Alembic stratoblaster as inductance matcher and somnium guitars?

[Tatowarrior]

Hi, I am building a guitar with exchangeable pickups and I am trying to solve the passive/active situation. I have done a fair bit of research and have everything figured out except the inductance matching device, I once saw somewhere in a forum a guy talking about using the stratoblaster but I don't know how would that work, Just install it and find the sweet spot with the pot? I also wanted to know if there would be any changes in tone, in the page they say the following: "Opinion around the FuzzDog listening lab is that this gives a punchy presence rather than just a straight boost, and slightly accentuates the midrange. Could just be aural hallucinations..." but I still wanted to know if it is worth using it or if the tone would just change too much.
I also recently saw a video about somnium guitars, I didn't know they existed when I started my project. The question is about the same thing: how do they get around the inductance matching problem? there seems to be a PCB underneath the pickups.

 

[freefrog]

Re: Alembic stratoblaster as inductance matcher and somnium guitars?

Hi, I am building a guitar with exchangeable pickups and I am trying to solve the passive/active situation. I have done a fair bit of research and have everything figured out except the inductance matching device, I once saw somewhere in a forum a guy talking about using the stratoblaster but I don't know how would that work, Just install it and find the sweet spot with the pot? I also wanted to know if there would be any changes in tone, in the page they say the following: "Opinion around the FuzzDog listening lab is that this gives a punchy presence rather than just a straight boost, and slightly accentuates the midrange. Could just be aural hallucinations..." but I still wanted to know if it is worth using it or if the tone would just change too much.
I also recently saw a video about somnium guitars, I didn't know they existed when I started my project. The question is about the same thing: how do they get around the inductance matching problem? there seems to be a PCB underneath the pickups.

The Stratoblaster is a good straightforward and small preamp, easy to build (I've made one with parts found on the shelfs and it took me a few minutes)... but if you put it at the output of the guitar, the tone of your passive PU's won't be softened by stray capacitance, hence the comment that you quote about the "punchy presence" apparently added by this preamp (in fact it's not "added": it's due to the RLC filter formed by the pickups + wiring and pots).

Now, a Stratoblaster should be able to give a "normal" tone if you fit it with a volume trim pot AND if you add a cap between hot and ground just BEFORE the input of the preamp. If you want to know why, read what I've tried to share about cable capacitance in my recent answers to Burnhaven, in his two topics. .

 

[Tatowarrior]

Re: Alembic stratoblaster as inductance matcher and somnium guitars?

The Stratoblaster is a good straightforward and small preamp, easy to build (I've made one with parts found on the shelfs and it took me a few minutes)... but if you put it at the output of the guitar, the tone of your passive PU's won't be softened by stray capacitance, hence the comment that you quote about the "punchy presence" apparently added by this preamp (in fact it's not "added": it's due to the RLC filter formed by the pickups + wiring and pots).

Now, a Stratoblaster should be able to give a "normal" tone if you fit it with a volume trim pot AND if you add a cap between hot and ground just BEFORE the input of the preamp. If you want to know why, read what I've tried to share about cable capacitance in my recent answers to Burnhaven, in his two topics. .

Thanks! As I am trying to mix passives and actives the preamps need to be before the pots, I guess that that's not ideal then.