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Blending FX Setup: I used this setup with the band Repulsion
for Reptiles, to allow a variety sounds from punk
overdrive to highly effected. It works well at providing
effects in front of an amp with distortion and
no effects loop, or an amp using power stage distortion
(could be put in the effects loop in this case).
Obviously, adapt to your effects.
Notes:
0. The
Blender consists of a 100K potentiometer in a box -- with
a big knob and heavy base for foot control. It simply
blends between two sources.
1. The Arion distortion is notable for its dry output
jack. Its sound is thin and plastic, although smooth and
actually pretty much ideal for what I was doing. No
matter what distortion, you need to actively split the
signal, at least with passive blending, to avoid an
undesirable feedback loop (since the split would
otherwise come before the distortion). Another way is to
have an active box in the dry signal line (blender L
input). Most rack effects provide a dry output, but don't
work well in front of high gain.
2. The amp was run at different volume/gain levels in
accordance with the material.
3. The MidiFEX was modified to sum inputs, boost level,
and provide small foot buttons to change the setting. Mix
was usually run about 3/8 up.
What you can do
with it:
1. Blend between a dry sound (to the amp, anyway) and a
fully effected sound, smoothly.
3. Changes settings on the digital box (here, MidiFEX)
with reduced dropout. With amp distortion, the dropout
reduces distortion instead of volume, though with blend
set to dry during switch, no dropout at all.
3. The Arion distortion output is reverse phase. With
other effects off, certain blend levels plus additional
amp distortion produced a wicked grind, due to the
subtraction of clean signal from the distortion.
4. The addition of distortion on the effects side makes
the effects work much better into amp distortion, by
clipping the signal and bandlimiting it. Heavy playing is
mainly amp distortion, but the effects come in on the
sustain.
5. Alternative embodiment: The blender actually had two
pots in it, same inputs, different outputs. Replacing the
MidiFEX with a delay, it was possible to use the blender
to feedback the delay past 100%, causing endless repeat
and a noise to effect against. Due to the companding in
the delay I used, it didn't actually take off until I
made a noise on my guitar.
6. Update: using a booster as a driver, 2nd out on
blender to pass dry signal, ADA MP1+IPS33B rack in loop,
have to be careful about feedback/regeneration since no
fully active split. Cool sounds though. Amp distortion +
multiFX with controlled noise and hum.
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While I mostly use the
standard high output humbucker sound in the bridge
position, it's great to have other pickup sounds ...
particularly also in the bridge position. This leads to
the need for coil switching, sometimes called a
"phase switch" or "coil tap" --
although phase is a different subject, really, and more
can be done than tap coils. On my current guitar, which
has three pickups, only the bridge pickup, a DiMarzio
MultiBucker, is normally used, although I've wired the
neck pickup to a seperate output. The normal 5 position
pickup selector switch now controls the sounds of the
single pickup.
The options are:
+ high output humbucker -- this is the now standard
series wiring of the two coils of the pickup.
+ low output humbucker -- parallel coils, like a vintage
Les Paul type pickup. The high frequency cutoff and peak
are moved up an octave, with less output in the low
range. More clarity, but still the humbucker blur due to
mixing/cancellation of picking up the string at more than
one point.
+ bridge side single coil -- the brightest sound, due to
being closer to the bridge. With the DiMarzio
Multibucker, it's actually humbucking, and this
"coil" (actually two coils as one effective
humbucking coil, totaling two single-coil sized
humbuckers) is the brighter of the two sets.
+ neck side single coil -- a very interesting sound, more
full bodied due to slightly greater distance from the
bridge, but with that single coil clarity still.
+ "off", which due to the way it's wired and
some capacitors in the Multibucker produces a very trebly
output. (I originally provided this to use with a
seperate control for the neck pickup, which was a
"backwards" wired potentiometer -- as in the
Fender Jazz Bass wiring -- but didn't like the extra
loading.)
I don't use the extra options very often, but on certain
songs it's just doesn't feel right to use anything but
the sound they were written with. Even with what may seem
here to be some subtle differences, they're not
interchangable. This extends to different guitars -- a
song written with and for a Squier guitar modded to
parallel coil humbucking sounds fine on an Ibanez with a
DiMarzio in parallel coil.
As to the difference between the Multibucker coils, I
originally tried it with the brighter coil in the neck
side, but didn't like that, it seemed to clash with the
positioning. But this arrangement still works well with
matched coils, and the only real disadvantage of pickups
other than the Multibucker is that the single coil modes
have the single coil hum (plus, I do think the mismatched
coils help the regular humbucking modes).
The parallel coil humbucking gets you most of the way
there to these clearer, brighter sounds, but I actually
use it the least. On the other hand, if you have to
choose only one alternate mode and you're using a regular
humbucker, it's probably the best choice.
Other wiring modes are possible if you include ones where
the coils are out of phase with each other, but normally
these give a thin sound with a lot of hum. BTW, the
Multibucker came with a seemingly over-complicated wiring
diagram which completely disconnected the extra coil in
single coil modes, which I ignored -- but the strange
result in the "off" position gives a clue as to
why they suggested this wiring.
NOTE: this modification
assumes you know what you're doing and I assume no
responsibility. As to soldering, I'll limit what I say to
this: make sure it gets hot enough for the solder to flow
but not so hot that it oxidizes (with a nonregulated
iron, turn it off if it gets too hot for the same
reason).
NOTE2: this assumes the now-common type of uncovered coil
pickup with series coil winding. Removal of metal covers
-- especially the type potted with wax -- is beyond the
scope of this article ;-) .
Many newer pickups come with multi-wire outputs, but you
don't need to buy a new pickup to try alternate coil
configurations.
Carefully remove the tape around the outside of the
coils. You should see a connection between the two coils,
probably a white and red (or black) wire coming together
within a piece of shrink-tube or tape. Disconnect these
and connect each to wires to run back to the control
cavity. Preferably, use a two-wire plus shield cable
(Radio Shack still sells this I think, although it's
thick) and connect the shield to ground in the control
cavity. Keep track of which wire is for each coil (the
side, and if the coil has its other wire connected to
ground or the original output wire "hot"). The
original cable is still used. You could also combine
everything to a single new multi-wire cable (keep track
of the polarities), but that's more trouble overall -- on
the other hand, with the two cables, you may have to
modify some wood to run the new cable to the controls.
Anyway, with new wire in place, rewrap the tape around
the coils and install the pickup.
You'll need a switch and a wiring diagram to set up your
new pickup connections. The original connection, of
course, simply requires connecting the two new wires
together. While it's maybe not optimum, single coil modes
can allow the unused coil to still be attached on one
side, or even shorted across.
A simple toggle switch is fine for 2-3 modes, and I've
also used a multi-pole rotary switch and the 5 position,
two-pole pickup selector type switch. It is important
that the switch be reliable.
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