Guitars: Please, lend me your card and a couple of coins to set up my guitar

Introduction

Note: this is an article long time ago published in my old Spanish version of this blog, that I am revisiting here because I believe it could be of help to lots of people.

If you are already used to set up your guitars to your needs, this article will have few interest for you but, if you never did it or if you don't feel comfortable doing it, I bet this article can be of your help.
Also, for experienced people, here there are some easy tricks to quickly check your set up status.

Many people buys a guitar, tunes it and starts playing it. If it becomes unconfortable, he/she ends setting it appart and buying a new one and, this happens several times.
I should confess that I was myself doing the same for years and years and years, never taking care of guitar' set up, basically because I've never understood what should I do and why.

You should know that factory set ups are very generic and, their goal is to be a good starting point for everyone but, not necessarely the best for someone in particular.
Anyway, for well known brands, factory set ups work the most of times and, you just need to fine tune them, if you are a bit picky.
But, dude, cheap guitars are always far away of a playable set up and, very specially, those axes currently build in China for a budget.

Be aware that set ups doesn't stand for long, even in the best guitar.
While some synthetic materials are structurally very estable, wood is a living being and, reacts to variations on its environment, as humidity, temperature, among other variables.

Usually, it's necessary to check your set up twice a year, commonly, in Summer and Winter, when temperatures radically change.
If your guitar remains in an estable environment, it is possible that your set up can last for longer periods but, some or other day, you will need to revisit your set up. That's for sure!.

Usually, wood used to build guitars needs long periods of drying, to make them structuraly estable but, even being carefull, they could eventually twist or bend with the time.

If you deal with a twisted or bend neck, forget it. Substitution is the only possible cure there but, there many other little things that we can do by ourselves to make that guitar usable for us.

By example, not barnished fretboards tend to dry and, they need to be nurtered, both, to enhance their look and to enhance the instrument feel. If you don´t care about your fingerboard, it will start to crack.
Appart of this, there are still some other little operations that can help us, as to lubricate the spots where strings touch the guitar, neck curve, strings height, pickups height, intonation, etc.

A nice starting point for your set up is to follow maker's recommendations and, from there, you can fine tune the settings to your particular taste and needs.

Even that a professional set up would need of good tools, I will present some easy-to-have-on-hand things that will help us to do a quick inspection and emergency adjustments. Between brackets, I am indicating the "tool" to check or measure each of the basic setup steps.
I hope you will like it.


Quick Inspection

For a quick inspection, we will need very few "tools" and, they are so common that you should be able to do it on any place.

Neck Curvature (credit card or similar plastic card)

Neck Curvature is a KEY set up step. Depending on your neck curvature, you could have issues like fret buzzing and, the need of raising the string height and bridge height to fight against such a buzz.
A correct curvature allows you to lower the strings and bridge heights while providing the right sound. This makes your playing faster, since you have less troubles by walking the fretboard so, take it seriously!.

Steps for a quick inspection

1. Put a capo on the first fret, to maintain strings pushed there.
2. With one finger, we press the sixth string in the very last fret of the fretboard.
3. Introduce a credit card between the fret and the string, around fret number 7 (9 for some guitars). Check your guitar with maker's instructions.
4. If the credit card slightly lifts the string, you probably have a good curvature there (recommended to read makers' specifications and check it with more accurate tools).
5. If there is so little clareance that the credit card clearly lifts the string , is very probable that you are having a very soft curvature, and you should have to increase it.
6. If there is no clearance (string lays over the fret), you probably have a negative curvature and, this is a clear source of fret buzzing and high strings and bridge heights!.
7. And, if the card isn't touching the string, that means that we have a high curvature there and, we should reduce it to enhance playability.

Why a neck should have some curvature?

If you look carefully to the way strings vibrate, you will see that strings vibrate wider on their center than on their extremes. To don't interrupt such a center vibration, we should leave the neck with an slight curvature (probably even not visible to the eye), to leave room to the string to freely vibrate.

If the neck is so straight, the string hasn't room enough to freely vibrate, which kills the sustain and introduces fret buzzes (hiting on frets).
If we relax neck' strength very much, there is a risk that strings hit the lower frets of the fretboard, which will obly us to raise the bridge, or saddles to increase strings highs.

So, a subtle curvature is a desirable setup in our guitar's neck!.

How can we modify neck's curvature?

Every guitar (even the cheapest ones) usually have a neck's thrussrod, which at the end is some kind of cable made with a twisted thread of steel wires, ended with a couple of nuts. Each nut is being anchored to one extreme of the neck and, one of those nuts can be screwed by us.
When we screw the nut, the steel thread twistes and, that stress is being transferred to the neck, obblying it to move their extremes down and pushing the center up.

Single thrussrods work just in one extreme of the neck (the closer to the peghead) so, the neck is bend from, more or less, its center to the peghead (that is the extreme that has the more visible movement).
Double thrussrods work in both extremes and, therefore, allow more accurate works.

So, to be able to increase or decrease the stress in the neck, we need to work on the thrussrod and, for this, every guitar has some place where we can reach the nut or screw that handles the thrussrod.

Usually, such a nut is found on the union of the neck with the peghead. In case of most Fender's guitars, that nut is easily visible and accessible, since there is no cover that hides it but, in most of other guitars, the thrussrod nut is being covered with an small plastic cover.

Usually, we rotate such a nut with the help of an Allen key, which usually comes with your guitar by default.
You could need to firstly remove the thrussrod cover to move that nut.

To which direction should we rotate thrussrod nut?

If you screwed and unscrewed a screw or nut a day, you will always know to where to move the nut.

Just stand the guitar with the peghead facing you (to see the thrussrod nut) and the body far away from you.
If you move the nut in clockwise, you are screwing so, increasing the stress, straightening the neck and, reducing the curvature. You are compensating strings stress.
If you move the nut counter clockwise, you are unscrewing, relaxing the stress, allowing the neck to create a curvature (because of the stress that strings produce in its extremes). String stress is higher than thrussrod stress.

How many turns should we rotate the nut?

Be carefull, thrussrod is a delicate piece and, as said, a key one!.
If you find high resistence there and, it doesn't disappers with some kind of 6x1 lubricant spray, don't force it. You better go to a luthier for an in-depth inspection.

If you can easily rotate that nut, just try between 1/8 and 1/4 of turn by session.

Very good woods react inmediatelly to changes but, most of woods take between 24 to 48 hours to settle so, leave the guitar to rest and, after a couple of days, tune it and re-check curvature.

Do further adjustments, depending on the results of your previous session.

Once the curvature of the guitar is the right one, we can follow with rest of setup.


Strings Height or action (a 5 cts of Euro coin)

You will measure the clareance between the fret 12th and every string.
Put that 5 cts coin over the fret wire and below the string.
For guitars with independently adjustable saddles (as Fender) you should check EVERY string.
For guitars with one-piece bridge (as Gibson) you can check just the first and sixth strings.

If the coin lifts the string, we potentially have a very low height. If you don't have fret buzzes and, you don't feel its sustain as affected and, if you feel that height as comfortable. No issues.
If guitar' sustain is being affected or you have fret buzzing or the height is uncofortablely low for you, you should raise the height of strings.

If there is some gap, between the coin and the string, you potentially have a high strings height and, you should considere to lower your strings a bit.

Which is the recommendable strings height?

The height of your strings should facilitate to you to push them down, in a way that to walk the fretboard can be confortable but, always just the minimum height that is free of fret buzzing and, that allows the free vibration of strings, to preserve guitar' sustain.

Additionally to this, the height of each individual string is in direct relation with the curvature of your fretboard (radius). In bridges, with adjustable saddles (like Fender's ones), each string should be evaluated separately.
Maintaining same height string by string, respect to the radius of the fretboard, we will achieve the best action for our pickup.

There is a big exception in all this. Those guitars that are being prepared to work just with Slide, will need high heights to facilitate the sliding of the tube, without hiting any fret.


How do I correct strings height?

Well, this will depend on the type of bridge of your guitar.

Usually, you will deal with a monoblock (single piece) bridge, like Gibson's ones or, a traditional floating bridge (as Fender's ones) or, a modern floating bridge (as Floyd Rose, Kahller, etc.).

The quicker bridges to work are Gibson-alike.
You need to screw or unscrew the screw on each side of the bridge to raise or lower it.
Just lower or raise each extreme until the string slightly touches the coin.

Bridges Fender-alike have independent saddles that you have to adjust.
You should check a single string each time and, use the two (in a balanced way) small screws on the extremes of each saddle to raise or lower the saddle, until the string slightly touches the coin.

