorite kind of cable, one that uses RF.... POOF! All crapacitance issues disappear in a cloud of airwaves. Mojo tone, anyone? ;D

The other way to reduce a peak is to increase the inductance, which is to say, you decrease the load on that inductor (the coil, dude, the pickup coil!). Here's where the "little black box" comes in. It's not just a variable resistor, it's actually a pair of them, connected in what we usually call a pad. The most common form is an 'L' pad, but if there's active buffering going on, then I'd put my money on the circuit being arranged in a 'Z' pad configuration. More info on these circuits can be had via Google and the World Wide Wait.

A standard guitar tone control (or a volume control, for that matter) changes not only the level of the output signal at certain frequencies, it also changes the load presented to the pickup coil. Remember when we were discussing that multiple blender circuit a few weeks ago? Didn't ChrisK mention that having no less than 7 variable resistors in the circuit "might have an undesirable effect" on the signal? He said, in so many words, that they'd load the pickup(s) until the tone was almost indistinguishable from mud. Who's gonna dispute him on that, eh?

So what's this device doing so different? It simultaneously isolates the pickup coil with a buffer, and at the same time, controls both the buffer's input and output levels with a dual-ganged control. In this way, the load to the pickup remains the same (low, to flatten the response curve), and yet the output impedance remains high, which is what the guitar amplifier expects to see.

An example familiar to most of us would be the dummy load placed between an amp's output and the speakers. Marshall's Power Brake and THD's HotPlate come to mind. You crank up the amp for "that tone", and yet the speakers aren't driving your neighbors to call the police. That's a good example of padding - the amp's output sees a constant impedance that it's designed for, the speaker sees the same impedance all the time, and yet the volume level is reduced. A hallmark effect of a pad, if there ever was one.

I'm not certain that anything made in the USA is worth the going rate anymore, but that's a topic for a different life - I'll pass for now, thanks anyway. ;D But if someone were to give me this gadget, I'd proably find that it's too subtle for me, and I'd hazard a guess that most Electric Spanish guitar players will feel the same way about it. But a steel guitarist? They live and breath on having one tone, not a variety. I've seen, heard, and been in bands with, steel guitarists for over 40 years, and I've yet to see a one of them reach back and twiddle the tone knobs of his/her amp. They set it up during the initial sound-check, and they don't touch a thing after that. It's just they way they are, that's all.

OK, fun-time's over, everyone back in the pool!



sumgai

[JohnH]

Well, it does indeed sound like a variable resistor load, followed by a simple buffer. Its mounted at the guitar, so the cable from guitar to gadget is short. This short cable has low capacitance which raises the frequency of the treble peak and cut off, and allows long cable runs downstream. So it will improve the clarity of the top end of the sound (assuming that such an effect is considered an improvement).

I think it is a valid device. They could easily be made oneself however, electronic components value < $5, plus case, jacks, knob etc.

The potential results can be tested using these spreadsheets:
GuitarFreak

Suitable buffers are described here:
Buffers and Buffer Cables

cheers

John