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Post by ozboomer on Sept 17, 2010 22:33:46 GMT -5
I'm currently trying to fathom the replies (Fanx! folks)... but am getting heartily confused (as I guess others are!) 1. I'm using a 3-way switch in the design to give the B / B+N / N combinations, so JohnH and ashcatlt have the right idea of my intention for using this type of switch (and I've yet to sit and suss it out properly). 2. I thought I'd start trying to understand/verify the wiring of a 3-way like this first, as I understood these styles of 3-way switches (well, the original "open switch" versions anyway) were originally used in Stratocasters to only provide 3 sounds in the early days, being: B only / M only / N only... and as I couldn't see how to wire this particular switch to achieve that, I posted my question. 3. I'll have to draw myself a picture I think, to understand what you mean, John, when you say pins 4+5 are connected and "...they can go to the hot output"... I think I'm having another one of these "addled brain" days, where I can't see how anything works ...
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Post by ozboomer on Sept 17, 2010 23:26:39 GMT -5
I think I have the wiring worked-out now, thanks a heap, everyone... Please have a look and see if I'm Ok now:- ...to be read with: where: Position 1 ("B" - lever towards the "8", as shown): pins 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are connected Position 2 ("B+N" - centre): pins 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are connected Position 3 ("N" - lever towards the "1"): pins 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 are connected Now.. to get back on-track... after revising the diagrams AGAIN....
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Post by JohnH on Sept 18, 2010 0:03:34 GMT -5
Exactamundo! go forth and wire boldly.........
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Post by ozboomer on Sept 18, 2010 1:13:26 GMT -5
If you are interested in getting a few more sounds, and a more interesting tone control (the Red Rhodes tone control) in series mode... ...put the centre tone lug to ground, put the small tone cap that you like on the upper lug, and a larger one on the lower lug to go to SW2B ...and I think you mean: Another entry for the library, perhaps... Fanx! John
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Post by ozboomer on Sept 26, 2010 5:08:53 GMT -5
Well, I had a go at doing the wiring for SimpleMod-d today... and I would have to say it's been an imperfect success... It worked, because all the switching seems to do its thing Ok but somehow, the volume control doesn't work. All I did was add some ground links and I filed the cases of the pots to get some "solder-able" areas... so all I can think of is that I've somehow cooked the volume pot. At any rate, here's what it looks like:- I started by leaving the wiring from SimpleMod-b more-or-less intact. I then used a rat-tail file to remove some of the cadmium (?I guess it is? - the yellow film over the shell of the pot), so that I could end-up soldering some ground wires between the pots, as suggested by JohnH. At the same time, I took the "treble cut" tone cap directly to the back shell of its pot, and I similarly removed the ground wires from most everything away from the "anti-clockwise" terminal on the volume pot (this was the main ground point in the "as-constructed" SimpleMod-b). I then wired the pot shells together (black wires) and removed the original DPDT switch and 5-way blade switch... and added the new DPDT (on-on-on) and 3-way blade switch as shown. Additionally, I also added a ground wire between the "shell" of the 3-way and the new "ground point" on the back of the volume pot. An initial "screwdriver pickup tap test" showed the 3-way was selecting the B, B+N and N pickups Ok... and the DPDT was adding-in the middle pickup in the right places... So, I bit the bullet and installed the wired pickguard into the guitar... and although everything worked Ok, switching-wise... and it was much quieter than SimpleMod-b was (all those grounding "features" certainly helped), the volume control did nothing. I pulled the pickguard out and tried applying a signal source (my MP3 player) to various points along the "hot" signal line, from the volume pot back through the tone controls and into the 3-way connection points. No matter where I applied the signal, the volume control didn't do anything. So, I tried some measurements on the 500k Log. volume pot, with a meter (in the table below, ACW = anti-clockwise lug, W = wiper, CW = clockwise lug), viz:- Pot Pos. | Between ACW & W | Between ACW & CW | Between W & CW | 10 (full CW) | 2k | 2k | 0k | 5 (mid) | 148k | 2k | 145k | 1 (full ACW) | 153k | 2k | 0k |
Now, I dunno - I have another attack of the vagues or something... but these readings seem all upside down... but I've checked 'em a couple of times... so maybe the pot IS cooked...!?!? Anyway, I'll give it a rest for a few days... and will try replacing the volume pot... and see how it goes. ...but I'd still appreciate any thoughts, if anyone notices something I'm missing(!) Fanx, folks. John
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Post by newey on Sept 26, 2010 8:30:35 GMT -5
That'd be my guess as well. Your readings are not consistent with a functioning pot.
