Zeb_hendrix Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 I've been looking around on the internet at some different things I could add to my guitars bag of tricks and two things have popped out at me: The EMG After Burner and Black Ice. If anyone out there has used a guitar with either of these or Installed either could you tell me what you thought of each (mainly the sound but how well they work as well) and which you prefer? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sami Ghouri Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 connect two diodes to the tone pot and you have the black ice. look it up for exact wiring. it's just VEEEERY simple and easy. clip ur signal and you have this "subtle overdrive" sound. no need for spending the cash =D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripthorn Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 If you want to do the diodes, they need to be schotsky, from what I understand. more info on it can be found by searching for "strawberry ice" here in the forum. The one problem with the diode thing is that you have to have really hot pickups to drive the diodes, if I remember correctly. Also, the clipping characteristics of the diode will be different from the black ice, so the sound won't be exactly the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 You need to look up (search) threads on the black ice and strawberry ice...but you may well be very disappointed...depends what you expect from it...it does not do a lot or useful... It is a bit of a gimmick. The afterburner is +20dB active preamp, so you will need a battery in the guitar... With real EMG pickups with preamps that already have a battery in there...such an add on makes some sense...or to turn a passive guitar into an active low impedance with active boost...but the same or similar effect can be had with a preamp stomp box or active volume pedal... It depends a lot what kind of amplifier you are running into...if a valve amp, the extra power cam produce a nice breakup...with transistors amp, often a grainy bad distortion or head cutting highs...with a digital system or computer...possibly very nasty digital distortion where the A/D converters are overloaded... There are a number of preamps and onboard distortions and such around (artec, GFS) but some add noise and certainly, any noise in the guitar may well be amplified as well by such devices (another reason they work well with low noise active EMG pickups besides having already, on board power... just a few thoughts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeb_hendrix Posted October 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 You need to look up (search) threads on the black ice and strawberry ice...but you may well be very disappointed...depends what you expect from it...it does not do a lot or useful... It is a bit of a gimmick. The afterburner is +20dB active preamp, so you will need a battery in the guitar... With real EMG pickups with preamps that already have a battery in there...such an add on makes some sense...or to turn a passive guitar into an active low impedance with active boost...but the same or similar effect can be had with a preamp stomp box or active volume pedal... It depends a lot what kind of amplifier you are running into...if a valve amp, the extra power cam produce a nice breakup...with transistors amp, often a grainy bad distortion or head cutting highs...with a digital system or computer...possibly very nasty digital distortion where the A/D converters are overloaded... There are a number of preamps and onboard distortions and such around (artec, GFS) but some add noise and certainly, any noise in the guitar may well be amplified as well by such devices (another reason they work well with low noise active EMG pickups besides having already, on board power... just a few thoughts... If I dide use the After Burner I would use it in conjuction with Passive EMG H4 pickups (equivalent of 81) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 You would still need a battery and because they are passive would be little different from using any other passive pickups... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim37 Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 if you are running a tube amp then the afterburner is fine on a solid state amp the best you thing you will get is more volume i played around with the twin diode's a while back and it sounded ok but i didn't have hot enough pickupts to really get it to clip nice there are a lot of other onboard effects you can look in to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted October 2, 2008 Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 Passive EMG H4 pickups (equivalent of 81) They are not equivalent...only slightly similar in main tone...the h4 is much noisier... I would only use the boost with a true 81. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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