On-board mid-boost preamp for guitar -- Recommendations?

PC Martin Seattle

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Nov 18, 2002, 5:52:30 PM11/18/02

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Hello!

I'm looking for advice on on-board electronics for a guitar project
I'm working on.

I'm tricking out a low-end but pretty well-built made-in-Taiwan Yamaha
Pacifica-series guitar. I've replaced the tuning machines with LSRs,
replaced the plastic nut with a GraphTech Trem Nut, replaced the
generic vintage bridge with a Gotoh 510 wrap-around stud-mount bridge,
redone the neck with a gunstock oil-and-wax finish, made a custom
pickguard, shielded the pickguard, pickup, and control cavities, and
now I'm about to install new pickups and controls.

The pickups I'm going to be installing are from the MusicYo Kramer
QuadRod Booster Pack -- a single-sized dual-rail neck, single-sized
dual-rail middle, and humbucker-sized quad-rail bridge. Contrary to
the "super-hot" marketing hype, each of the dual-rail coils on these
pickups is only around 6k ohms. Nonetheless, they are supposedly
pretty decent pickups for the price and definitely a step up from the
generic single-coils that came with the Yamaha.

For pickup selection, I've pretty much settled on a five-way switch,
with the following assignments:

1 = Neck
2 = Neck & Middle
3 = Neck & Bridge
4 = Middle & Bridge
5 = Bridge

I would have a separate set of minitoggles and/or minibuttons for
switching between series and parallel wiring within the coils and for
splitting the bridge quadrail (using a single dualrail at the bridge).

For volume and tone, I'm planning on a single master volume pot and a
Fender TBX as a master tone control. I don't know what type of volume
pot is likely to be best for my set-up, and any suggestions would be
welcome on this point.

However, on-board electronics is the area where I could really use
some help. I want to get a broad range of good-quality sounds, and
I'm interested in using something like the Fender Mid Boost Preamp Kit
in conjunction with the Fender TBX tone control (as on the Clapton
Strat) to help achieve them.

These are the possibilities I have come up with:

** Fender Mid Boost Preamp Kit **

Fender Part Number 005-7577-000
25db Gain
The kit includes all of the parts needed to upgrade your guitar with
the Mid Boost Preamp used on the Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy Strats.

I've tried this out on a couple of Clapton Signature Strats (an old
one with Lace Sensor Golds and a new one with Fender Vintage
Noiseless), and I liked it. However, I'm having a very hard time
getting any price and availability info on it. It was listed on the
Fender website as of yesterday, but dealers can't find it in their
catalogs and are telling me it's no longer available.

** Chandler Red Booster **

An Active Circuit for Inside your Guitar from Chandler!
The Chandler Red Booster is a variable 18db booster circuit that hides
inside the control cavity of your guitar or bass. The little active
circuit heats up your guitar or bass to push your amp more and release
its hidden tone and sound!

My tech has told me that Chandler's on-board electronics are unusually
noisy. I don't know. They did a great job on my pickguard...

** Demeter MB2 Active Mid-Range Boost **

400 MHz or 800MHz 6db boost
9 component board
Provision for full bypass
Buffering = 1db boost for clean
Knob = 1.5db -- 6db mid boost
Mini-Toggle for buff/boost (could use push-push mini-button DPDT)
Mini-Toggle for in/out (optional) DPDT (could use push-push
mini-button DPDT)

I tried this out on my tech's high-end custom Strat. Even with
higher-output Seymour Duncan pickups, the effect was *very* subtle.
My tech says Demeters are the quietest and generally the best quality,
but I'm wondering if their subtlety is not better suited to a
recording studio environment than live playing...

** Bartolini On-Board Electronics **

http://www.bartolini.net/information/electronics/electronics_a.htm

* TC1 discrete preamplifier/booster with initial gain of 18dB - can be
boosted up to 40dB - for very low output pickups only

* TC3 discrete preamplifier/booster with initial gain of 12dB - can be
boosted up to 40dB - for low to medium output pickups

* TC5 discrete preamplifier/booster with initial gain of 6dB - can be
boosted up to 40 dB - for medium output pickups

* TC5Z high input impedance discrete preamplifier/booster with initial
gain of 6dB - can be boosted up to 40dB - for medium output pickups -
impedance is much higher than tube amplifier impedance for best guitar
pickup on-board use.