With a 500K pot, and assuming ±20% tolerance (the usual guitar quality), you should be reading at least 400KΩ at both the extremes of rotation, CW and ACW (or "counterclockwise", as we Yanks say . . .). And you should get 0K at the opposite extremes, respectively. Your 2K reading is waaaay off- as are the others!
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Post by JohnH on Sept 26, 2010 15:42:28 GMT -5
oz - when you tested the pot, was it still in the circuit? If so, the readings across the pot outer lugs would be mainly determined by the pickups. The treble-bleed resistor also changes the readings.
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Post by sumgai on Sept 26, 2010 19:05:16 GMT -5
ozzy, Two items: One, the resistor across the pot appears to be Brown-Black-Green...... unless my eyes have somehow become discombobulated, that is. Such a value would translate to 1MΩ, not 100KΩ. I think you want a Brown-Black-Yellow marked unit in there. Two, the capacitor in parallel with that same resistor..... it looks to me like one of the leads is shorting the two pot legs (hot and wiper). It's possible that there's some "spring" action that keeps the two apart while out on the bench, but when mounted into your guitar, something forces the two together, and Presto!, you've got a short..... which fortunately doesn't kill your tone, only the action of your volume pot. BTW, a "quickie" scan while the pot is in-circuit is one thing, but when testing a suspected bad pot, one must remove at least two connections out of the three, or one gets led down the rosy garden path of false results. Trust me on this one, please. HTH sumgai
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Post by ozboomer on Sept 27, 2010 2:56:19 GMT -5
Thanks for the thoughts, folks... ..and yep, the pot was still in-circuit when I was checking it out. I recognize that the values read would probably be off because of that... but I would've thought there would still be a considerable "sweep" of resistance even with that arrangement... and the fact that resistance doesn't move around much sort-of confirms something isn't quite right with the pot. Mr sumgai: I've now had a closer look at the resistor across the pot (being one of the "treble bleed" components) and it's 220k = red-red-black-orange + brown (1% tolerance), viz:- It hasn't been changed since SimpleMod-b was first built, where the "treble bleed" worked quite happily, so I think that side of things is probably Ok. About the "springy treble bleed cap"... It's certainly an issue and one that I will rectify when I re-do the volume control (covering the "treble bleed" cap+resistor leads with insulation, like I have with the tone control cap)... but the "no volume control" problem even happens when the pickguard is out of the guitar, being held vertically in a clamp, when there isn't anything pressing against any of those components... but I will still double-check the possibility. BTW, a "quickie" scan while the pot is in-circuit is one thing, but when testing a suspected bad pot, one must remove at least two connections out of the three, or one gets led down the rosy garden path of false results. Trust me on this one, please. I know, I know... I'm just slack, tha's all. Seeing I'll have to pull everything out to check the pot anyway, I thought I may as well get ready to replace the pot anyway -- gotta play these mind games with myself sometimes(!) Thanks a heap, again, for the suggestions, everyone... John
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Post by sumgai on Sept 27, 2010 11:50:54 GMT -5
oz, Hmmm, maybe they've gone and changed the Color Code since I last attended classes at the Uni........ Red-Red-Black equals 22Ω. The fourth band being somewhat orange is a bit strange, but that would, in an ordinary and unchanging world, be the tolerance band, and the "lone" fifth band at the other end is the temperature coefficient. Now if, while out-of-circuit, your resistor does indeed read 220K, then either resistors made in Australia are "different", or else I'm so far behind the times that I might as well pack it in. But don't worry, this ain't the first time the world has taken me by the scruff o' me neck and shaken the bejabbers outta me. I'm beginning to unnerstand why, when I was growing up, all the old farts I knew always complained about the constant change, and why couldn't "these young whippersnappers" leave well enough alone. Or in other words, Santyana is constantly being proven correct. Which, I guess, in turn means that Darwin is also being proven correct. I dunno whether to salute or sigh. sumgai