For moderner bridges, like the Floyd Rose things are a bit more complex, because their saddles aren't adjustable in height with screws. To raise a saddle, you need to insert some kind of steel micro-plates that are sold in a single gauge (I don't remember which one but, they are really slim).
So, you could eventually need to insert more than one of those slim plates under each saddle to get the right height.
But, those kind of bridges are so accurate that the whole system (locking nut, bridge...) is very well set up from factory. So, at the end, guitars with such a kind of bridges are the ones with less string height issues.


Intonation (tuner)

Intonation consists into oerform the necessary steps to achieve that your guitar can give the exact same note with the string open and on fret number 12 (one octave higher).
Intonation is fully related to scale length.

Intonation is checked string by string and corrected string by string.
Any previous modification to setup (neck curvature, string height) will directly affect the intonation so, you should check intonation after having solved previous issues.

Intonation should be checked every time you mount a new set of strings, if they aren't exactly of the same brand/model/gauges that you used to intonate the guitar. You should wait for a couple of days, until the strings maintain their tuning.

The process is very simple (but boring as a hell):

1. You should tune all strings the best possible. It's very important to use the tuner with higher precision we can have and, specially some stroboscopic one, with a precision of a cent or a lower value.
2. You play the string open and, you re-tune it if necessary. Tuning should be accurate.
3. Then you play same string on fret number 12 and you check tuning.
4. If it sound flat or sharp, you will need to move horizontally the saddle to correct the defect.
5. After each saddle adjust, you need to repeat steps 2 to 4 until you get perfectly tuned notes open and on fret 12.

Monoblock bridges, even not having independent vertical adjustment for saddles, have a way to move horizontally the saddles to adjust the intonation. The six screws on the front or rear (depending on how it was mounted) are the ones that you need to toutch for intonation.

Fender alike bridges have also a screw to move horizontally the saddle. In Telecasters, the adjustments are shared by two contiguous strings, unfortunatelly so, you should reach a compromise solution.

Bridges type Floyd Rose, have also long screws on rear side, just to control de horizontal adjustment of their saddles (please, don't confuse them with the micro-tuners, that are over the saddles).


Which are the issues related to a bad intonation?

Usually, the issue is easily heard, if the difference between the tuning of the string open and the tuning of the same string on the 12th fret is important. While we play over the 12th fret, will be sound more or less well but, when we started to play below that fret, we can feel that the note isn't "exact" and, we will probably try to compensate it by doing small "bendings" to tune the note, while playing.

Also, depending on the individual descompensation of each string, chords, triads and diads below the 12th fret will start to sound disonants and, very specially when using high gain or distortion.


Pickups height (50 cts, 10 cts y 2 x 5 cts coins)

Well, from all setup steps mentioned in this article, probably the pickup height is one of the most subjective and personal but, there are some physical facts that we cannot overlook.

If pickups are very close to strings, as soon as we play the lower frets of the fingerboard, the strings will hit the pickup, killing the sound.
Also, if the magnets of the pickup are strong enough and, the pickup is close to the string enough, magnets can excesivelly attract the string, slowing its vibrational movement and, therefore, killing the sustain of the sound.

The closer the pickup to the string is, the stronger the output but, reached some spot, the strength of the magnetic field distorts the note and, an excesive output can also make to sound bad your pedals and your amp.

The farest the pickup to the string is, the cleaner and tuned the sound is but, the signal weaks.
Excesivelly away, the pickup can sound plain in attack and brightness and show a very smooth character.

For all this things, to find the sweet spot for each pickup in each guitar is a matter of patience and interest.
It's incredible how much can the sound of a guitar vary depending on the respective height of its pickups.
And, together with everything mentioned above, we have to take into account that we have to balance the output of the complete set of pickups to don't suffer of excesive volume bumps or drops when switching from one to the other.

Even with all those considerations in mind, there is a quick procedure for checking and adjusting pickups that will give overall good results and, that we will fine tune later.

We will use two "modes", "open" and "regular".

For "open mode" we will set the pickup to a high were the clarity and note by note definition is excellent, as well as the sustain but, the output can be of low intensity (something that you can enhance with a clean booster or a good buffer or, just with the gain knob of your amp).

For "regular mode" we will set up the pickups to a high were the notes will be less defined but, with greater attack and strength.

We will use the following set of (euro) coins to establish the different heights we will need for those modes.

2 x 5 cts. coins
1 x 50 cts. coin
1 x 10 cts. coin
1 x 5 cts. coin

We will need just an screwdriver to move up and down the pickups and, those coins to "meassure" the height.

The height is being measured by pressing the string (sixth or first) on the last fret, while we measure the gap between the upper face of the magnet or screw and the bottom of the string itself.

In the case of having three pickups, the middle one should have same height than the neck one or, an intermediate height between neck and bridge pickups.

To correct the height, we will use a screwdriver in the lateral screws that come with each pickup (warning: a Telecaster bridge pickup uses 3 adjusting screws, as well as other pickups and, some humbuckers use up to 4 screws).

The trick is to insert the coin between the magnets and the string and then raise the pickup until the coin keeps retained between the pickup and the string. Then, start lowering the pickup step by step until the coin falls to floor or slides over the pickup.

Regular mode

Humbuckers are usually setup having same height in both sides (first and sixth strings).

Neck humbucker will need a 50 cts coin in both sides.
Bridge humbucker will need a 5 cts coin in both sides.

Single coils are usually setup having less height in their low string (sixth) than in the treble string (first).
Neck single will need two 5 cts coin in sixth and a 50 cts coin in first.
Middle can have 50 cts in sixth and 10 cts in first
Bridge, 10 cts in sixth, 5 cts in first.

Open mode

Neck humbucker, 2 x 5 cts coins on both sides.
Bridge humbucker 1 x 10 cts coin on both sides.

Single Neck, 3 x 5 cts coin in sixth, 1 x 50 + 1 x 5 cts coins in first.
Single Middle, 2 x 5 cts coins in sixth, 1 x 50 cts coin in first.
Single Bridge, 1 x 50 cts in sixth, 1 x 10 cts in first.

Other way

Instead of use those coins to measure the gap between pickup and string, we can use several 5 cts coins to set up the initial height, respect to the pickguard or body and then to fine tune the height with 1/4 of turn of their screws.

For singles, you put a coin over the pickguard or body, on the side of the sixth string and, you lower the pickup until the pickup cover reaches same height than the coin.
Then, put a pair of 5 cts coins on the side of the first string and lower the pickup until it reaches same height as those two coins.

For middle pickup, use two coins on sixth and three on first.
For bridge pickup, use three coins on sixth and four on first.

For humbuckers, use same trick but measure from over the ring of the pickguard.

If you want to start with an opener setup, just add a coin by side to the list above.

My way

I usually prefer first way for humbuckers and that last one for singles.
In any case, I focus first on Neck pickup.

I know most of people focus first in bridge pickup but, I find myself that the pickup that brings the best tones from your axe is the neck pickup, probably because is the closer to the center of vibration of the string and, gets a very rich harmonical content.

I love neck pickups sounding bodied but crystalline clear and, with a very vocal voice under the 12th fret. I specially check the sound of the neck pickup there and, I just leave the height fixed when I like how it sounds in that area.

Following steps will be to balance the output of the middle and the bridge pickup but, for me, the key pickup is the neck one.

But, take into account that most of people goes the oposite way, that is, controlling first the sound of the bridge and then, balancing the output of the neck and middle pickup (what in my opinion gives you good bridge lead tones but often ruins the nice clean and overdriven neck tones!).

In a next article, I will give you the most common measures used in guitar' setup and, their correspondence with our "measuring tools" (coins, cards, etc), together with some other little trics for cheap but handy tools.


Care and clenaning

Even that these operations aren't directly related to the setup itself, have importance for the "health" of your instrument and, for your pleasure playing the guitar.


Cleaning and nurturing the fingerboard

In every musical intruments store you should be able to buy any proper product to clean the fretboard.
Usually, it will be some kind of spray, which liquid will be never aggressive with the wood and that will volatilize quickly, what will let you to easily remove the dirt with a cloth.

In my opinion, is a good oportunity to make a nice cleaning and nurturing of the fretboard, every time that we need to swap our strings.

Before using the cleaning liquid, is a good idea to softly scratch the borders of the frets with the help of a plastic card, because lot of dirt is being cummulated there.

Once the fretboard is clean, we should nurture it, if the wood isn't coated with some barnish.