Frankly, I don't know which of the above Bartolini models might be
best for my purposes, and I haven't had the opportunity to try any of
them on a guitar. They seem to show up in basses a lot more often
than in guitars. One thing is for sure: they are the most reasonably
priced on-board preamps that I've come across so far. Here's one
vendor's description of the TC5:

Bartolini TC5 Bartolini Tunable Preamp/Mid Boost Circuit
$29.95
TC5 Tunable Preamp/Mid Boost Circuit Get the active advantage from any
passive guitar or bass pickups. Discrete preamplifier/booster with
adjustable gain from 0dB to 40dB and low noise, low impedance output.
Circuit can be tuned for one of three frequency range boost modes with
capacitors and resistors. Perfect for for low to medium output guitar
and pickups.
* Low Noise/Low Z Output 3K Ohms
* Input Impedance 500K Ohms (TC5)
* Tunable Frequency Boost Ranges 1. Full Range 2. Mid Boost 3.
Mid & Treble Boost
* Gain: Non Boost Mode - 0dB to 6dB Boost Mode 0dB to 40dB
* Compact Size (1" x 3/4" x 1/2" )

The upshot of this very long post is that I would welcome any feedback
from anyone who has actually tried these (or any other) active
mid-boosts, buffers, and preamps. I'd also be grateful for any wiring
suggestions from anyone who has experimented with the Kramer DualRail
and QuadRail (or similar) pickups.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to provide!

Best regards,

PC Martin
Seattle

Scungebob Smearpants

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Nov 18, 2002, 9:37:26 PM11/18/02

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The Fender active MDX boost circuit as used on the Clapton Strat
is quite affordable. I bought it from Fender's main parts dealer
(Smart Parts) for...well, I can't remember the price, but it was
very fair. I bought it to complete the rebuild on a (modified)
Fender Elite Stratocaster. I did it with Clapton electronics
and gold Lace Sensors. (They charged me 35 bucks for the SET of
three pickups...sounds like a mistake, but that's what they
charged me! 35 bucks for all three, not per pickup!)

As I was rebuilding an Elite, but the original type pickups
weren't available, I had to custom make my own pickguard
and I elected to go with the original 3 pushbutton switching
system as used on Elites. I really like this pickup switching
system and would highly recommend it. You get all possible
tones, pure and simple.

Smart Parts. Give them a call.

CJ

PC Martin Seattle

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Nov 19, 2002, 2:45:55 AM11/19/02

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Thanks for the helpful reply, Scungebob.

Since posting my initial inquiry here I got an email back from the
Fender Online Store. They said the mid boost kit is still available
but that it's on back order. They, too, referred me to Smart Parts
and I have an email in to them. Apparently, some Fender dealers just
don't try too hard on small orders...

By the way, thirty-five bucks for a set of Lace Sensor Golds is a real
coup! Right now Smart Parts has them listed at $40 a pop. You have
bragging rights for life...

Thanks again. I really appreciate your input.

All the best,

PC Martin
Seattle

Satnam Singh

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Nov 19, 2002, 5:56:40 AM11/19/02

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EMG has a mid boost with concentric knobs, one for sweeping turnover
point, the other for boost (12db + or -, I think).

Never used it, but I've had an EMG mini humbucker in a strat for 20 years
that I love.

They also have a cheaper, pared down device that gives mid boost without
selectable turnover. I think they sell it as "turn a single coil into a
humbucker" device. Roger Gilmore of Pink Floyd has this in his set up for
the past 15 years.

James

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Nov 19, 2002, 3:51:04 PM11/19/02

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When I was looking for an on-board preamp, I went through all the loops and
ended up with an EMG.

The EMG is very flexible, quiet, and one 9V battery lasts a long, long, long
time.

The boost can be adjusted from 0 to 25 db's with very, very little noise.
It is also easy to install.

I needed to be able to add a rough, Chicago blues tone to an otherwise clean
Strat. Instead of messing with stomp boxes, I put it on-board and it is
great.

As mentioned by another poster, the EMG DG20 is exactly what Gilmour uses.

~J~

"Satnam Singh" <kha...@attglobal.net> wrote in message
news:3DDA18E8...@attglobal.net...