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Post by JohnH on Sept 27, 2010 15:52:16 GMT -5
oz, Hmmm, maybe they've gone and changed the Color Code since I last attended classes at the Uni........sumgai Did they have resistors back in those days? Oz notes that he got a 1% tolerance resistor. These, often come with 4 bands plus tolerance: So red, red, black, orange is 2 2 0 000 = 220k cheers John
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Post by ozboomer on Sept 27, 2010 16:07:01 GMT -5
Just a quick note as I head out the door off to work... ...Hmmm, maybe they've gone and changed the Color Code since I last attended classes at the Uni........ Red-Red-Black equals 22Ω. The fourth band being somewhat orange is a bit strange, but that would, in an ordinary and unchanging world, be the tolerance band, and the "lone" fifth band at the other end is the tolerance. Looking at a random, US-based electronics firm (whatever its "authority" might be(!)), they have a resistor colour code chart... as does some random electronics tutorial site with another colour code chart and they both sorta say the same thing, so I dunno... The fact that it's a metal film resistor, rather than a carbon type might make a difference? D'oh!... I was too slow -- JohnH got in with his explanation before me(!) Anyway, no dramas... I'll get onto the re-wiring as soon as I can and will check the bits out before I go too crazy re-building... John
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Post by ozboomer on Oct 2, 2010 8:23:43 GMT -5
I had another go with SimpleMod-d today... and it started with checking out that dodgy pot... Having taken it out of the circuit, I ran over it with the meter... and yup, the wiper and one of the outer lugs were shorted-out. So, into the bin with that... Then, I had another 500k Log pot and checked it out with the meter before installing it and it checked out pretty well, with about 495k on it (no load). I also thought, instead of filing off the "coating" on the pot shell, I'd try sanding it off... just swirling it around on some sandpaper sitting on a flat surface. This is how that came out:- It gave a good "ring" of rough, bare metal to solder to.. and worked pretty well at soldering time. I wired the pot it into the circuit (and yes, I was slack again(!) and didn't worry about insulating the treble bleed cap/resistor)... and everything's running like a beaut! Just have to break-in the new strings, o'course... Just for the heck of it, here's a picture of how the wiring looks now:- I'll be writing-up and posting a design over in General Guitar Schematics in the next couple of days, I hope... followed by updates to my module library and I hope to record some sound samples, too. So far, it sounds like these are going to be useful sounds... and it certainly is another good learning project More later... John
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Post by ozboomer on Nov 10, 2010 15:21:43 GMT -5
The next development in the SimpleMod stream has now been posted. I was pretty confident with the design so I just went ahead and "built" it... So, SimpleMod-e is fairly simple but you might find something of use in it. Further developments are still to come (I think)...
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Post by ozboomer on Nov 28, 2010 18:26:21 GMT -5
I've been working on some ideas for the next generation of SimpleMod.. and a couple of questions have come up... I have previously written some "summary information" about out-of-phase operation of a pickup with respect to another (for single coil pickups), which follows: Pickup Phasing --------------
There are 3 factors affecting the AC phase of a pickup's signal:
1) The plane in which the string is vibrating;
2) The polarity of the pickup's magnets (north facing upwards vs. south facing upwards); and
3) The direction of winding for the pickup.
Changing only ONE of these or ALL THREE will result in an out-of-phase (OOP) signal.
Changing TWO of them will cause the pickup to be in-phase.