Rosewood or Ebony fretboards (and practically any other kind of wood, except for mapple), are usually uncoated and, they tend to dry, cracking and leaving open their pores, what (appart of the sthetycal impact) grants the cummulation of dirt and, the risk of a definitive malfunction of the fretboard, that can end totally cracked.
Those kind of fretboards go immediatelly healty with a bit of luthery special oil or, with the those products used to care woods.
Any instruments store will have such an oil.

The oil should be applied in a slim layer (to moist, not to flood!).
You wait for a few minutes and, with the help of a soft cloth, you remove the excess of oil that the wood wasn't able to absorb.

Together with enhancing the look of the fretboard, this subtile layer of oil will help you to make your fretboard walking quicker and comfortabler.

If you don't have an specialized oil for luthery, you can use any of those commercial products specially designed to care about your furniture (Politus, Pronto, etc.), as an emergency resource.


Cleaning the rest of the guitar

Instrument stores will have also proper products to clean the rest of parts of the guitar.
In an emergency situation, you can use those speciallized products for furniture's care but, be very carefull with axes that were covered with nitrocellulose paint, because those need very specialized products.

Nitro paint is really delicate and, entering in contact with certain chemical agents can ruin or "wash" it. Please, verify the kind of finish applied to your axe and, ask the maker in case of doubt.


Lubricating the pieces

Even the best mechanized pieces, with the best finish can end breaking your strings, just because of friction.
I have the habit of lubricate EVERY spot where the string enters in touch with other piece, with some kind of lubricant.

Most people uses graphite grease and, I am lately using liquid teflon but, in an emergency case, you can use some of those lips care sticks that you can buy in any pharmacy store.
You could even use the  pencil lead (which, at the end, is graphite) to lubricate those areas.

If in your guitar same string is the one that breaks, and always by the same spot, it's clear that you have an issue in that spot. Lubricate the area around where the string enters in contact with other piece (a saddle, the nut, the tuning key, or whatever else).

If the string breaks close the the tuners posts then, the hole of the post can have be so sharp that breaks the string.
If the string breaks on the strings tree, the issue is the friction of the string against it.
If the string breaks on the nut, the issue is in its slots.
If the string breaks on the bridge, issue is in saddles.
If the string breaks on its ending ball, the issue is in the piece that retains the string.

And, if the string breaks on the middle then, the useful life of that string is over and, it's a good time to swap the whole set.

So, you can apply a drop of lubricant on each of those contact spots and, this will make the life of your strings clearly longer. Try it.
You will loose also the fear for extreme bendings, because now it will be really difficult to break the string with one.

Guitars with a Floyd Rose have just two spots of contact, the saddles and the locking nut and, therefore this operation isn't usually necessary.

The kind of guitars with more issues are those with vintage floating bridges (like the Strato). In those guitars, there are a bunch of contact spots (including the block of the floating bridge, where strings are being inserted).

Guitars with fixed bridges, like LPs, have less contact spots (stop tail, bridge, nut and key posts) but, you should take care of those few, also.

In those guitars where strings tresspass the body, you should care also about the holes where the ending balls of the strings are being retained (bottom side of the body) and, the output holes (upper side of the body), as well.


Conclusion

A Luthier makes things way more importants and of a deeper impact than everything that was mentioned here but, it could you demand between 60 and 100 Euros for a basic setup as the one explained here.
And, after his work, maybe which he/her considers a nice setup could be not the best for your particular taste.

At the end, it's your axe. You should care about the setup to make that guitar to be played as a dream.
You see, a few coins, a plastic card, a screwdriver and an allen key is everything you need to set up your guitar.

From all the operations described above, clearly, the thrussrod adjustment is the one you should take the best care to don't force it. Repairing a broken thrussrod isn't cheap and, your guitar will remain out-of-order until the thrussrod can be replaced.
Be patient, give maximum 1/4 of turn by session and, wait 2 days to leave the neck to estabilize.
If the nut seems locked and, some special lubricant oil doesn't unlocks it, stop. Go to a luthier.

A guitar is a balanced system. Any change in its pieces affects that balance.
If in your guitar A works better a set of strings D'Addario of 0.10" and, if in guitar B, a set Ernie Ball 0.09" and, in C a set of Pyramid 0.11", every time that you swap strings use exactly the same maker/model of strings, to keep your instrument balance. Otherwise, a new setup will be necessary.

Even respecting this game of substituting the old strings with a new set of same maker/model, the guitar is a living being and its balance is being altered also due to environmental changes.
It's very usuall to have to check and adjust the guitar setup twice in a year, around winter and summer, where the temperature changes are more dramatic.

Now, you know the goals of each operation, easy tools and, with just a little of interest and patience, your guitar will seem to you better than ever. Maybe you will end loving that axe that was so painful to play before.


Videos

Sometimes is easier to understand what you see than what you read so, here you are three videos with some explanations about this basic setup.

First video introduces our "measuring tools" and "adjustment tools", also explaining how to check and adjust neck's curvature. It also discusses about the different types of thrussrods.





Second video talks about the check and adjustment of string and pickups heights.





And, in the third video, wi discuss about the intonation issue and, several care and maintenance recommendations.

DIY - Wiring for 3 single pickups in series / parallel V2 (Complete combinations)

Introduction

After introducing my previous DIY entry, related to a way to get most of the possible combos arranging three single pickups with just three "common" 4PDT on/on/on switches (please, see http://hermeticoguitar.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/wiring-diy-3-single-coils-in.html), I was challenged by a customer to find a solution for every possible combination.

I knew how this would end, since this is a "problem" that was always in background in my "designer" mind.
This is a clear example on how a solution that can be designed in theoretical world cannot be implemented in real world, because of the constrains of existing technology and the limited room that guitar electronics cavity have.

But, let's introduce the diagram first and then, we will comment everything related to it and, real feasibility of this project.

You will learn also how to approach a complex design, with the help of a decision table.


The Diagram

Please, click on the diagram to see it full sized.

At left hand, you can see a table. Columns correspond to the status of the three switches and the resulting combo of pickups.

To avoid conflicts when just two pickups are active and one is in parallel and the other in series mode, we always resolve this conflict by putting them both in parallel.

When two pickups are in parallel and the other in series, we link the output of the two parallel pickups to the input of the series pickup, to have combos as (N + M) & B, (N + B) & M  or (M + B) & B.

If you think on the switching possibilities you have, for neck switch 3 posibilities for each pickup wire.
Taking into account every pickup wire except bridge's negative wire, we have the following combinations:
3 * 5 = 15 combinations, in a first decission level.

Now, for each of those combinations (related to the neck switch), we can have 3 more possibilites on the middle switch. That would give us 15 * 3 = 45 new combinations, in a second decission level.

Each of those 45 combinations will branch in three new more possibilities on the bridge' switch, which would represent 45 * 3 = 135 different combinations in total.

So, imagine all this like a decission three were, for each pickup wire, we can take three decisions in a first level and, every of those first level decisions will need three more decisions at a second level and, for each of those decisions, we will still need to take three more decisions at the third and last level.
So 5 wires * 3 (first level) * 3 (second level) * 3 (third level) = 135 combinations (note: bridge's negative is always ground so, it doesn't count as a wire for decision).

For each decision we would need two poles of same switch so, this would give us the following needs:
First switch: 5 wires * 2 poles-a-wire = 10 poles, 3 throws.
Second Switch: 2 poles for each throw of the first switch: 30 x 2 = 60 poles
Third Switch 2 poles for each throw of the second switch 60 x 2 = 120 poles.

This is just crazy. Don't?.
That's why for each complex design, a decision table is the best tool you can use and, the decision table comes always BEFORE starting your wiring design.


The Decision Table

There are some wiring projects were options are so clear and standard that I don't use a decision table but, when things start to go weird, I always prepare a Decision Table BEFORE starting diagramming.
The aim of such a table is to put together repeatitive combinations so we can reduce the switching possibilities, combining together some cases.

This is the decision table I've built for this particular case (please, click it for full size):

The three first columns correspond to each of the three switches (neck, middle and bridge) and, the combination of the three possible status of each switch respect to the other two.
For each of those combinations (3 * 3 *3 = 27), the 4th column has the guidance for the wanted combo, meaning:

N = neck pickup
M = middle pickup
B = bridge pickup
& = in series with
+ = in parallel with

Then, next columns corresponds to each one of the pickup wires and, to where they would be switched on, for each combination.
You can see four possible "destinations" for a certain wire:

HOT = the signal output that will be eventually regulated with a volume pot and filtered with a tone pot.
GROUND = ground
X = this is a temporary link, where two different wires are being linked together
Y= as X, but not same link

In this table, under the columns corresponding to each wire, you can see that, for each wire, I've grouped together (in a different color) combinations of three status (which corresponds to the three status that the bridge switch can take for each combination of neck and middle switches).
I've painted in same color same combinations (please, notice that bridge's negative wire is always ground).

