FInaly my own Black Box

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

After moving house cross continent and waiting a LOOONG time.
My personal Steel Guitar Black Box got here.
Actually it spent a full month in the local post office,
because they neglected to
a) log it in,( went to check)
and
b) notify me it was here for a FULL month.

No matter, I used one at ISGC, and knew in 2 seconds ;
That I would have one,
and that Brad's lil box would only get better.

Mine is a slightly custom unit, with tuner output
and a variable impeadance knob, like on the Revelation preamp,
(which is also coming to me next month).
I wanted the last because I am a tone freak and wanted the most versatile studio tool possible for many instrument choices.
Not JUST steel.
Besides I have D-10 AND S14 pickups,
plus guitar and 6 string electric mandolin to put though these units.

Brad being the listening, glad to help, guy he is, accomidated me.
Merci!

OK I KNEW it was great from ISGC,
but last night I brought it to the gig,
and plugged the lead player into it.

Semi hollowbody w/ bright humbuckers and coil cut switchs,
into SGBB, into Tubscreamer pedal
into Line 6 amp.

Eventually Roland picked around 11 oclock on the impedance knob
to match the amps existing settings.

He wailed all night.
Lighter, faster, jazzier and bluesier,
and with a lot of feeling.
Many harmonics sustained longer than normal,
tone was very "maliable" to finger and pick changes.
He was smiling and we had a great night;
one of the best sets in awhile.

It really did wonders for the Tubescreamer's tone on leads too.
It seemed to feed the distortion unit sounds that it really liked a lot.
Interesting that it could improve the sound of a transitor based distortion unit...

I guess a better harmonic series to then distort.

So it was a total success and another happy camper
plugged in and didn't want to let it go.
It will go to the next gig too for sure.

Thanks Brad, for getting me this special unit.
It's a winner,
as is the stock unit I tried, A/B, at ISGC.
(And have had a basketball jones over ever since.)

I can't wait for the Revelation to get here next month...TEE HEE!

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 23 December 2005 at 10:27 PM.]

David Wren · From: Placerville, California, USA

Santa brought me a BB also. For the inital tryout I plugged my 1970 MSA into it.... holey cow! What a amazing difference in overall fullness in tone, and complete response across ALL the strings. The best way to describe it was as if I had changed the 6 month-old-strings to brand new.... can't wait to use it on stage with my Carter. Oh yeah, I use a tube screamer as well, so sounds like good news for that application too!

Thanks Brad! Thanks Santa!

------------------
Dave Wren
'95Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; Session500; Hilton Pedal
www.ameechapman.com

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Well mine was purchased by the Halloween Ghost,
for delivery by the Thanksgiving Turkey,
only to be lost till xmas... But Santa DID find it for me ..

I tried it on the Pro-II last night for a practice,
but through my Bass Bus portable contra bass amp.

It DEFINITLY helped the sound big time,
and also on electric guitar in the same set up.

I used a still warmer impedance setting than for the Line 6 amp.
But it really added clarity to the C6 neck, and warmth to the E9.

We have a hotel gig this New Years, 4 different band sounds ;
from pure acoustic blues and, classic country,
through mellow jazz, to full rock band.
We are ALL four bands with different instrumentation and songs.

The SGBB will be played through in all but the totally acoustic set.
Well MAYBE my Fishman mandolin pick up into the BB...
hmmmm

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 27 December 2005 at 09:53 PM.]

Roger Francis · From: kokomo,Indiana, USA

Brad, is this an upgrade on the BB or is it something you did by request? And what's the benefits

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Roger this vari-Impedance control is something
I had been discussing with Brad off and on for quite some time,
and is on the new Revelation pre-amp.

So yes, this was a special request.

I won't speak for Brad, but is "I think" a "possible upgrade path".

I don't know if Brad is considering offering it commercially,
his plate is pretty full with existing orders.

I will say I am VERY glad I have it.

Benifits are that I get the ability to change
the interaction of the tube front end to pickup frequncy center.

It could be described as being able to
smoothly dial between the preamp sounds of :
Vox AC-30, through Fender Twin, too Marshal major,
and pick the one I like, before any amp I choose.

The impedance of the preamp to the coil and it's magnetic resonance / resitance can be changed.
This means how the pick up electrically reads and transmits the strings energy is changed to differing ranges.
Or different tones

Similar to changing to a different wound pickup changing the tone.
In that case the AMP doesn't change, but the coil to static impedance does.

i hope that is relativelty clear...

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 28 December 2005 at 07:51 AM.]

Jeff Agnew · From: Dallas, TX

Based on what Brad told me while discussing my new Revelation, the Vari-Z is now standard on the Black Box. And he did offer to upgrade my BB for a minimal charge.

I envision using the Vari-Z somewhat like the Tilt control on a Steel King -- dial in your sound and tweak it to compensate for room/stage conditions. Not the only way to use it, of course, but seems a really nice benefit.

Roger Francis · From: kokomo,Indiana, USA

Thanks Dave for the info, i guess i'll have to ask Brad about the upgrade and i'm sure he is a busy man rite now.
Jeff, what was the price for the upgrade? or should i ask Brad?
Thanks, Roger

[This message was edited by Roger Francis on 28 December 2005 at 08:22 AM.]

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Hi Roger. Yea, I've recently added the vari-z to the Black Boxes. That's why the price went up by $15. I'll do the mod for any black box owner for $15 if you cover the shipping both ways (typically totals about $18 for shipping round trip). I hope to be set up in Dallas to do it on the spot for people too. The stock Black Boxes have the Z (impedance) fixed at 450kOhms. The vari-Z goes from 50k to 1Meg. It acts sort of like a tone control for the pickup itself, but it's not exactly a tone control. It's weirder and cooler. Most of the time I leave my Vari-Z set at around 450k. That's why I settled on that for the BB, but it is cool to be able to tweak that value a bit so we've now implemented the control as a stock feature.

Brad
www.steelguitarblackbox.com

[This message was edited by Brad Sarno on 28 December 2005 at 03:47 PM.]

Chris Erbacher · From: Sausalito, California, USA

hey brad, are you currently taking orders on the revelation preamp? i tried to send you an email, but i'm not sure if it got to you.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Yeah, weirder and cooler.

It is sort of like a tone control crossed with
a mid-range center frequency shift control.
And yet still cooler and weirder.

I think much of the reason we historically have been
attracted to different amps for different uses, and not neccessarily one for all uses,
like a steel amp for Tele and Shobud,
or Bass amp for steel or Les Paul,

is that each amp has a differing input impedance,
thus giving it an optimised character relative to it's speaker and cabinet type.

Fenders with closed cabs sometimes had a slightly diiferent input impedance than the open back ones.
A few ohms one way or the other, shifting it's tonal range
to match the cab's character.

And a Vox AC-30 has a very different In. Im. than a Marshall.

Yeah. cooler and weirder.
And absolutely worth the $15 and shipping IMHO.

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