hessodreamy

I was trying to check that the output jack works correctly. So I hooked it up directly to the pickup on my electric. It didn't work. But my new acoustic pickup turned up yesterday and everything works great now. Except I have an extra pre-amp I didn't need to buy! But thanks for your help, guys!

Thanks for the clarification. Now that I've ordered a new pickup I'm glad to hear it's not the output jack that's dodgy. I guess this also explains why I got no output why connecting the output of an electric guitar via this output jack?

Still looking into this and found something else. Like I said there are 3 pins from the preamp to the output jack. The output jack looks like a stereo jack in that it has a shield and 2 pins. I can't see what's going in inside the jack itself. The 3 connections are electrically separated, but when I insert the lead into the socket the ground becomes connected to one of the pins. Any idea if this is supposed to happen? I presume the output isn't supposed to be stereo, so this 3 pin configuration isn't one I'm familiar with. Thanks

Ah right - I get you. OK I tried running the pickup straight into a guitar amp. Didn't really get a signal, but didn't get the nasty buzz like before (more like the hum from holding thinly covered wires). Then I plugged the pickup into the on-board preamp and took the output straight from there to the guitar amp. I'm not sure I was doing this right because 3 of the 4 output pins are used - 1 ground and 2 to what looks like a stereo output jack. SO I tried connecting the ground and either of the 2 output pins. Still no signal, but a bit of hum. Still no further forward. Then, while manipulating the wires, I noticed that pulling the wire to the pickup makes the signal toggle from nasty buzz to low-level hum - all without any guitar signal. I reckon the pickup (or the pickup wiring , which is all closed in) is screwed. Sound about right?

I've got this Simon & Patrick acoustic guitar with a b-band new frontier pickup system. A few years ago it started making a terrible buzz. so it sounded 90% buzz and 10% signal. A local guitar tech got out his multimeter and concluded that the pre-amp was fried. I finally got around to replacing the pre-amp, but the same problem is still there. So I'm trying to figure out a diagnosis myself before I make any more unnecessary purchases like the pickup itself. Any suggestions as to how I go about this? The pickup is a thin electret film that sits under the saddle. This is wired to the preamp, which has connections to the output jack and the battery. Any suggestions?

Also, at this stage I'm not too worried about the hum cancelling. I'm more concerned with getting a series combination that has a decent character. So not, strictly speaking, a 'hum bucker'. I did manage to bastardise some cheap single coils and flip the magnet and the bobbin (I think - it was a while ago) to make an actual hum bucker. But for now it's tone I'm chasing.

I love the idea of splitting humbuckers, but the reality seems to be that the split sound never really seems to have any character. It's always like 'generic single coil'. So I thought I'd get some proper single coil pickups - which sound mint on their own - and push them together and wire them up like a humbucker. But which pickups to use? It seems that each coil of a bucker is usually of a lower output than a standard single, so perhaps I should get one hotter and one fairly cold? Perhaps it's an issue of choosing a 'main' coil which I like on it's own, and a 'top up' coil for a humbucker sound. I tried it once with some lace sensors (a red and a blue) but they don't really have very much character either way. As it's an experiment I'd prefer to use fairly inexpensive pickups, like gfs or tonerider or something. Another issue is where to put them. Should I put the 'main' single coil where it would normally be, and put the second coil next to it? or have the humbucker 'straddle' the normal single coil position? I hear mixed opinions over the importance of matching pickup position with vibration nodes etc. And, seeing as I'm using separate coils, there's nothing stopping me from having them an inch (or whatever) apart, if it would aid matching to vibration nodes. I could have 4 or 5 coils spread across the whole body of the guitar. I'll probably do this on my strat, but I might also be tempted to do it on the tele. Any thoughts? ps Oh yeah, I play a big variety of sounds (hence the crazed modding) but basically jangle-rock like the smiths, rem, smashing pumpkins...

I'm looking into replacing the tank and I've seen some on eBay. Are they pretty generic or do they need to be matched to the amp?

Figured it out. It's screwed. Can't seem to get enough of the wire free to re-solder. Unless anyone has any tips for this situation it looks like a dead duck.

I think I understand now. Never looked at these things before. Basically the resistance I measure across each of the connectors is the impedance of the in/out coils, right? When I said there was no resistance across the input, it was actually about 35 ohms. (must've set multimeter wrong) And where the output was showing infinite - further inspection shows the coil wire has snapped. So rather than a short, it's a break. Now let's see if I can get the bugger back on...

Yup, I removed the tank from the amp and checked the resistance across the 2 lugs on the input. Absolutely zero. Also i measured just before where it gets to the transducer. Zero there, too.

I've got this fender solid state amp but the reverb doesn't work. You turn the reverb level up and it just hums a bit, but no verb. Anyway, I opened things up. The cables from the main amp to the spring unit at the bottom of the chassis are ok. One thing I did notice when I checked inside the spring unit (a simple 3 spring unit, pic attached) is that there's no resistance between the inner and outer lugs of the input socket ie they're connected somehow. Is this right, or does it point to something being shorted?

Hokey Kokey. 1 more thing (as columbo would say): It Will work, won't it, to daisy chain 2 daisy chains? ie take a 5-way daisy chain and plug one of those connectors ( i don't think it matters which one) to the input of a second chain. oh and 1 MORE thing: Any suggestions on places to buy components, now that maplins has gone bad? Can't think of any shop. And it seems like such a waste to pay a fiver's postage on £1.50 of components.

Yeah, something like that, but it's a bit overboard! Unless you need to power AC pedals as well. I was just going to get a regulated, high current supply and wire everything to a central node, though i do like robert's idea of using polarity changers just before the pedal. Anyone know where I can get some in the UK? Maplin don't seem to do any. The supply Xanthus was talking about says How's that work? Is it possible to feed your circuits whatever frequency supply you want? Just curious.

I'm building a pedal board for my many pedals. At the moment I'm using a daisy chain to power them, which is a little bit awkward as some pedals have different polarities/connections, so things get a bit messy sometimes. For when I'm building my board, would it work to take the power connections from a central node, rather than the daisy chain arrangement? This would give me a bit more flexibility in the pedal arrangement and simpler wiring. Oh if only I could remember my lessons on kirchoff's laws...