This different combinations are being reproduced on right hand and, I've assigned a character to each one.
That means that, whatever are the combinations in switches neck and middle, they will always land into up to 8 different combinations, that can be represented by using the bridge' switch.

But, combinations that have the 3 decisions equal (as HOT/HOT/HOT, GROUND/GROUND/GROUND. X/X/X or YYY) are just a lug, a wire that links same lugs.
Rest of combinations (with at least one different decision) need a couple of poles to represent the three options.

If you look again to the diagram, you will see on the lower switch (bridge' switch) those combined decisions that you can easily identfy with the typo in the wire that gets the first of the two poles (E, F, H, D, G).
Notice, as a difference, how the X/X/X option was implemented (follow that purple wire that links two lugs in the middle switch) or, HOT/HOT/HOT (just follow the red wire) or GROUND/GROUND/GROUND (just follow the dark blue wire) or, Y/Y/Y (just follow the pink wire in bridge switch).

Notice here that I would be able to simplify just a bit more this design by linking the neck positive always to hot and then, removing the pickup by putting the neck negative also in the hot path but, this can lead to unwanted antenna-effects and, this would save just two poles in neck' switch, which means nothing, compared to the whole thing.


Theory crashes against Reality

Notice that the diagram is showing "theoretical" existing 3-way on/on/on toggle switches.
I don't know any toggle switch that handles more than 4 poles at once and, if it exists, its size should be big enough to compromise the available room of any guitar's electronics cavity.

This is just a demostration that I can figure out very complex wiring designs, as complex as the requests of my customers but, also a demonstration that not everything that you can design in a theoretical world can be implemented in real world.

Which are the contrains related to this project?.

In first place, this switching system should be maped to real existing components.
As I said, I don't know (it doesn't mean that they don't exist) toggle switches that handle more than 4 poles in three ways and, if they exist, I don't want to even imagine the size of a 20 poles toggle switch.

One alternative is to use rotary switches but, a 10 poles, 3 positions rotary (10P3T) is ususally implemente with three waffers and, will not suit no guitar's cavity, for sure.
Imagine now that a 20 poles, 3 positions rotary (20P3T) will need 6 waffers!!!.

Ok, another alternative is to use an slide switch. I've found some 10P3T micro-switch of that kind but, no 20P3T was found on a global Internet search.
Those 10P3T I've found were appropiate to be mount in a PCB (Printed CardBoard) but, for manual soldering they would be a real mess.
I could even imagine three of those along the pickguard but, I have my concerns about if they would leave some room for a couple of pot and, I am barely possitive that some wood routing would be necessary.

Conclusion is that even that practically everything is possible in a theoretical world, we will be always limited by current technology, available components and room in our guitar's cavity. All them are our contrains, when projecting a wiring design.


Final Comment

When a customer orders me a new design project, I am always weighting utitly of combos, feasibility and real options.

I have the impression that some want to challenge me just for fun (and, it's really funny, indeed!).
As you can see in this weird example, I can handle barelly every complex switching project but, certain project have no way to be feasible in real world so, please, consider that when I am saying "this makes no sense, or is not possible", I am weighting everything together.

After seeing how hard can go to achieve the complete combinations of three pickups, I am quite sure you will appreciate the high versatility of my previous DIY post, achieved with just three "common" 4PDT on/on/on switches.

We can achieve anything but, some times, it simply makes no sense.

I hope that you, at least, understood how to handle complex requirements with a decision table (this is a very secret ingredient... well, it was... ha ha ha).

Ah!, don't doubt it!. If there were toggle switches as the ones represented in this diagram, this project should work. I've tested every single combination !!!.

Home Studio: Testing new IK Multimedia mixing and mastering plugins

Introduction

Even that I own the Sonnox plugins and those are absolutelly top-notch, I am finding those more appropiated for Mastering tasks than for Mixing tasks.
I was greatefully surprised with the quality of T.Racks plugins by IK Multimedia and, I am usually working with the Classic Compressor, the Pulteq, Fairchild 670, 1179 and LA-2A emulations with satisfactory results.

I've saw some time ago that they were delivering new stuff but, I wasn't able to buy those until now.
I've upgraded my T.Racks singles to T.Racks Grand bundle and, purchased the remaining plugins.

I've selected one of my well known sounds and, started to mix from scratch, removing all previous plugins from the project and setting everything to its initial status, to check the goodness of some of the new plugins of IK Multimedia which I was more interested on.

I wanted to check, in first instance, the British Channel, the Bus Compressor and the White Channel and, this is all about this blog. I've tried those in my song and had some conclussions.

Once more, I cannot compare the real outboard gear against the software and, this is a point that really doesn't interest to me, since I will be never able to purchase such a kind of hardware. Therefore, my interest focus on whether those new plugins can do any good for my material and, indeed, they do it and, as with rest of their plugins, in a very musical way.


Testing British Channel, White Channel and Bus Compressor

Overall, first thing I want to take your attention to is the high sensitivity of their controls. Each little change has a clear impact in the sound. I would say that the impact by movement of dial is even greater than in their previous top-notch plugins (Fairchild, Pulteq EQP-1A, 1179 and LA-2A).

As always, which plugin (or hardware) to use will always depends on your tastes and on the song itself. To be able to check between several options is always welcome to better sculpt the song to match what you had in mind. And, those three plugins are opening the possibilities in a good way.

I went first with the EQ / volume tasks for each track, to have a mix where each instrument was clearly identificable, even in mono environment. For this, I had to use some compressors to leveling the volume between tracks and some corrective EQ to help to differentiate each instrument.

What I did first is to work on the EQ of each instrument and, for this, I've used the standard 7-bands EQ that comes with Pro Tools, basically to remove high and low end frequencies from each instrument, depending on their own nature.

After that basic EQ correction was more or less ready, I went to each track to help to leveling all volumes and, for this I was trying several compressors, over each track, choosing the one that better worked for this particular song.

I've selected the British Channel for Kick, Guitar and Vocals.
This was the plugin that gave me a better result in those individual tracks.
I had to remove the EQ settings that were focusing over certain frequencies (by example, dip around 125 Hz, where the Snare has it's fundamental sound or any increase over presence frequencies) to be able to get the best results from that plugin.
That leaved the EQ plugin just with two active filters, the one that removes hi-end and the one that removes low-end, leaving an usable range of frequencies for each instrument.

Reason is that, the EQ controls of the British Channel are so smooth and musical that, I've find them more than enough to select which frequency to enhance for each instrument to help them to differentiate in the mix.
Very soft touchs on the dial produce audible changes in the material what helps you to fine tuning the sound.
The EQ section of this plugin is really responsive and musical.
As always, IK Multimedia provides some usefull pre-sets that will help you as an starting point to get your work ready in less time.

The White Channel (the modern version of that British Channel) was used just for the Snare. I didn't exhaustively tried each plug-in so, maybe because of this, the only track where I've found it doing a better job than other plugins was the Snare track.

Same overall comments as for that British Channel are valid for this White Channel.
Results are very musical but, the sound is being colored in a very different way, maybe more accurate and cold, compared to the British Channel, that delivers warmer results, in my opinion.
But, anyway, that was the sound that perfectly matched my needs for the Snare and, I've preferred the White Channel to their White 2A (LA-2A) plugin.

I am thinking that, maybe I need to go deeper to work with this plugin in the vocals track.

But, for Hi Hat, Toms and Overheads, I went to their White 2A plug-in, which I liked more there.
For Bass track, I went for their Black 79 plug-in, which I liked more.

Then, I've used the new Bus Compressor to glue tracks and, it was of great help to glue together the independent instruments of the Drum kit in the Drums bus and, I've found it very good to glue the whole mix in the Mix bus, before sending the results to the Master Fader (for overall Compression and Limiting).

While I don't like that Bus Compressor in individual tracks, I recognize it's a nice tool to put together several tracks sent to a certain bus.
As with the other new plugins, their controls are highly responsive and any little touch makes a clear difference in sound and, as usual in IK Multimedia, there are some very useful presets that you can use as a helpful starting point.

Conclussions

I didn't tested every single possibility of these new plugins so, I bet I can find a broader use for each one but, what I liked is that they all produce their own sound and, that each one, together with the rest of T.Racks plugins, can bring you the right tool for the right work.

