wagonzilla Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 hi, i came across a mod from stewmac called the "black ice". it replaces the cap on the guitars tone knob, clips with proper pu output, and doesn't require a battery. i guess it really just a low voltage diode. does anyone know like, what else other than a cap or a diode, i could throw in there? anything that wouldn't require a battery. like, if i put the right kind of oscilator in there, would it do anything? i mean, i never use the tone knob anyway, and don't want an onboard battery powered set up, but i would be willing solder in a cheap something-or-other, to get an interesting effect. thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagonzilla Posted January 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 oh, and a follow up question, where can i get the low voltage schottky diodes that i need for this project? i live in nyc and there's gotta be a place i can just walk up and buy them, right? if not, where can i find them online, and what would be the exact type, or item number, that is low enough voltage to clip from just my pickups output? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mammoth guitars Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Welcome. The black ice device has been covered many times, you can do a search for it and find out more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Welcome wagonzilla A quick search for on black ice or strawberry ice should provide more than enough discussion. It has come up a lot and generally people are not happy with it and you can make your own and variations as in fact the black ice is just two diodes in a block of epoxy and a large profit margin. pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagonzilla Posted January 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 so i guess my question is not really about the black ice, but rather, what can go there instead of caps or diodes, and change the sound with no extra power? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 Coil splitting and such... What people need to understand is that without power all you can do is cut and filter out tone...so in fact a tone control should actually be thought of an "anti-tone"! There are only three types of passive components really, resistors (so used to straight cut like a volume control pot), capacitors (that will allow some frequencies through...so that combined with the tone control resistor allows various amounts of high frequencies to be shorted to ground) and inductors (coils...the pickups themselves are inductors). Diodes do use power but could be looked at as one way resistors...power only flows through one way, some only after a certain point. So...after a certain point the diodes clip the signal creating a type of distortion...unfortunately, most pickups don't put out enough power to get them clipping...the result isn't the best anyway and is kind of a 'cheap trick' as much as anything. To boost volume or tone you need to add power through things like transistors...everything else can only cut and filter...adding diodes to a preamp transistor stage is a classic overdrive or fuzz box effect...but here you have added power enough to drive them. To get a more dramatic "different sound" without power you really need to play with the pickup coil arrangements. Series pickup wiring tends to add power but more power and midrange, parallel tends to lighten things up, coil splitting gives you a lower output but potential noise from an HB, phase can create a deep notch with the midrange removed...combining pickups can have a dramatic effect. Nothing comes for free...without power, only cut and filter...that's just the way it is. Wiring things are more dramatic and while normally done with simple switches, a rotary switch could be used to replace a tone pot, push pull switches and occassionally the pot itself in some schemes such as a variable split. This is not directed only to you of course, there are many threads about various things to do with tone controls, black ice and other things...more than enough to be repeated...but throughout all these threads there seems to be a misunderstanding about the tone control...it is an "anit-tone" control and even on ten it is still loading the pickups a little...no tone control may well add tone...lol pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keegan Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 The lowest voltage schottky diodes that I've ever found are the 1N5817-1N5819 series. They'll clip about the same time as the Black Ice, they might even be the same diodes, dunno. Try those and maybe a couple Germanium diodes: 1N34 and 1N60; germaniums are supposed to give a better sound(that's why they're used in pedals) and will clip more easily. LEDs might be interesting too if you could find low enough voltage ones. Mount them to the top so that they flicker when you strum >_> There's nothing you can do without power except for volume/frequency drops or diode tricks. If you do want to add power, you can conceivably add just about any pedal into your guitar though, if there's one you really use a lot and is first in your signal chain(like a distortion or boost). There's still the question of how useful that will really be in your guitar instead of at your feet. Perhaps the most useful circuit in place of a tone control would be a noise reduction pedal, especially on a strat =P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Perhaps the most useful circuit in place of a tone control would be a noise reduction pedal, especially on a strat =P That's and interesting idea...oddly enough I have not heard of anyone doing that, but it would draw very little power and contain a preamp as well and could be pretty simple...nice idea. People are pretty shy about preamps and so I am I, I guess...even my sustainer things although powered, lack preamps for when it is off like the commercial ones. However, a lot of these little preamps are very simple, can sound good, add a bit of warmth and stuff...possibly even active tone controls and really, the battery would last about 6 months I'd imagine and wouldn't be that much of a hassle. Of course, bass players use them all the time with active tone controls too...so go figure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keegan Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Perhaps the most useful circuit in place of a tone control would be a noise reduction pedal, especially on a strat =P That's and interesting idea...oddly enough I have not heard of anyone doing that, but it would draw very little power and contain a preamp as well and could be pretty simple...nice idea. People are pretty shy about preamps and so I am I, I guess...even my sustainer things although powered, lack preamps for when it is off like the commercial ones. However, a lot of these little preamps are very simple, can sound good, add a bit of warmth and stuff...possibly even active tone controls and really, the battery would last about 6 months I'd imagine and wouldn't be that much of a hassle. Of course, bass players use them all the time with active tone controls too...so go figure! If you're really worried about it sounding good, you can always build yourself a tube preamp in there, with a nice metal grille on the front to ventilate the tube =D As if a normal guitar didn't have enough of a shock hazard already. There's nothing wrong with solid-state though, as long as you have tubes somewhere in the chain to do their magic. Most of the magic happens in power tubes anyway. The coolest preamp I've seen is this one http://www.till.com/articles/PreampCable/index.html It's so small and simple that it can be built right into the plug of a cable. Something like that could easily go into a guitar, even before the controls. I haven't tried that one yet. I've been meaning to, to evaluate the noise level. It'd have to be quieter than preamping anywhere else in your chain, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marossy Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 In my opinion, straight & plain diode clipping never sounds good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 what about the Tubescreamer pedal? That uses diode clipping as well as a bit of overdriven IC op amp to produce a wonderful sweet tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Pumpkin Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 I just posted this in a different thread, but this site has some good passive controls that may appeal to you. I've used their varitone switches and love them: Click Here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dugg Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Here's a clever way to combine two different cap values and an SP3T switch to give you three different tone pot curves; http://www.guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/ind...amp;thread=3883 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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