The vibration plane of the string can't be changed; we only string the guitar one way with respect to the pickups. Thus, we only have items 2 and 3 available as practical options for manipulating the phasing:
2 = polarity -> reverse polarity (RP) 3 = winding -> reverse winding (RW)
Frequently, the middle pickup is a standard Stratocaster -style guitar is reverse wound AND has reverse polarity when compared to the other pickups. Hence, such a pickup will be *in-phase* with the other pickups.
Why the Capacitor? ------------------
A 'raw' out-of-phase sound can be very thin, without much signal strength, particularly when using single-coil pickups. This 'thin-ness' comes from the frequency cancellations that occur when the various harmonics generated by each pickup (including the fundamental frequency) run 'out-of'step' with each other.
Including a small capacitor in the output signal from the out-of-phase pickup filters out some of the lower frequencies from that pickup, so these frequencies generated by the 'normal' pickup are allowed to go through to the output with no cancellation effects. This makes the output a little stronger and a bit more usable.
Humbucking Action -----------------
A by-product of RW/RP on the middle pickup is that when this pickup is combined with either of the others, we effectively have a humbucking pickup. So, in a conventionally-wired Stratocaster, 5-way switch positions 2 and 4 are hum-cancelling (and in-phase)....and a relevant schematic 'element' might be: First of all, I remember newey spearheaded some discussion on what actually goes on regarding humbucking.. but I can't find it. Maybe we could get a pointer to that discussion, please, 'coz I think my summary above regarding humbucking might be a bit... flawed. Secondly, I'm thinking of using the above diagram with a pickup so that I can switch it in- and out- of-phase. This pickup will also have a dedicated "treble-cut" tone control connected to it as well. As mentioned above, the capacitor shown will prevent cancellation of some lower frequencies when the pickup is switched out-of-phase... but I wonder if that capacitor would still be necessary, given I'm using a dedicated tone control on the pickup? I'd appreciate any pointers, thoughts, opinions, etc... Thanks, as always... John
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Post by JohnH on Nov 28, 2010 18:50:13 GMT -5
Not sure about the 'plane of vibration' bit. Strings waggle around in both axes, obviously up and down since we pluck them that way, but also in and out, as evidenced by fret buzzes if you set too a low action.
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Post by ozboomer on Nov 28, 2010 18:58:45 GMT -5
Not sure about the 'plane of vibration' bit. Strings waggle around in both axes, obviously up and down since we pluck them that way, but also in and out, as evidenced by fret buzzes if you set too a low action. True... but I guess I'm talking about the 'major motion' with the 'in-plane' item. It's akin to talking about the pitch of the plucked note being the 'fundamental frequency' even though we know there are other harmonics being produced but their effects are 'small' (where they affect tone colour and not pitch).
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Post by cynical1 on Nov 28, 2010 19:17:17 GMT -5
Well, just to separate the real Nutz from the posers, let's all watch a slow motion clip of a guitar string vibrating:
Now there's 1:47 you'll never get back.
Happy Trails
Cynical One
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Post by ozboomer on Dec 1, 2010 6:56:46 GMT -5
Ok... I've found something (in one of my own threads!) that points to a page that wolf has been working on for a while that describes how humbucking pickups work. It's still somewhat confusing to me, even after a couple of reads but it does explain how the hum cancelling function works and how it's dependent on both electrical AND magnetic properties of the (component) single coil pickups. I'll try re-writing my simplified notes again... soon.. uhrmm.. eventually. John
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Post by 4real on Dec 1, 2010 18:21:33 GMT -5
I have previously written some "summary information" about out-of-phase operation of a pickup with respect to another (for single coil pickups), which follows: Pickup Phasing --------------
There are 3 factors affecting the AC phase of a pickup's signal:
1) The plane in which the string is vibrating;
2) The polarity of the pickup's magnets (north facing upwards vs. south facing upwards); and
3) The direction of winding for the pickup.
Changing only ONE of these or ALL THREE will result in an out-of-phase (OOP) signal.