I highly appreciate the pre-sets that each plugin comes with, since this gives you an overall idea what each one is usually used for and, this gives you a nice starting point that, for sure, you have to fine tune for your track, bus or song.

Not being able to compare hardware with software, my interest focus on if those plugins worth the money.
My opinion is that those three are very useful weapons and, of same quality as their Pulteq, Fairchild, LA-2A and 1179 emulations and, all them together deliver very musical and usefull results that help to bring some life to your mixes.

If we compare the prices of T.Racks plug-ins against the big companies (Waves, URS, Avid, etc...), we are getting top-notch plug-ins (second to none) for an "affordable" price, delivering musical results and, helping to anyone who wanted to mix ITB (In The Box).

I'm lacking the quality user's manuals that came with their first takes of mythical studio outgear (like the Pulteq or the Fairchild), that were of great help to understand how to handle each virtual hardware.
Other than this, I can just to thanks IK Multimedia for their work to leave us to come closer to real studio gear for an "affordable" (compared to real gear and other plug-ins) price.

Wiring DIY: 3 single coils in series/parallel in any combination, with 3 switches

Introduction

I am going to gift you with a real pearl of wiring designs.
For a very long time, I've tried to be able to run the three pickups of a Stratocaster in parallel or series, on demand and, the design always hited the same stone: when some of two pickups that should be in series is inactive then, the series link breaks and we get no sound.

For some years, I gave up trying it again but, thanks to a reader of this blog, that was looking for such a solution, pushed me to re-think everything again.
We crossed few mails and, he was giving me the last  key (even that he didn't realized about it) to complete the puzzle.

Since the last key was given from outside, I am glad to share this design with you all, for your use and convenience.

Even that this basis mod or module is intented to be used with the three single coils of a Strato, there is nothing that avoids you to use it with any other type of pickup (humbuckers, mini-humbuckers...) and, you can combine it with other mods (OOP, bypass, etc) with ease.

I will present first the basis diagram for this mod, including some comments that will help you to understand what's going on there and, later, I will include some sample diagrams on how to apply this tricky wiring design.
I hope you will appreciate it.


Diagram

Please, click on the diagram to see it at full size.

This design works with the help of three 4PDT on/on/on switches. Each one allows to switch off the pickup (center position) or to add the pickup to a parallel path (down position) or to a series path (up position).
Parallel path is being represented here in Orange. Series path in Pink. Ground is being represented in Dark Blue and, the path represented in Purple is the tricky part (the last key) of this design.
The Purple path allows me to delay the decision on when to ground a pickup, depending on the status of the rest of pickups.

On left hand, you can see which combos are being obtained depending on the positions of the three pickup switches.
The tricky part is always the series path. If you have a pickup assigned to the series path and one more the the parallel path, that series combination cannot happen so, you should run both pickups in parallel. To be able to put two pickups in series, both should be assigned to the series path, therefore, when just one pickup is in that series path, it will work in parallel (since there is no one more pickup to stablish the series link).

This design has two output spots, that you can see in the upper switch and, that correspond to both differentiate paths. For sure, you can jumper both outputs to have a single output or, you can send each path to a different input, if you wanted separated controls (by example, different value pots) for each path.

Even that this mod is related to three single coils in this diagram, nothing avoids you to use it with any kind of combination of humbuckers and single coils as SSS, HSS, HSH or HHH.

In principle, this three 4PDT switches substitute any blade switch used to select pickups combinations and, allows you to combine the three pickups alone, two of them or three of them in any parallel/series combination what at the ends will give you all the following possible combinations:

Neck alone
Neck in parallel with Middle
Neck in series with Middle
Neck in parallel with Bridge
Neck in series with Bridge
Middle alone
Neck in parallel with Middle in parallel with Bridge
Neck in parallel with Middle in series with Bridge
Neck in series with Middle in parallel with Bridge
Neck in series with Middle in series with Bridge (the three in series)
Middle in parallel with Bridge
Middle in series with Bridge
Bridge alone

And all this is compatible with any other mod, as coil-splitting if you have some humbucker around, by example.

This is a very powerfull mod that can be achieved by removing your blade switch and installing 3 x 4PDT on/on/on switches instead (just drilling de slot that was taking your blade switch).
But, this makes sense for guitars that doesn't need a quick on-fly switching, because to get one of the three single coils alone, you should put off the other two. Just take this into account.
If you are going to use one sound for a song or, you can take a rest between you need one or other pickup combination then, yes, this is a very versatile combo, that could work great for Studio works, by example.


Application Examples

As always, applications are so wide as our needs or willings but, here you are some few examples on how to integrate this mod in some typical situations.

Mod 1 - Single output, Master Volume and Tone

For most super-stratos alike guitars, where you only need a master tone and volume, both output paths are linked together and routed to a volume and tone controls.
For sure, any pickup layout is possible: SSS, HSS, HSH or HHH.
One possible useful mod would be to have a bridge-on switch (a pull/push) that will give you the bridge pickup alone (instantanelly), independently of which combination of pickups is actually seelected in the three switches. Pushing back that bridge-on switch will return you back to the current switch selection. I think that this can be of great use when you want to soloing for a while and return back to your basis sound.
Same bridge-on mod can be of help for rest of example mods presented here.


Mod 2 - Separate outputs, separate volume and tone controls

This is an example on how to handle with different controls each output.
For each path (parallel and series) we are using an stacked pot that allows you to control the output volume and tone for each path. In that way, we could use different pot and cap values for each path because pickups in parallel are a brighter sound than pickups in series.
The output could be even separated for an stereo jack, to run each path output in a different amp, by example. Interesting?.


Mod 3 - single output, independent volumes by pickup

In this example, we are using a dedicated volume control for each pickup that will allow us to blend the exact amount of each pickup in the mix. This would give us a wide range of nuances of parallel and series sounds.
Be carefull to not completly roll off one of the volumes when two or more pickups are in the series path, because that could lead you to no sound. Use the central positions of the switch to remove a pickup from the path, don't roll off it's corresponding volume, instead.
Well, you can use here stacked pots to have independent tones, as well.


Mod 4 - single output, independent volumes and tones

Well, this is as mod 3 but, having indpendent tones by pickup, also. Nice?.
Did you ever dreamed with such a complete control over your Strato sounds?.


Mod 5 - Single output, master volume and tone and bridge-on switch

And, here we are an example on how to integrate the bridge-on switch with a master volume and tone.
This bridge-on switch will let you to instantanely select the bridge pickup (for soloing, by example), independently on which combination of pickups do you have actually selected with the other three switches.
When switching off the bridge-on switch, whichever it was the combination of pickups in those three other switches will come back.
A trick is to change pickups combinations (in those three switches) while you are soloing if you plan to change to a new sound when switching off the bridge-on switch.

So, imagine you had selected Neck alone, you switch on the bridge-on switch and you get Bridge alone. While you are in bridge alone, you can change the other three switches (without affecting your bridge alone sound) to neck in series with bridge, by example. When you switch off the bridge-on switch you will go for neck in series with bridge instead of the neck alone sound where you came from, by example.


Final consideration

I hope you can appreciate the power of this mod and the beautiness of its tricky design.
As it can be applied to any pickup layout (SSS, HSS, HSH, HHH) and, it's compatible with any other mod, the playing ground is huge, as big as your imagination and needs.
I don't recommend it for direct situations where you need to quickly select the right pickups combinations on-the-fly but, it's a wonderful weapon for studio guitars, where you want a broader array of tones available on demand.
Imagine you have an axe with a couple of Seymour Duncan P-Rails (neck and bridge) and a single coil in the middle and, that you are using the Triple Ring Shots for those P-Rails. Everything together combined with this mod. Can you imagine the versatily of such an axe for studio work?.

Ah, I know, your head is humming now!.
ha ha ha.

Pedal Effects: Weehbo Helldrive and Weehbo Bastard

Introduction

I am still working my "definitive" pedalboard and, Weehbo pedals are what the doctor recommended me, talking about gain pedals.

Even that the Plexdrive delivers an incredible nice tone, I needed a bit more of gain while preserving the British character of the sound. I wanted also some kind of british overdrive that I could stack before other drive pedals to change their character but, without muffling them or ruining their own sound.
That's why I've thrown the dices for the Helldrive.

Also, in the hi-gain territory, I had a hole. None of my current Weehbo pedals was covering that gap. I was weightening whether to go for a typical Marshall hi-gain sound (JVM Drive), an American-like sound (Bastard, SLO) or some all purpose British hi gain pedal (Mastiff).
I thought, I could obtain some Marshall hi-gain sounds by pushing the JCM Drive harder with the Helldrive stacked before so, I've decided to go for the Bastard, since I know how a typical SLO emulation sounds and, I don't like it (love the crunch side and hate the gain side).

