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Mid-boosts


Fraser Welsh

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When I come to putting the elecronics together for my new axe (shouldn't be long now), being a big fan of Dave Gilmour one of the things I'm interested in is a mid-range boost, so that I can at least TRY to emmulate his tones without spending a fortune on EMGs. I know I'll need battery power but don't know what else I'll need, or where exactly I can get them. I've seen two different models fitted to guitars: a pot controlled boost like on the Eric Clapton signature strat and some switch based models on some Aria strat copies. Can anybody give me any more information?

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Problem with active boost is this....................Unless you have noisless pickup like Lace Sensors, or Fender Vintage Noiselss etc, you'll end up boosting the noise your pickups make as well. Sounds strange I know, but thats why the Clapton Strats use the above mentioned pickups. There noise floor is low enough to not be affected by the boost. It all comes down to signal to noise ratio, and your average single coils just wont be upto the task.

Trust me Ive tried it.

If you still want to press on, give these a go :-

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/asb.html

Use the Guitar Cavity version. Ive made this and hade good results with Lace sensors.

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/

Here are more DIY effect type projects.

Good luck!!!!

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you can get pretty close to that sound you're looking for with passive single coils and a good rack space eq.that should boost the mid range as much as you could ever want.i am constantly amazed at how much a good eq can improve an amps sound.and mine only cost about $100 for 2 channels.

i am curious though,emg single coils are fairly inexpensive and woudn't an active boost cost just as much?by the way i'm sure you know but just in case;emg has a prewired david gilmour pickgaurd which is under $200 and would get you where you want to be.very high quality stuff too.i ordered the kh 2 and the wiring is top notch.plus the tone and volume pots that come with it are premium quality.if you shop around you might find it cheaper than that.

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I thought that EMG singlecoils were well over 100 quid each, maybe I've been miss-informed. Therre again maybe you've just got more money than me! I'll have to do a little more research, as for the mid boost, well I hadn't actually found any on my travels so have no idea about the cost.

Anyway,

Thanks for the help,

Fraser

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it's kind of strange,i just surfed around trying to find pricing info and nobody wants to say their prices.they want you to call.i think emg has asked everyone not to post prices.but anyway it might pay to call and shop around.i know that the list price is high but many guitar parts shops sell for way under list price.about 6 months ago i was shopping for pickups and i found many places selling the emg-s for around $50 to $60.honest.and every emg pickup you buy comes with it's own tone and volume pots and a stereo jack and wiring all included so i think it's a really great deal.and the truly exellent thing about them is a total lack of background noise.i understand that is still kind of expensive.i too have to save up to afford premium pickups.i guess that's why they call it a dream guitar.try guitarpartsonline.com.i got emg 81s from them for $75 once.and list price is almost double that :D

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I bought and fitted a passive mid boost/cut pot from Torres (I believe), which works very well indeed. using it with standard Kent armstrong/Fender Squire pickups. Can get the Gilmour sound via my Roland fx and a tweak for the middle..

:D

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The problem I would have with the Dave Gilmour EMG plate is that although my guitar is basically a strat it's a slightly odd shape (kinda like a strat trying to be a mustang) and I'm not sure if a standard scratch plate will fit. Still, I have no money at all at the moment so I've got plenty of time to make enquiries and experiment...

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well you are actually getting the pickgaurd for free as the pickups are a package deal so no loss really.i bought the kirk hammett package just cause it was cheaper and took all the electronics off of it to install in my sabre.nice pickgaurd though and i will probably use it on something eventually.

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  • 9 months later...

you can build an lpb1 with a mid notch/peak rc filter in it. and put a resistor on th einput of it, so when you engage, you get a slight boost , but not as much noise.

i got something like this around here somewhere

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try guitarpartsonline.com.i got emg 81s from them for $75 once.and list price is almost double that

Slightly off topic - sorry -

When I talked with an EMG sales person (from within EMG itself), he told me that EMG is trying to have GuitarPartsDepot handle all of their "inside sales". Last time I looked, they were the only online site that lists the EMG prices (at least with permission from EMG). I've also talked with the people at guitarpartsdepot and they seemed very nice. I forget her name but she offered to get anything I needed from EMG even if it wasn't listed on their site. The prices seem reasonable but the nice thing about them is that you can actually see the prices without having to wait for an email or call back.

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Hey Dave, thanks a lot for that information, most appreciated!

I was getting tired of buying my Afterburners and EXG's off of e-Bay whenever one rolled around.

This is nice! :D

hey man you can build an afterburner type circuit pretty easy. its a voltage gain of 10...

i got a basic type schematic if you want

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