Changing TWO of them will cause the pickup to be in-phase.
The vibration plane of the string can't be changed; we only string the guitar one way with respect to the pickups. Thus, we only have items 2 and 3 available as practical options for manipulating the phasing:
2 = polarity -> reverse polarity (RP) 3 = winding -> reverse winding (RW)
Frequently, the middle pickup is a standard Stratocaster -style guitar is reverse wound AND has reverse polarity when compared to the other pickups. Hence, such a pickup will be *in-phase* with the other pickups.
Why the Capacitor? ------------------
A 'raw' out-of-phase sound can be very thin, without much signal strength, particularly when using single-coil pickups. This 'thin-ness' comes from the frequency cancellations that occur when the various harmonics generated by each pickup (including the fundamental frequency) run 'out-of'step' with each other.
Including a small capacitor in the output signal from the out-of-phase pickup filters out some of the lower frequencies from that pickup, so these frequencies generated by the 'normal' pickup are allowed to go through to the output with no cancellation effects. This makes the output a little stronger and a bit more usable.
Humbucking Action -----------------
A by-product of RW/RP on the middle pickup is that when this pickup is combined with either of the others, we effectively have a humbucking pickup. So, in a conventionally-wired Stratocaster, 5-way switch positions 2 and 4 are hum-cancelling (and in-phase).I'd appreciate any pointers, thoughts, opinions, etc... This is very good but you seem to have got yourself confused by your own explanation and perhaps others too... I'll try to add a little flesh to a couple of points though to work through it properly maybe requires some diagrams...still, perhaps later... This is correct and that Vid of a strings vibration is very misleading IMHO...to get a better idea of what's going on is to draw up the individual wave forms of the fundamental mode of vibrations (clearly visible) and the tiny harmonic vibrations with in it (that appear as a blur along the string if you stop the film) and if you were able to see a longer length of the string, not just above the neck pickup... In regards to the plane of string...in relation to out of phase this is to do with the sample taken along the string by two pickup coils. So, a stratocaster's middle pickup is "in phase" electrically and electromagnetically...but sounds out of phase as for some vibrations in the string, the string is moving one way (say "up") while over another pickup it is moving the opposite (say "down")...in fact the combined wave is complex and changes with string length and ratios... But the principle is the same...the vibration of the string at one sample spot can well be (and has to be to some extent) different at different sample points and so produces "phase cancellation effects" This explains why a strats middle combined with the neck or bridge pickup sounds "out of phase...it is in fact "physically out of phase" due to the differences along the vibrations string which cancel each other out in complex and interesting ways. Such phenomenon also explains some of the effects in say an acoustic guitar where the string is vibrations as is the top creating complex harmonic cancellations... It also explains the "sound" of a HB pickup...two sensing coils "in phase" but very close together so very little room there unlike a strats middle with neck HB where the sound is more obvious...onthe the very short waveforms high in the harmonic series are able to be cancelled...creating that typical "smooth" midrange accent of the HB pickup without the highs of a single coil... A neck and bridge pickup is physically even further apart but typically is so far apart as to be 'in phase' physically again...the neck pickup is positioned so as to "hear" primarily the strong fundamental modes of vibrations (illustrated in the vid) but near the bridge the vibration modes are much more even in amplitude, reaching a zero point at the fixed bridge itself...so the bridge pickup senses less fundamental and more harmonics (brightness and complexity) in the mix...typically the combination gives you the neck pickups sound dominating but with the addition of the harmonics underneath it. Of course there is even more complexity to all this like the nodal points and where they relate to the position of the pickups and how each fretted note changes the ratio with the effective string length... If you put the two coils of an HB OoP then you will create a massively "thin effect" as it is sensing largely the same vibrations in phase and all that will come out is the differences...do that to a stacked HB 'sigle coil' and almost everything will be canceled!... Ok...so, perhaps more OT... OoP involves flipping the phase, physically as above and #1, magnetically #2 and electrically #3...just as you say.And changing one then, in relation to another creates an OoP phenomenon.