While I usually prefer highly dynamic and "clean" (or at least defined and with good presence) gain sounds, I am finding some lack of legato and smoothness for certain songs. This is what I was looking for in the Bastard.

This blog entry talks about my experience with those two new pedals, as well as how they sit in my pedalboard and interact with rest of pedals.
At the end, a demo video will let you hear them, in real applications.


Presentation

As any Weehbo pedal, those come in nice cardboard boxes, wrapped in buble plastic and smelling quality and attention to the detail.

Inside the box, some rubber dots (this time not glued!, thanks!) that you can use as feet for your pedal, some ads and the typical short user's manual. As always, I am missing some sample settings that can make people to have a fast impression of the different possibilities of each pedal but, to be honest, those pedals just need you to tweak controls here and there until you get THE sound.


Controls and Sound

I will not go in deep discussing about controls, because you will find detailed description anywhere else, including Weehbo's official page.
I would like to take special attention to what makes them different from other Weehbo pedals, as well as those characteristics that I find more interesting for my needs.

The Helldrive is, by far, the best crunch box I've ever tested (and, I've owned any Wampler pedal, any Mad Professor pedal, MI Audio Crunch Box, among many other more common brands).

Once more the Dynamics switch of the Helldrive is a godsend and, allows this pedal to sound and behave like a cooked tube amp, with definition, just the exactly needed touch of gain and harmonics and, its controls allow you to tweak the exact amount of everything. I know there are still some internal DIP switches that allow you to go further in sound building but, honestly, I didn't felt the need on doing it.

As with most of Weehbo pedals, the input knob is like your gain knob in your amp, allowing you to addapt the pedal to any guitar / pickup to get the wanted body for your sound.

This pedal can sound close to the Plexdrive or the JCM Drive but, has its own distinctive fingerprint and, has more versatility, compared to those first ones that are a one-trip pony (because they mime a specific sound).
The Balls knob allows you to better define basses, body and overall crunch character and gain of distortion and, just sets the sound where you wanted it.
The Tone knob allows you to easily cut the mix but, removing an excesive harsh high end, when running this pedal with a brigth rig (as in my case).

For someone like myself, that has a very inconsistent voltage mains, the internal voltage doubler that the Helldrive includes, ensures that the pedal will work will more than 9V even under low voltage situations, what makes my rig more estable (this is a big difference respect of traditional pedals, running at 9V).

The Helldrive has two sections. First one is the drive itself, while the second one (second foot switch) engages a booster section (which character can be further sculpted with some inner DIP switches).
The good and the nice is that you can choose to stack the buffer section before or after the drive section.
If you stacked it before, you are beefing the gain, increasing the distortion, body and legato while preserving your output loudness.
If you stacked it after, you are just increasing the volume of the drive section. It's a clear dip in your output loudness, that can be of use when you need that extra volume for solos.
In my case, I prefer to run it before the drive section, just to have some kind of two channels overdrive, with light and medium gain, available on demand.

The Bastard is a hi gain distortion unit, with an American tone (in the line of Mesa Boogies, SLO, etc).
I don't feel it as trying to emulate the sound of a particular amp but, it has an overall all-purpose sound that can be tweaked with high versatility.

As it happens to me every time, the American sounding pedals doesn't cut so good as the British sounding ones and, even that you can dial very interesting tones alone, once you try to fit the sound in the mix, it needs additional tweaks to make it to set in the right frequential range.

To use a rough comparison, to me is like to compare the sound of a good EL34 against the sound of a good 6V6GT. Maybe the 6V6GT has a nice sound itself and alone but, to make an amp loaded with 6V6GTs to cut the mix with authority has been a constant fight (IN MY CASE !!!).
Well, this is the feeling I have with that kind of pedals. It happened to me with: AMT Californian Sound, Wampler SLOstortion, Wampler Triple Wreck, etc.

The active tone stack of the Bastard allows a high customization of the sound and a better control for the mix but, even this, still sounds a tad veiled and dark to my taste.

I am not saying that the Bastard sounds no good !. Don't misunderstand my words. It sounds amazing and, very specially with high output pickups, where this pedal shinnes. The question is that, every time more, I am more convinced that I should stay in the British side, because is there where I feel myself comfortable. That's all.

At least, the voice switch at left hand allows me to tweak a more cutting sound and, with the help of the active tones, I can use the pedal in real applications, even that I find it as muffled when used with some pedals before (vibe or wah).
I had to run a british overdrive before (Plexdrive or Helldrive) in some songs to give some presence to the sound, otherwise, it sounded to me as if the sound was veiled with some blanket or carpet.

I find it better for works with humbuckers and, specially medium to high output ones. There this pedal makes full sense and delivers way better sound than with vintage output single coils. Maybe it's a matter of impedance, or resonance issue, I dunno, but it clearly shines with humbuckers and it's not so good with singles.

Discussed with Eike (the tone-wizard who runs Weehbo Efekte), the Bastard has no Dynamics switch because he didn't found significative difference running it a 9V or 18V, because of the complex gain structure of such a pedal.
Eike finds this pedal working better at 12V and, this is how I am running it.

I am usually working with my number 1, that loads vintage single coils so, I would probably go for Weehbo's JVM Drive for my own needs but, I've tested the Bastard with my Charvel SoCal Type 1, with Bareknuckle's Nailbombs and, IT'S DA BOMB!. Highly recommended if you are using higher output humbuckers and drop-D tunings, etc. You will have complete control of the right amount of (massive) low end, being able to achieve anything, from scooped mids to more traditional settings.


Interactions with rest of pedals

I've not tested all possible combinations, still.
When I did that with Wampler's pedals, I had some surprises and I had to forget the typical approach (from lower gain to higher gain) and arrange the pedals in the order where they sounded better stacked.

Since Weehbo Plexdrive, Dumbledore and JCM Drive are some kind of vintage-amp-in-a-box effects (as happened with Wampler's Tweed '57, Black '59, Plexidrive, Pinnacle, etc.), my first try was to put them in same order I've found as working well for Wampler pedals, that is:

overdrives -> vintage-amp-in-a-box -> distortions -> modern-amp-in-a-box

But, this order didn't delivered any good in the case of Weehbo pedals.
Discussed it with Eike and, he said me that he never stacks his pedals but, if he had to run them stacked, he would go for traditional order, from low gain to high gain and, that's what I did this time.

I've stacked Weehbos like it follows:

Plexdrive -> Helldrive -> Dumbledore -> JCM Drive -> Bastard

The complete pedalboard is ordered as follows:

1. TC Electronics Polytune (Tuner)
2. Area 51 Wah
3. Wampler Decibel+ (just the Buffer section, Booster is off)
4. Wampler EGO Compressor
5. Dry Bell Vibe Machine v1
6. Weehbo Plexdrive
7. Weehbo Helldrive
8. Weehbo Dumbledore
9. Weehbo JCM Drive
10. Weehbo Bastard
11. Strymon El Capistan (Tape Echo delay)

The Plexdrive gives a nice clean tone (with some crunchy harmonics) that is just delicious and, helps to give some presence and cut to other pedals, without increasing the gain so much.
I've discovered also the Boost section of the Plexdrive, like a nice way to push other pedals stacked after, without changing their natural voice. The Boost section can be switched on, independently on the Plexdrive voice itself. I've got it at unitary volume level, currently.

The Helldrive has a crunchier tone than the Plexdrive and works better for Rock stuff. With the Plexdrive stacked before, the crunch is more potentiated and both pedals together cut the mix with authority and with a very dynamic, crunchy and interesting voice.
But the Helldrive sounds nice by itself. The booster section inserted before the gain section gives you a two-channel crunch box that delivers a nice sound alone.

I am sometimes using one or the other to help to sit in the mix other darker sounding pedals, as the Bastard or, when I find that the interaction with other pedals (Wah, Vibe) doesn't work so good with some pedal alone. Sometimes, stacking before the Plexdrive or the Helldrive, the pedal works better with Vibe or Wah.

To me, Plexdrive into Helldrive is one of the my preferred sounds of all the times!. If I had to downsize my pedalboard, I am quite sure both will remain there. Not so confident with the Dumbledore or the Bastard, by example.

While the Dumbledore allows the Plexdrive or Helldrive to be stacked before and, is able also to push the JCM Drive in a good way, I find that the Bastard usually works better alone. Any pedal stacked before, usually makes it so gainy that you get instantaneus feedback but, sometimes, I am using the Plexdrive or Helldrive (whichever that works better) to help the Bastard to fit in the mix, specially when combined with Vibe and Wah.