PC Martin Seattle

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Nov 19, 2002, 8:20:55 PM11/19/02

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Thank you, Satnam -- I'll check out EMG's offerings.

By the way, I had a little brain freeze when describing my wiring
plans in my original post. The parallel/series switching will NOT be
within a single pickup (i.e., between rails) -- the two rails of each
pickup will always be wired in series. The parellel/series switching
will be for combinations of pickups, e.g., Neck + Mid, Neck + Bridge,
Mid + Bridge, and Bridge-Neckmost + Bridge-Bridgemost.

Anyway, I'm anxious to finish up the project, so if anyone else wants
to chime in, now's the time!

All the best from Rain City USA...

PC Martin
Seattle

Paul Creedy

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Nov 20, 2002, 2:58:35 AM11/20/02

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"PC Martin Seattle" <pc_m...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:7959779e.02111...@posting.google.com...

> Thank you, Satnam -- I'll check out EMG's offerings.
>
> By the way, I had a little brain freeze when describing my wiring
> plans in my original post. The parallel/series switching will NOT be
> within a single pickup (i.e., between rails) -- the two rails of each
> pickup will always be wired in series. The parellel/series switching
> will be for combinations of pickups, e.g., Neck + Mid, Neck + Bridge,
> Mid + Bridge, and Bridge-Neckmost + Bridge-Bridgemost.

I've got a cheap Jackson that I wired so you can switch between
series/parallel and in/out of phase on the bridge pickup and you can
certainly notice the difference, so don't be too quick to dismiss it as
brain freeze..... ;o)

Paul

PC Martin Seattle

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Nov 20, 2002, 12:29:45 PM11/20/02

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Thanks, Paul --

Actually, the bridge pickup is a QuadRail (essentially two DualRails
side-by-side) and I *am* planning on having series/parallel switching
between the two DualRails that it consists of. (That's what I meant
by the "Bridge-Neckmost + Bridge-Bridgemost" combination.) What I'm
probably NOT going to do is provide series/parallel switching WITHIN a
single pickup, i.e. between rails. As I understand it, this would
yield extremely low output (6K ohms DualRail => 3K per rail => 1.5K in
parallel). I don't know if the addition of an active midboost/preamp
would compensate for the extreme differences in output among different
pickup selections that would result:

Combo Combo Combo Combo
Series/ Parallel/ Series/ Parallel/
5-Way Rail Rail Rail Rail
Switch PUs Series Series Parallel Parallel

1 Neck Only 6K 6K 1.5K 1.5K

2 Neck+Mid 12K 3K 3K 0.75K

3 Neck+Bridge
--unsplit 18K 12K 4.5K 2.75K
Neck+Bridge
--split 12K 3K 3K 0.75K

4 Mid+Bridge
--unsplit 18K 12K 4.5K 2.75K
Mid+Bridge
--split 12K 3K 3K 0.75K

5 Bridge Only
--unsplit 12K 3K 3K 0.75K
Bridge Only
--split 6K 6K 1.5K 1.5K

My tech tells me that with my DualRail/DualRail/QuadRail pickups,
phase switching will probably not generate an "interesting enough"
addition to the palette of tones to justify the additional complexity
of controls. (In fairness, I should point out that I'm not a huge fan
of three-position toggles -- I find it a little too hard to hit the
middle position on the fly.)

Anyway, I'm a neophyte at this and I'm having to rely pretty heavily
on input from my tech and all of you folks out there (and I appreciate
your input IMMENSELY). I would *like* to have a single two-position
switch for series/parallel switching covering ALL pickup combinations
and a single two-position switch for splitting the bridge humbucker,
but my tech is grousing about the difficulty of finding an 8PDT switch
and the feasibility of even wiring it this way. He's pushing for one
two-way switch for controlling series parallel for the neck+mid,
neck+bridge, and mid+bridge combinations (I may have thrown in an
extra combination there...), and one three-way switch for controlling
series/parallel/split within the bridge.

All I really can be sure of with respect to the wiring and controls is
that my head is about to explode. Hopefully, I'll get a handle on all
of this some day... In the meantime, any and all thoughts in this
regard are welcome!!!

Thanks again for your feedback, guys.

zara

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Nov 21, 2023, 4:08:37 AM11/21/23

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Feb 16, 2024, 11:27:28 PM2/16/24

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