Overdrives bonding with guitar and pick up selection

[BJF]

Hi,

Often you see the latest flare of things and it usually turns out to be best bonding in certain set ups.
Interesting would perhaps be to discuss what your favourite bondtype is and perhaps also why and this could be made quite technical.

BJ

Gentlemen please:

[PinkStrat]

Hi Bjorn,

Now that we've measured the pickup strengths in my new Les Paul (8.3K bridge & 7.83K neck) I'm finding that every pedal I have (of any brand) bonds VERY nicely with this guitar. Nothing has complained yet whatsover--it just all seems to melt together like butter on toast! Looking back in time I cannot see how people used those super distortion type pickups?:confused:

Best,
Dean

[JKoeth]

I've found that certain OD's are voiced better for Tele bridge pickups. My new RRB is voiced very well for my Hamel Bridge.

[PedalworX Guy]

Hey Bj and all,

A simple formula here that I have been liking a lot is to simply omit the input buffer on a pedal and all is good with the world.

Omitting the buffer makes for more interactive situation with pickups and pedals coming before it.

The technical reason for this is because it just does.
I won't go into the gorey details as to impedence matching and all.:rolleyes:

Surffice it to say skipping input buffers is the way to go especially if you want a more amp like response.

A good example of this would be the Gainster versus say a Tube Screamer.
The Gainster reacts to the touch of your fingers on the strings while the buffers of the TS smooths things over in a more electronic/less amp like way.

OK this is just about OD's here so please do not pound on me about compressors and the like.:eek:

OK I will get into the technical side a bit. Resistans.... yada yada Capacitance...Yada yada...voltage..Yada...bias...yada....:D

Regards,
George

[K-man]

I find that overdrives and fuzzes usually sound better with single coils.

Humbuckers seem to like distortions better.

Don't know why.

[BJF]

I find that overdrives and fuzzes usually sound better with single coils.

Humbuckers seem to like distortions better.

Don't know why.


Hi
Yes, that is funny and I would totally agree. Partly this is EQ and also distortion threshholds.

Woohoo
BJ

[Donner]

I've found that certain OD's are voiced better for Tele bridge pickups. My new RRB is voiced very well for my Hamel Bridge.


Yupper! I think the RRB is just perfectfor a Tele Bridge - it seems to havethe same EQ curve except forthe added upper mid push to it seems to just be adding a bit without removing any of the other good stuff (similar results with a P90 as well)

[gururyan]

I doubt George would toot his own horn, so I will do it for him. I have played so many OD's trying to find something that worked with not only my entire rig...but my Strat. It's so difficult to find an OD that works well with a Strat in my opinion. I am happy to say that I finally scored a PedalworX Texas Two Step II; I am also happy to say that I never have to look for an OD again.

It's an amazing pedal and does what others do not. It responds with great dynamics and and doesn't sound compressed or muffled. I am beyond pleased with this discovery.

[Bümbox]

Hey Bj and all,

A simple formula here that I have been liking a lot is to simply omit the input buffer on a pedal and all is good with the world.

Regards,
George
I very much agree. Depending on the buffer, there is a plastic quality transferred that goes through the entire pedal. I dig interaction over consistency from one guitar to another, so I like to leave out the input buffer.

I notice that for a majority of pedals I am able to get similar effects with the same guitar and amp. However, different amplifiers react very differently, so I pick pedals for amps rather than for the guitar. For instance, I use a heavily modded Daddy-o and Tonefactor Mule with my Guild Thunderbass, but with my Cielo I use my Clone and Büst. Then I have a bunch of old Silvertones that love Boss pedals.

[BJF]

Hi,

Yes the inputimpedance will have great affect on the pick ups

A few examples a Fuzz Face style pedal will have an input impedance in the range og a couple of Kilo Ohms and this loads an e.g, strat pick up so that a lowpassfilter is formed, something that makes this type of pedal much denser in the bass then in the treble.

The lowinput impedance will also load the taper of the volume control making a rapid control range.......

Anything lower as a load than 500K Ohm's will affect the resonance of the pickups notably in conjunction with the guitar electronics.
If load is as low as 10K Ohm's about all of the resonant peak of a standard guitar pick is flattend-- could be an asseet on the bridge pick up of a strat.....

With a strat for instance often a TS type pedal is prefered and clippinglevel is usually around 600mVs Peak while this is also the standard peak output of a strat pick up an the mean value being about 60mVs.

Separeted sounds where distortion rides ontop a clean note often result when
a humbucker pick up drives a standard TS.. peak output from a humbucker guitar can be in the range of 1 to 2V's.

One could talk about dynamic ranges here of course.

Have fun
BJ

[Greg_G]

Hi all - 1st post here.

My PRS Custom 22 Soapbar seems to love ALL BJF pedals.
I hear BJ's favorite pickup is the P-90.
Coincidence ?? I think not......:)