Active guitars

[Munurmunuh]

2 hours ago, pineweasel said:

Sounds like my Thunder 1A bass. Passive tone operates when the active circuit is off. "Equalizer tone" is the active tone control, treble boost one way, bass boost the other.

You made me feel obliged to go and take a look.... yes this looks like the same thing

[Munurmunuh]

Although, when I bought it, I was just a kid who didn't know much about nothing, I do appear to have been able to recognise decent quality. 

[Munurmunuh]

The very low action and crazily ground-down frets

[BigRedX]

Those crazy ancient strings...

[Munurmunuh]

To what degree can decrepitude like this be cleaned up? 

There is a Westone forum, I once got in contact with the admin there; he gave the impression that amongst the Westone enthusiasts it would have no bother finding a welcome home in some large collection. But would an instrument like this, if nicely restored, be of interest to modern players?

[Munurmunuh]

2 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Those crazy ancient strings...

30 years since they were last asked to do anything 

[Killed_by_Death]

 

I'm not sure when they stopped doing onboard EQ, but I do believe it's a thing of the past on guitars.

I owned an Ibanez with a scoop switch, but it was produced from 2009 to 2012.

Ibanez changed things at the end of that time & lost Carol Kaye as an endorsing artist. I firmly believe that is when they started putting chintzy machine-heads in the SoundGear Standards & GIO.

 

Carvin had onboard EQ in their really heavy guitars, but of course they are no longer an entity.

Lita Ford uses an active booster on her Morice guitar, but that was produced in the 80s:

 

[Hellzero]

Don't change a thing on this guitar @Ricky Rioli !

If it's good for metal, than it's good enough.

See what I did here... 🤣

[Munurmunuh]

8 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Don't change a thing on this guitar

Just realised this thread could have been better entitled Inactive Guitars

[Killed_by_Death]

 

coil tap

I wish the industry would stop using that incorrectly. This is a coil tap:

What they're doing with humbuckers is known a coil-splitting.

 

[ubit]

I find active circuitry on a bass pretty pointless too. The only time it becomes noticeable is if you are using an active bass and change to a passive bass. If you are using a non active bass you adjust your settings to suit. I know they are brighter and are considered to be amazing. It's just in my experience I can do without.

Edited May 24, 2021 by ubit

[Munurmunuh]

No need to tap hairs

[BigRedX]

29 minutes ago, ubit said:

I find active circuitry on a bass pretty pointless too. The only time it becomes noticeable is if you are using an active bass and change to a passive bass. If you are using a non active bass you adjust your settings so suit. I know they are brighter and are considered to be amazing. It's just in my experience I can do without.

There are a couple of instances where active circuitry can make sense.

1. When it allows separate EQ adjustments for each pickup on the instrument like the Wal or ACG filter pre-amps.

2. When you use a long cable and like a very bright sound (unfortunately long in terms of cable length and bright in terms of sound are both subjective).

In all other cases whatever the on-board electronics do, can be far better achieved with the controls on your amp or with smoother main powered device in the signal chain.

The other thing to consider is that very few on-board pre-amps are designed with a specific pickup(s) in specific location(s) on the instrument so they don't offer any custom frequency advantages over a decent set of tone controls on the amp or on a pedal.

[pete.young]

I have a Fylde electric from the '70s which has EMG active pickups. It offers another variation on the theme - the bridge pickup actually contains a set of single coils and a humbucker. I thought for many years the switch was a coil split, but when I was able to contact EMG one of the founders told me how the pickup was actually designed. I do wish I hadn't lost that email. No on-board EQ though, just a single volume and tone control, a 3-way selector switch and the coil-set switch for the bridge pickup.

Anyhoo, that Westone looks like a very nice instrument and deserves a bit of TLC.

[Munurmunuh]

48 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

In all other cases whatever the on-board electronics do, can be far better achieved with the controls on your amp or with smoother main powered device in the signal chain.

I've been thinking about the knob that gives a treble boost forward of the detente and a bass boost backward from it, and wondering if it might have been useful for a tasteful player making slight adjustments in a large ensemble. When I was a teenager with no interest in any kind of subtlety, it just plain got on my nerves, two different ways of ruining a perfectly decent sound.

[BigRedX]

7 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I've been thinking about the knob that gives a treble boost forward of the detente and a bass boost backward from it, and wondering if it might have been useful for a tasteful player making slight adjustments in a large ensemble. When I was a teenager with no interest in any kind of subtlety, it just plain got on my nerves, two different ways of ruining a perfectly decent sound.

The argument I always see for having lots of controls on your bass is that it makes it easier to make mid-song adjustments to the sound. My opinion is that so long as the bass is actually making a noise, the band will sound worse if I stop and fiddle with the controls then if I wait until the end of the song and then make adjustments at my amp or pedals.

Edited May 12, 2021 by BigRedX

[Hellzero]

9 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

The argument I always see for having lots of controls on your bass is that it makes it easier to make mid-song adjustments to the sound. My opinion is that so long as the bass is actually making a noise, the band will sound worse if I stop and fiddle with the controls then if I wait until the end of the song and then make adjustments at my amp or pedals.

Urm, you don't need to stop, you can make adjustments "while" playing. I really don't see the point here, unless you're playing these kinds of music without any breathing between the notes... then nobody will ever hear any difference in the sound anyway.

[Munurmunuh]

When I wrote that^^^ I was thinking of the one on my guitar - lots more opportunity for switch-flicking and knob-twirling when flouncing around on a six-string

[itu]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

..."active" pickups are simply low impedance/output coils and magnets pickups with a level/impedance matching... 

...buffers fitted into the same casing.

I know, just a detail, but I think it's more common to use that word instead of the preamp, which may modify the f response or output level.

Was it Seymour Duncan that had J pickups with three tiny white switches?

[Hellzero]

It was Seymour Duncan indeed and there were both J's and a P.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Hellzero

[Hellzero]

Their names were Seymour Duncan APB-1 and AJB-1.

The twin Jazz Bass set was called AJJ-1 and the PJ set was called APJ-1.

Here is an AJJ-1 set :

IIRC Randy Coven was endorsing these pickups way back in the late 80's, early 90's.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Hellzero

[Munurmunuh]

15 hours ago, pete.young said:

Anyhoo, that Westone looks like a very nice instrument and deserves a bit of TLC

It certainly deserves it .... but I'm thinking just handing it over to a Westone enthusiast is probably the best thing to do - I can't see its looks appealing to the kind of guitarist who would find the electronics useful in 2021. No point spending money on having it cleaned up and returned to full functionality if no one wants to buy it.

Does @Bassassin 's limitless knowledge of Matsumoku et al cover guitars as well? Hopefully he could tell me that the world, or at least the UK, is awash with these guitars, that would help me wave it a fond farewell. But maybe the memory of the 2½ years it made me very happy likes that it's still sitting under my bed, decade after decade.