Changing two flips it back in phase which allows for the Humbucking principle...OoP magnetically and electrically = back in phase but canceling out electrical interference that the magnets cant sense unlike the vibrations of the metal string...so the RFI is 'bucked... Yes, but an example where it has been 'flipped' three times...it is physically out of phase as in #1...so in that wy it is OoP and sounds as if it is...often referred to that way as well, though usually purely on sound without acknowledging the detail and what that implies (as in the "quack" will alter with the length of the string ratios as notes are fretted along the neck, etc)... ... As for the idea it is a good one...by filtering out the lower frequencies in one coil you are avoiding OoP effects and giving more body. You can do a similar thing with a split as well, letting the bass of both coils through and filtering the high end leaving a high end single coil shimmer with the HB midrange low end...a kind of partial split companion to your partial OoP Anyway...a bit jumbled and in need of condensing, but there is a 'physical' OoP regardless of the complexity of the strings vibrations or what may 'appear' in such a video
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Post by 4real on Dec 1, 2010 18:50:48 GMT -5
Oh...I forgot to mention something...
The strat's middle pickup is physically out of phase with the neck or bridge, but if you flip the phase to being "electrically" OoP as well...then you accentuate rather than cancel frequencies giving a big warm midrange sound in the out of phase postion...phase flipped twice physically+ellectrically=in phase...so a nice 'reverse quack' if you will!
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Post by ozboomer on Jan 5, 2011 18:04:18 GMT -5
The next development in the SimpleMod stream has recently been posted... I thought I'd be a smarty and just post it as a 'final' design, as I thought it was good-ho... but it turns out I had a design fault in it ... So, I've updated the posting and the designs (both the erroneous one and the correct(!?) one) are documented more accurately. So, SimpleMod-f is another fairly simple design, that basically adjusts how the Bridge pickup is combined with the other pickups. Hopefully, you might find something of use in it. Further developments are still to come (I'm pretty sure)... John
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Post by newey on Jan 5, 2011 19:09:18 GMT -5
Oz-
I think the "f" iteration has merit. I might be inclined to add in the bass/treble controls from simplemod "a" (I think that was the one). This, it seems to me anyway, could yield some interesting sounds with the way the bridge pickup is "dominant" in the "f" scheme.
Back, and slightly off topic with 4real, I would note that:
A better term is "harmonically out-of-phase". Flipping a magnet could also be considered a "physical" change; "harmonic" is a more descriptive term for what's going on here.
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Post by ozboomer on Jan 5, 2011 19:33:43 GMT -5
I think the "f" iteration has merit. I might be inclined to add in the bass/treble controls from simplemod "a" (I think that was the one). This, it seems to me anyway, could yield some interesting sounds with the way the bridge pickup is "dominant" in the "f" scheme. SimpleMod-f was basically exactly about dealing with the Bridge pickup and how it works in combinations... but SimpleMod-f, together with SimpleMod-e, also incorporated the idea of having a dedicated tone control on the Bridge pickup, and that's something that I've seen so often that I wanted to see what difference it made. So far, I don't know if having the dedicated tone control on the Bridge pup does too much and whether it's a "waste" of a pot in these schemes where there is a "master" tone control... *shrug*. This will be further explored with an upcoming SimpleMod design, where the P-90-style Bridge pup will have a phase swap switch, a special tone cap when out-of-phase and its own tone control; my hunch is that the frequency cancellations that occur when the out-of-phase Bridge pup (with its own frequency response controlled by its own tone control) is combined with the other pickups will be a bit more interesting than what I'm hearing now in both SimpleMod-e and SimpleMod-f. The G&L Tone Control will be coming back as well at some stage, together with using a blender pot for the series-connected pups... but that's down the track a ways yet... O'course, all these observations, etc are made with respect to my crazy tastes(!)... and I only ever play clean (or with very subtle distortion), so the ol' YMMV rider definitely applies...
