Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

That's why I had to ask you earlier. I wasn't sure if you were talking about a Boss pedal!

A friend wants to try out some of my pedals, so I'm sitting here with an SD-1 in my hand while I type. Not cool for those of us who can't walk and chew gum at the same time.
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

Love that you guys have been so busy with the R&D this year. It's good to see the company working hard on bringing fresh, new ideas to the market.

For a company that has such a handle on classic pickup designs, SD has really become quite cutting-edge in the last few years.

Blackouts. P-rails. Triple-shots. Now the Liberator and this crazy-assed thing...

They might not all be my personal cup o' T but I have to give it to you guys for not sitting on your laurels and just selling your boatloads of JBs to the Japanese.
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

A friend wants to try out some of my pedals, so I'm sitting here with an SD-1 in my hand while I type. Not cool for those of us who can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

I was pretty sure you meant the Booster. If you figure that Seymour Duncan's initials are "SD", and both pedals use the number "1" as the model number, it's an easy mistake to make. :cool2:
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

Love that you guys have been so busy with the R&D this year. It's good to see the company working hard on bringing fresh, new ideas to the market.

For a company that has such a handle on classic pickup designs, SD has really become quite cutting-edge in the last few years.

Blackouts. P-rails. Triple-shots. Now the Liberator and this crazy-assed thing...

They might not all be my personal cup o' T but I have to give it to you guys for not sitting on your laurels and just selling your boatloads of JBs to the Japanese.

Great post. I agree wholeheartedly.
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

We might be surprised how well this works with high-output pickups. The higher impedance a coil has, the more it suffers driving the electronics in the guitar, the cable, and the input of the amp. If one took, say, a Super 3 and hooked it up, each coil would only be driving it's own super-high impedance preamp stage - I'm willing to bet it would open up quite a bit. If I had one I'd try it.
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

. If one took, say, a Super 3 and hooked it up, each coil would only be driving it's own super-high impedance preamp stage - I'm willing to bet it would open up quite a bit. If I had one I'd try it.

Larry..can you at least somewhat TRY to disguise your identity here?
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

I would guess you would also need to replace the output jack to take the preamp out of the circuit in order to save the battery like most actives?
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

So...into an already tight control cavity you'll now have to install the large booster part ALONG WITH a 9 volt battery? Where are you going to find room for that? Nice idea but some folks are probably going to get this without thinking this part through. Almost all of my cavities do not have room for all this extra stuff. I like the concept but I'll bet some folks are going to get a little angry when they spend a bunch of money for something that doesn't fit. (just being the contrarian here)
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

I'd definately get one to try, ...a push-pull for bypassing it would be a good idea though..
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

Ughh, I'm starting to seriously hate the way the term "organic" is thrown around like that.
I can barely take the word seriously anymore in most contexts in regard to guitar gear it's used in.
The concept seems quite interesting, but seeing how conservative and traditionalist most guitarists are, it doesn't seem like it would have much appeal at all.
I think the Blackouts are a great pickup for leads, or if you're doing that virtuoso shred metal thing in general, but the EMGs definitely win for high gain rhythm guitar.
For these reasons, I use both EMGs and Blackouts, but I will admit I would love to see a 7 string Blackout that has a tighter lower end/lower mids and a bit less output (I agree on the sentiments of the Blackouts being a little too hot) while still retaining the low noise qualities that I love about the Blackouts
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

My solution to the cavity size problem was I use to take a plastic box, a 9v battery clip, a battery, a toggle switch, a mono output jack and a stereo 1/4" plug. I wired them up so that +9v went to one portion of the stereo plug and the other portion carried the output signal. On the guitar I replaced the output jack with a 9 pin stereo jack and viola I had power via an external battery.

I plugged this box into the guitar jack and plugged my cable into the box. I used the toggle switch to turn off the battery without unplugging the box. It may have looked clunky but it worked great for my R&D projects.
 
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Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

So...into an already tight control cavity you'll now have to install the large booster part ALONG WITH a 9 volt battery? Where are you going to find room for that? Nice idea but some folks are probably going to get this without thinking this part through. Almost all of my cavities do not have room for all this extra stuff. I like the concept but I'll bet some folks are going to get a little angry when they spend a bunch of money for something that doesn't fit. (just being the contrarian here)

Could route the cavity a bit? Just sayin'.
Your guitar wont suddenly lose all it's sustain if you do that.
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

My solution to the cavity size problem was I use to take a plastic box, a 9v battery clip, a battery, a toggle switch, a mono output jack and a stereo 1/4" plug. I wired them up so that +9v went to one portion of the stereo plug and the other portion carried the output signal. On the guitar I replaced the output jack with a 9 pin stereo jack and viola I had power via an external battery.

I plugged this box into the guitar jack and plugged my cable into the box. I used the toggle switch to turn off the battery without unplugging the box. It may have looked clunky but it worked great for my R&D projects.

I forget who makes it, but I remember seeing an external box of some sort that you place on your pedalboard, and supplies phantom power to active pickups.

I'll have to see if I can find it.

I actually found a couple of different ones. Here's one of them. http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/PMTXBAT9

And here's something our own idsnowdog posted last year.https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=158422
 
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Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

I forget who makes it, but I remember seeing an external box of some sort that you place on your pedalboard, and supplies phantom power to active pickups.

I'll have to see if I can find it.
I have made my own phantom power box just like he describes. I also have also posted the schematic here in the past.
 
Re: Now You Can "Blackout" Any Passive Pickup

I might as well ask my question on a related thread.

Do the Blackouts gain boost and saturate the output level like EMGs? It's the lack of dynamic range from actives that I don't like.

Can Blackouts be run at 18V?
 
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