Demo / Test Video



In past entries I was describing the Area 51 Wah, and rest of Weehbo pedals.
Since there are videos enough that show how pedals work alone, going in depth across the controls, I don't wanted to be repeatitive and, I've prefered to make a video testing those pedals in real applications, improvising over some free downloadable backing tracks.

The video starts with an improvisation over "Happier Times" by Joe Bonamassa. This is not a cover, in any single sense and, I am using it mainly to demo the beautiful sound of the Plexdrive and, how nice the Plexdrive into the Helldrive sound (at least, to me).

After this song, a demo of the clean sound (including Wampler Decibel+ buffer and Strymon El Capistan tape echo delay) and, comparison with the Plexdrive and Helldrive alones.

Then several songs follow with variated tests, to check how pedals interact and help to my sound in the pedalboard.

In second song, I am stacking the Vibe Machine into the Bastard, to get some kind of fusion tone.

In third song, I am stacking the Wah into Helldrive into Bastard. I am feeling the Helldrive as needed to open a bit the sound of the Bastard, that I find a tad muffled when combined with the Area 51 Wah.

In four song, I am using just the Helldrive, both channels on (booster before driver), I find it enough by itself for this kind of tones.

In fifth song, I am using the Wah (from middle of song) into Vibe into Plexdrive into Bastard. Once more, I find the Plexdrive as needed here, when combining the Wah with Vibe, while the Helldrive doesn't work so good in this case.

Finally, in the sixth song, I am using the Plexdrive into the two channels of the Helldrive, for a bright, dynamic and aggresive blues tone, that delivers to me one of the best tones of all tested.

Accessories: Planning your voltage and current needs for your pedalboard

Introduction

When we want to use some pedal effect, between our guitar and amp, we usually don't put attention to voltage and current stuff. We just plug the pedal, check it and, love or hate it. But... are we hearing the pedal as its best?.

Batteries / DC Adaptor

Most of pedals are designed with a constant DC current / voltage in mind. That means that the best way to know if a pedal can deliver what you are expecting from it is to test it with batteries first.

Your mains (as in my case) can be inconsistently delivering voltage and current and, very few pedals are being made with a subsystem that helps them to internally regulate such fluctuations.
So, if you wanted to know if that pedal is for you, please, try it with batteries first.

After you've tested it with batteries, you would probably want to run this pedal with some DC Adaptor, to avoid the typical case were your can run out of battery because you leaved plugged your jack in its input. Or you would like avoid the case of running out of battery in the middle of a performance, specially if that pedal isn't a true bypass one (which can completely shut up your guitar).

But, since mains voltage and current are so variable, your DC adaptor will provide variable outputs, your pedals will receive variable inputs and will deliver variable sounds, from full bodied and musical ones to, thin, trebbly and weak ones.

There are some kind of pedals that work best with lover voltages than the nominal one. This is the case of vintage germanium fuzzes, that seem to deliver a better sound when used with old worn batteries.

There are some other pedals that can sound really enhanced with higher voltages at their inputs. Usually, boosters, overdrives and compressors can open their sound and have better dynamics and headroom at higher voltage levels.

There are other pedals that simple don't seem to be enhanced with a higher voltage than the nominal one but, since the nominal voltage is often not reached (because of fluctuations of your mains) they just don't deliver the right sound.

When moving from batteries to DC Adaptors, it is time to carefully study your needs and to plan your pedal board needs.


Planning your pedal board needs

If you are going to use some DC Adaptor, it is a must for you to carefully read the technical specifications of every pedal and, tech specs of your DC Adaptors, as well.

Every pedal needs a minimum voltage to properly operate and, have a maximum voltage they can receive to not damage the unit. Some pedals can run just at 9V, like the Strymon El Capistan or the Dry Bell Vibe Machine or, those Weehbo pedals that have the Dynamics Switch (which doubles internally the voltage).

Most pedals will allow a voltage input between 9V and 12V or, between 9V and 18V.

Every pedal drains a maximum amount of current (expressed in mA) and, that max current will depend on the voltage so, when you increase the input voltage, the drawn current increases proportionally.

Every of your DC Adaptors can deliver a maximum power, with maximum current on its output (or outputs).
You MUST be sure that every pedal is being feed with the right amount of voltage and current and, that you aren't overloading your DC Adaptor, demanding more power than it can delivers.


Practical Case example

You know, every pedal board is alive and, pedals enter and exit constantly. At a certain point of time, a single DC Adaptor wasn't enough to run my heavily loaded pedalboard so, I am currently having two Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus units and, therefore, I am planning my voltage / current needs with the help of both units, which I try to balance in the best possible way.

If you read the tech stuff of that Pedal Power 2 Plus Adaptors, you will get more or less the following basic information (after a big headache trying to understand everything together).

There are three groups of outputs: 1 - 4, 5 - 6 and 7-8.
All work the same when the micro dip switch is on its "normal" position for each entry. All them will deliver 9V.
What makes them different is that groups 1-4 and 7-8 will deliver a maximum of 100 mA, while the group 5-6 will deliver a maximum of 250 mA.

So, if you have a pedal that drains more than 250 mA (as some synthesized units) you will never get a good result with this Adaptor, you will need to go for anything else (Voodoo Lab has one more unit, specifically for this, able to deliver 500 mA by output). By example, the Carl Martin Octaswitch MKII cannot be feed with any Pedal Power 2 Plus unit.

As I said, there are pedals which sound can be enhanced by running them at higher voltages.
The Area 51 wah it's recommended to be feed at 12V, as the Weehbo Bastard.
I know there is some improvement in openness, definition and dynamics in other pedal types, as the Wampler Decibel+ or the Wampler Ego Compressor, at least, because feeding them at 12V ensures that at least 9V are reaching their inputs.

But, if you plan to increase the input voltage, make your maths before and plan a proportional current drain.
If the pedal drains 30 mA @ 9V, apply a proportion rule and you will find that it could potentially drain (at least) 40 mA @ 12V and 60 mA @ 18V.

So, first step is to know each pedal specifications and see what each pedal requires for your needs and see how those needs can be covered with your DC Adaptor (or adaptors).

This is the excel sheet I was using to plan my own pedal board needs, with all those pedals I've currently having there and those foreseen in a near future.

At header, the output voltage and max current by output in each Pedal Power 2 Plus unit, when using their outputs in "normal" mode, delivering 9V.
Those values change when the DIP switch is switched on, for each particular group.
In the case of the group 1-4, the max current drops to 60 mA and voltage steps up to 12.3V by output.

Below, the detail of each pedal, with its max drain value at the voltage I would run it, expressed in the last column (9V or 12V). The middle two columns (Unit A, Unit B) are the assignment of each pedal to each particular output of a particular unit. The two following columns are assigning the max current load for each unit, which total "load" can be seen as totals on the summarizing line at bottom.

You can see that one of the Pedal Power 2 units is using all their outputs and, that the second unit is feeding just three pedals but, even this, the "load" of that second unit is still higher than in the first one (390 mA against 377 mA).

In my planning, I am first allocating the big stones and, the bigger stone here is the Strymon El Capistan, which needs 250 mA, just the maximum current a Pedal Power 2 Plus can deliver in a single output. This level of current can be achieved in outputs 5 or 6, only.  I've assigned output 5 of the second unit (physically closer to the pedal) for this.

There are four pedals I wanted to run at 12V. Any Wampler pedal will deliver a good sound if you can at least feed them with 9V and, all them allow voltage levels up to 18V.
To feed them at 18V means that two outputs of the Pedal Power 2 Plus unit should be allocated for each single pedal but, switching on the DIP switch of each required output for group 1 to 4 will deliver me 12.3V with a single cord and a single output.

Therefore, I've switched on DIPs for outputs 3 and 4 in each unit, to run my pedals at 12.3V.
You can see that the Area 51 Wah was assigned to output 3 of Unit A,  Wampler Decibel+ was assigned to output 4 of same unit, Ego Compressor was assigned to output 3 of Unit B and, Weehbo Bastard (to come) was assigned to output 4 of same unit.

Then, I've started to assign each pedal, beginning with the "weighter" ones (more current drain) and, ending with the "ligther" ones, until I've got an acceptable current drain balance for both units.

The total maximum current is 767 mA (0.767 A) so, I should be sure also that the extension sockets rule has a cord that can support such a current and that the output of the Phonic PC9000E power conditioner can deliver such an amount of current.