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Post by ozboomer on Feb 19, 2011 6:13:42 GMT -5
Another quick question on tone, as I work away on the next incarnation of SimpleMod...
I remember reading somewhere that to get that "quack" sound of the "bridge+middle" pickup combination (a la Mark Knopfler, amongst others), there's some "preferred arrangement" of the pickup heights, particularly as regards the middle pickup; that is, the middle pickup should be closer to the strings than the bridge pickup is... or something like that..!?!?
Is anyone able to shed some light on what I might think I'm remembering!?
For info, SimpleMod-g is built and I'm just experimenting with phase caps and some recording, while I write-up the details for posting here...
Fanx! everyone.
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Post by newey on Feb 19, 2011 8:04:38 GMT -5
Oz- You'll find as many opinions about the elusive Strat "quack" as there are players. That's largely because no two people can really agree on what they hear as "quack". I don't know that I've heard raising the middle pickup, usually I hear folks say to lower the middle pickup for more "quack"- but you'll also hear people say to lower them all, or that the RWRP middle pup kills quack and you should go back to vintage Strat specs, etc., etc., on and on, ad infinitum. I say "Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar"! ;D ;D
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Post by ozboomer on Feb 19, 2011 8:23:35 GMT -5
You'll find as many opinions about the elusive Strat "quack" as there are players. Oh, it's one of those topics.. righto... as I rapidly try to close that freshly opened can of worms...(!) Ya, ya.. I know.. F-O-C-U-S... Ta muchly...
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Post by ozboomer on Mar 1, 2011 20:44:24 GMT -5
The next development in the 'SimpleMod' design stream has now been posted. SimpleMod-g is basically a 'fix-up' of SimpleMod-e, as the Dream 90 bridge pickup was inadvertantly installed 'backwards', so the sounds that included the Bridge pickup always had a (genuinely) "out-of-phase" sound. This mod rectifies that problem and puts the 'phase selection' of the Bridge pickup on a DPDT switch. It also includes a special "tone capacitor" in the signal path... but you can read more about it in the write-up I've posted. Edit: 9-Mar-2011 ... Have added another sound file to the write-up today. Further developments are still to come (only a couple to go now!)...
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Post by ozboomer on Mar 22, 2011 21:18:26 GMT -5
I'm currently working on another wiring scheme as part of the 'SimpleMod' stream and I'm wondering about your experiences... In earlier versions of SimpleMod, I tried using a "blender" pot, to adjust how much of an additional pickup is included in the overall output sound. To my ear, I didn't hear much difference in the sound as the pickup level went from "0" to "10" when the pickups were combined in parallel; either "fully off" or "fully on" worked Ok and using only a portion of the "additional pickup" sound didn't make much of a difference. However, the story was quite different when the pickups were combined in series. In this case, moving from "0" to "10" in the level of the additional pickup gave quite different sounds at each "level point". So, the effectiveness of the "blend pot" was greater when the pickups were combined in series, than when they were combined in parallel. The question I have is: have you tried using a blender pot to "wind in" an "out-of-phase" (OOP) pickup? Now, I know there will be a significant change in the sound when the OOP pickup is "fully off" or when it's "fully on"... but do you hear much of a change in sound as you wind the OOP pickup into/out of the sound? In effect, I'm looking to complete this table:- | In-Phase: PARALLEL | In-Phase: SERIES | Out-of-Phase: PARALLEL | Out-of-Phase: SERIES | Blender Pot is Useful? | No | Yes | | |
Many thanks for any thoughts.... as always
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Post by JohnH on Mar 23, 2011 14:16:28 GMT -5
oz - my impressions of blending, either with actual blenders or by tweaking two volume knobs, is that series blending works well and finds some interesting in-between sounds in and out of phase.
With parallel in-phase, I never found anything more interesting that either just each single pup, or a full 100:100 mix.
Parallel oop os a bit more usefully blended, since as with series oop, theres a distinct null point where theres minimum bass and its not at the fully-mixed position. But I can live without parallel oop at all, since series oop sounds better on my guitars.
John
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