The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi Craig,
Thankyou for the complement.Blue is my favourite colour( however my steel is black!! Lol)
I pride myself in how I mounted the Jack.If you look at the inside it is strengthened by a piece of copper cut from sheeting,drilled a jack hole then I covered the copper on one side with solder.After setting I positioned over the Jack hole on tin and remelted the solder with a butane torch and allowed to set in position.Hay ho the Jack area is now strengthened .A large blue sprayed washer is seen on outside of tin to give more purchase .

Hi Again Craig,
If I lighten the colour up on tin it won't be to my liking anymore and could therefore sound different !

Dave,
I did notice your washer. . . great idea to stiffen the can.

As I said, I can't explain the relationship of the bright blue color to the sound. I think it's along the line of black steels sounding better. LOL.

All the best,
Craig

Hi again Craig and George,
Latest update......got the new caps this morning ....10 minutes on workbench and it was reconfigured ,also to include an " idiot" diode on + side of battery to earth .See photo.
Just plugged it into my Mullen RP. All I can say is WOW ! The guitar has suddenly come even more alive than I thought possible.String separation is amazing with lots of fine detail,even the low strings growl in an amazing fashion.Harmonics are picked out so well and easily too.I will use this over my first DIY buffer earlier in thread.
Thanks all you guys for the theoretical help in my quest to build this buffer.I just need a better way of securing battery inside.I am using Velcro at moment .Due to space constraints a big battery holder like my first attempt would not be an option.Any thoughts.
Regards Dave.

Steven Paris wrote:...Some have posted that the outputs of some pedal steel guitars "overload" the front end of old Fender amps---is this true? Anybody done any research on this?

A typically hot PSG pickup can very easily overdrive the first input-tube stage on a Fender amp when plugged directly into the amp without a volume pedal. But, most pedal steelers play well below 50% on the volume pedal travel and this essentially reduces the signal voltage at the amp's input to about 1/10th the original voltage. In that case, it's pretty hard to overdrive a Fender input. I find that the people who complain about that tend to play way to hot on the volume pedal.

John Hughey used to say he played at around 15% of the volume pedal travel and that left him 85% of available volume pedal sustain.

If I play steel into a Fender amp, I can most definitely begin to hear the ghost harmonics if the volume pedal is high, above 50% travel. But since that kind of volume pedal level is only reserved for a soft and decaying note, overdrive never really comes into play.


B

Dave,
You might try double faced tape. 3M makes some that can support many pounds and would easily stabilize your battery.

By the way, if you put a lithium battery in there, it might last for years. (I sure wish you'd work on that color.) LOL

Craig

Thank you once again Craig and George,
Will try both battery ideas.On a different tack would it be possible to switch on / off the resistor and cap cap tone boost mod you drew George.If so where would you switch it on diagram and would it need an anti pop addition ....if so what and where.Sorry to keep picking your brains but I am really now into these things for my set up.Craig I will work on another shade of blue lol

You might try just put a shorting switch across the 27pf cap, thus taking the circuit back to a simple buffer. With no voltage going through the circuit, I wouldn't expect a noticeable "pop". Keep in mind that the offending voltage may either be leaking dc or audio signal. (switching while the music is being played.) Let us know your results Dave.

Craig

Battery restraint: You could try a piece of (non-conductive) foam rubber in the circular shape of the case. If it's the right thickness, when you put the cover on it should form itself around the innards and provide enough "fill" to keep things from moving around.

ajm,
Good call, can't get much easier than that !

Georg,
With a well-designed buffer, do you really need a high boost? Just the advantage of low impedance should bring back the high frequencies that (before using a buffer) were previously being attenuated.

Many of my customers have told me they can reduce the presence and treble controls and yet experience pleasing overtones they've never heard before.

Craig

Hi again George and Craig,
Tried the 27 cap shorting with a piece of wire ,result no change.I may try the 120 cap as you say George ,or I may just leave alone .The sound the thro a peavey bandit 100 transtube is amazingly clear and bright.Thro my Vegas 400 it is still amazingly very clear but the speaker imparts a certain mellowness ,plus the EQ is differently voiced too.All very subjective ,but certainly a vast improvement over a non buffered signal chain.I am certainly very pleased with my efforts and time spent over this.Now let's see which is best battery holding set up ....thank you ajm for the foam tip too ,could be a winner !
Regards again Dave.
.

Hi George,
Maybe I went wrong .I just put a wire between the 27 cap .I also tried disconnecting and reconnecting the 120 cap to earth and no change. What PIN numbers would you short on the op amp.
Regardless the buffer is defo. more top end than my first buffer with standard non negative feedback.
I have looked at diagram you gave and mine seems wired as per.
Regards Dave

Looking at circuit I should connect 2 to 6 with none of the resistor / cap network ? Would you break at 2 onto a dpdt switch one thro the network and the other pole a wire straight to 6 ?
Dave.

Hi again George,
The saga continues.I think the electronic shop gave me the wrong value resistors.The colours are Brown ,2 blacks ,green and purple .I think it should be orange white yellow gold for 390 K .Would this thro the HF network out?
The 100K seems correct.

Hi George,
Looks like the shop have given me the wrong values again !.They may have got their stock mixed up or something.The girl behind the counter only goes on product codes which are in designated bins by the look of things.I will take a meter with me and start the HF loop again.
I will report back next week. If that is ok .Hope I am not pestering too much.
Regards Dave.

Georg, Dave. . .
Might be my misunderstanding, but from what Dave stated, With that green band in the mix, I get 10 megohms @ 1% tolerance.
A big departure from the 390 K. (Dave, your 390 K colors are correct.)

Craig

Here's a link to handy resistor color calculator. . .

http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/r ... ulator.php


Craig