Sure, if you use just batteries, you can completely forget all this but, if you need DC Adaptors, be sure you are planning the marriage of each pedal with the right Adaptor output, to get the best from your pedalboard.

Pedal Effects: Area 51 Wah - First contact

Introduction

The Wah is one of those few effects that allows your personality to shine in the sound. Most of effects, once set up, modify your sound in a single way but, wahs allow you to modify the effect in real time and, therefore, you are expressing yourself in real time.

Two people, playing same riff can dramatically change the intention when applying a wah. Sweep range, voice and rest of variables make one wah different from the other but, what makes them really different is the player.

We already discussed about the differences between wahs, in this past entry: Pedal effects: the Wah Effect.
You've guess it. I love wahs!.

But I am in the search of the right wah for a very very long time, since my old 80's wah was stolen, I've never had a wah that nailed the voice, the sweep range and the overall characteristics of that wah.

There are lot of people that just buys a cheap unit and, they are able to tweak it until they've got what they wanted. And, sure, maybe this is the way to go, if you are so skilled.
For those that aren't, to be in the market for a new wah to test is the common way.

Very satisfied overall with the sound of the Real McCoy RMC4 Picture wah, my complains where more related to its floor noise. Compared to a Vox 847A or a Roger Mayer Vision Wah, the RMC4 is noisy as hell and, tends to introduce lot of feedback when used with gain enough.

So, one more time, I was in the market again for a wah with all the good of the RMC4 and none of the bad. That search addressed me to the Area 51 Wah and, this entry is all about it.


Waiting...

This is a make-to-order boutique wah so, there is no available wah for you. Dan will build it to your particular specifications. The 'standard' waiting time is about 4 - 6 weeks but, unfortunately, mine took 8 weeks (two months), what was a bit frustrating.

Even that Dan is very friendly, he had some kind of personal issues during that period and, didn't answered my mails. When he answered back, he did it very correctly and was a pleasure to deal with him.

Once the wah is ready, shipping time is short, just 3 days from US to Spain.

But then, Customs enter in the game and you are sold. It took me one more month to clear customs duties and have the wah at home. So, overall, 3 months waiting for this Wah.

I was so upset that thought "I really hope this wah worths the waiting time, otherwise, I will burn it!".

If you are in the US, you are lucky and, your waiting time will be probably 4 to 6 weeks and, you will never have to fight against Custom's employees.


Wah Customizing

Dan is possibly the only boutique maker that allows you to choose every feature of the wah and, he build it to your specifications.

You can add a led, a buffer, a growl control, a quack control and a range selector. You can even order it as a lefy unit, for left-handed people. You can also select the color (5 different available).

After hearing lot of youtube videos, I was convinced that this probably was the wah I was after.
When I was filling in my order, I recognize that I firstly marked every option, very excited with the possibility to get the exact wah effect I was looking for.

But price, easily goes up and up, when you are adding options so, I've quiet myself and tought: "Let see. This wah should be designed to sound good with no additional tweaks so, what do I really need from all those options, if the sound is already there?".

In my honest opinion, there are just two options that were a must for me: the led and the buffer.

If you leave your wah switched on, usually you realize about it but, a led lets you to know if it is on or off at a glance.

The buffer is a must if you think to run a wah with a vintage fuzz. This is the only way you will get from your fuzz the right sound., since fuzz and wah compete to be the very first pedal in your pedal board.
Fortunately, Area 51 buffer is internally switchable on and off (with a microswitch inside). So, if you order it with a buffer, you can switch it on or off at any time.

To be honest, I don't like this "Martelle" paint finish. Even that some colors could be attractive, that Martelle make them to look odd. A plain (or metalized) color paint could have a more attractive look, IMHO.
In my case, since Dan had issues with his paint provider, he sent me a "custom grey" color:  metalized grey!!!.

Martelle paint was fashion during the 80's but, not nowadays. I hate the look of my Hudson Electronics Stroll On fuzz, because it has same kind of finish and, looks ugly compared to rest of the pedalboard.

But seriously, color or look didn't matter to me. The only I really wanted was the sound and sweep.
Has it those?.


The Sound - First contact

Voltage again, my son

As any other pedal I buy, the fire test is to try it inserted in my pedal chain. If it reacts accordingly with rest of the pedal board, the new one is very well welcome. Otherwise, even if it is an outstanding unit, I must remove it from the pedal board, to not compromise my sound.

As every time a new pedal comes, I've read maker' specifications and, had to review again the DC output assignations for each pedal, to balance the drain in both Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus units.

One of the techs notes that called my attention, when reading the short explanation that comes with the pedal, is that this pedal will provide a nice sound if AT LEAST 9V are being provided.
If you are following my blog entries, you will remember how inconsistent is my mains voltage and, how hard it affects to the whole rig and, that's one of the main reasons why I've decided to go for Weehbo effects.

To be sure I am delivering at least 9V to this unit, I've toggled the micro dip switch of the Pedal Power 2 Plus unit to feed this wah at 12.3V (any of the outputs between 1 and 4).

This 12V recommended value took my attention. When I was discussing with Eike (Weehbo Effekte) if, his Bastard distortion pedal will sound better at 18V (as the Dumbledore, JCM Drive and PlexDrive do), he told me that not really but, that he personally likes the Bastard at 12V.

Well, at 12V is how I am currently running Wampler Ego Compressor, Wampler Decibel+ Buffer/Booster and how I've planned to run the Weehbo Bastard Distortion (in a near future). And, after reading the tech note from Dan, I've decided to run the Area 51 at 12V, as well.

All that discussion about voltage is to let you know that I am not sure if this is what made it to sound so good. I don't know if I was running the RMC4 at same voltage if I would get same results. Honestly, not tested by now. I don't know if it was a key decision or, if it just was one more drop in the cup of the tone.
Anything I am describing below is related to how it worked at 12V.


How it compares to...

Let me clearly state this: this is a plug & play wah. I didn't feel in the need of tweaking anything else to make it better. It works awesomely stock and, totally suits my needs, in every single sense.

Basses are guttural and deep but, without messing and masking the sound as in other units. Very vocal sounding. You can tweak the shape of basses with the option "Growl control" but, as it comes standard, I absolutely love it.

Trebles are well represented but doesn't go piercing and thin, as in the case of the Vox 847A or (in less measure) the RMC4. Just the right amount of trebles, just the right amount of basses.

Sweep range is just perfect for my foot. The three "main areas" of the sweep, basses, resonance mids and trebles cover a nice range and, doesn't go so extreme that you can hate any of those areas in particular. All them have the right amount, nothing less, nothing more.

The "transition knee". That borders between the three "main areas" are, sometimes, very distinctive in some wah units (as the Vox 847A), what produces a dramatically change when crossing every border. In the case of the Area 51, that "transition knee" is soft and smooth, no "chask".

Respect of the voice, I would say this is an "enhanced" version of the RMC4. Bottom line is very similar but, in my opinion, every frequency range is better represented, avoiding extremes and, making it softer or even EQ'd.

Respect of signal strength, the signal is full bodied, as the Vision Wah (with the booster in the right position) and, doesn't sound weak (as in the case of the Vox 847 and, in less measure of the RMC4).

Well, probably "crazy tweakers" will be very happy with all the available options but, I just prefer simple operating pedals that deliver an outstanding sound and, that's what I am getting with the standard Area 51, as it was designed.

One of the thing I was discussing with Dan is the quietness of the wah, when switched on. I've let him know that, even that I loved the voice of my RMC4, the main issue I had and, why I was in the market again for a wah was the floor noise of the RMC4 and, I've asked him how the floor noise was in the Area 51.
He answered: "I took lot of attention to this. My wah is quiet enough but, take into account that as per design any wah will introduce some floor noise".

So, what about its floor noise?. Awesome!. It's so quiet as the Vox 847A or the Roger Mayer Vision Wah and, way quieter than the RMC4.

I've tested it with some backing tracks, alone and before some overdrives (Weehbo JCM Drive, Plextortion and Dumbledore) and before a vibe effect (Dry Bell Vibe Machine V1.0) and, results were fully satisfactory.

I need to test it deeper for several weeks until I have the final decision but, I am having same sensations I had with my good scores, as the Vox Night Train, the Marshall 1923C, VHT Special 6 Ultra, Strymon El Capistan, Dry Bell Vibe Machine or my Weehbo effects.
It seems like this time I really have THE WAH.


Video / Demo ?

Not right now. There are videos enough available in youtube that demo the sound of this unit alone.
You will probably hear it in my future videos, since it's now in my pedalboard to be a keeper (I hope, my last wah).