SD Pickup Booster straight forward queston

[SJ318]

Hi,
I have a 2001 or so SD Pick up Booster when they first came out. Love it. Do the new ones sound "better" or different besides the more attractive pedal cosmetics?
My old is red, is true bypassed, and seems very transparent.
Open to other "Klon" type transparent pedals w/out the 1,000 dollar on up price tag. Still love myself old pickup booster, just asking,
Thanks,
Steve "Smokestack" Buffington.

 

[Mincer]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

I believe there was some component change in there somewhere, and the whole package is a little more robust, but that's it. The new ones sound just as good to me.

 

[SJ318]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Thanks Mincer,
I,ll try it out Friday. Have a pretigious gig on Saturday. Place will be jammed with every guitarist in the Seattle Tacoma Area. Haven't played live in exactly one year!
MINCER- hey, it says you are an administrator, can you tell me how I can see on this Duncan site the difference between a white double coil humbucker and a "PARCHMENT" double coil humbucker. It is like a Rubik Cube trying to find any pictures. White of course is white (MJ made me one) but parchment could be too much cream, or too close to white, etc. sure would appreciate it!
Steve Buffington

 

[YeRedHouseOverYonder]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

SD parchment is closer to white than cream. For reference, here is a parchment humbucker next to a cream '78 (both SD of course).

 

[Mincer]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Yeah, RedHouse got to this first. It isn't really cream. More like 'white dipped in coffee'.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

I think the main difference between the old and new Pickup Booster is that you can set the new one for unity gain, whereas the old one had a minimum boost of 6dB.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

SD parchment is closer to white than cream. For reference, here is a parchment humbucker next to a cream '78 (both SD of course).

It's perhaps worth mentioning that S.D.'s parchment is different than Fender's parchment. Fender's parchment is very subtly off white. It's more of a "dirty white" than a "creamy white." It's really quite neutral in color, but tamped down a bit in brightness from pure white. It's easy to miss it if you don't see it next to a pure white guard or pickup. OTOH, S.D.'s parchment is noticeably – though not extremely – warm in color, even when you don't have a pure white reference point.

Point being, you will see a color difference if you put a parchment Duncan pickup in a Fender parchment guard, and you will also see a color difference if you put a parchment Duncan in a cream Les Paul ring. Parchment Duncans clash the least with their surrounding when they are used in dark guards or dark pickup rings IMO.

Also worth mentioning that Duncan's white bobbins do eventually yellow to something resembling Duncan parchment (but not all the way to cream IME).

 

[SJ318]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Mincer, yeRedHouseOverYonder, ItsaBass, stevie_bees -
Thank you. That was very helpful. Question to ItsaBass, the old for real LP's had more of a semi cream ring and the white coils looked to be more parchment than white. On my re-fin Partocaster the guitar is Snow-white, nothing parchment about it, so the white coils I have from MJ and ECityPickups look great.
For laughs I held up a white coiled HB in my old LP "cream" ring and it looked terribly out of place. The LP I re-finned in honey/maple, semi gloss shine. Would a parch. HB look better in that or are there "other "rings" out their besides cream/black/stark white, as I have not seen them at other parts stores like Allparts, etc.
Thanks for pickup booster info, if it is the same with the little switch and unity gain is the only difference, that fine by me.
Thank you, very helpful.
Steve Buffington

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Your Les Paul probably has cream rings, so cream pick ups would look best, not parchment ones.

 

[Mincer]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

I don't know how SD's parchment ages, but their white never stays bright white. Either way, neither of them approach traditional cream.

 

[NjuiMusic]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

other cool Klones would be the EHX Soul Food, especially the JHS modded one, or the Archer is really cool from what I hear. the Way Huge Saucy box is also really good!

 

[Artie]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

I think the main difference between the old and new Pickup Booster is that you can set the new one for unity gain, whereas the old one had a minimum boost of 6dB.

However, the old one had a 470k input impedance, whereas the new one is 250k. I dirt simple mod, (that I do), is to lift one wire on the footswitch, add in a 470k resistor, and voilà . . . virtually 1M input Z and gain goes from unity to 20db. Basically, the 470k input resistor creates a -6db L-pad that performs both functions.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled thread.

 

[jeremy]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

does it matter what wire? do you notice a big different between the 470k and 1M resistance? the 6db minimum boost doesnt bother me

 

[leevc5]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Since the thread is twisting and turning I'd like to throw a quasi pup booster question out there. Why hasn't SD come out with an EQ pedal? The technology from the pup booster and the 805 EQ excellent capabilities (not to mention the Palladium which I have heard is even better) should give SD a strong foundation for creating a whole new level of EQ pedal. When looking for tone the guitar, the amp and a good EQ pedal are the main ingredients in my opinion.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Maybe because then people would realize that they really don't need to buy aftermarket pickups.

 

[jeremy]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

i dont agree with that. eq pedals can do great things but i dont see them as being the same or a replacement for having the right pup

 

[leevc5]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

i dont agree with that. eq pedals can do great things but i dont see them as being the same or a replacement for having the right pup

I'm not trying to be a smart ass.

What is the "right" pup?
Today more than ever guitarists are being demanded to cover an ever widening range of music to please an audience. So, you can lug six guitars around with different pup configs or have one guitar with the right pup set. That pup set would have to cover a broad tonal range so that adjustments could be made by cutting various frequencies to achieve the tone you need for a particular tune. You obviously can't add anything to a pup that is not already there.

Does SD make a pup that has a very broad tonal range? Antiquities maybe?

 

[Mincer]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Well, even 'broad tonal range' is subjective. Antiquites are clean, clear, and open. So is the Jazz. Both are great with additional EQ, or not.

 

[Artie]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

does it matter what wire? do you notice a big different between the 470k and 1M resistance? the 6db minimum boost doesnt bother me

You unsolder the brown wire from the switch, and insert the resistor there. If there is a difference in sound, it's subtle. When I first did this, I added a switch, so that I could flip the resistor in & out of the circuit. The problem with that was that taking the resistor out, also brought back the 6db boost. That difference was much more profound and masked any difference the input Z might have had.

The main I reason I even messed with this was that in the past, some members have voiced a concern about the the lower input impedance, while others wished they could use it as a straight buffer, with no boost. This was just an experiment to see how easy it would be. Turned out to be dirt simple, so I left it in.

In this pic, I initially used a trim-pot so that I could play with different values. I haven't gotten around to swapping it out for a straight resistor yet. I'll probably do that tonight.

Edit: I accidently misspoke, since it's been awhile since I did this mod. For the sake of anyone who might try this, the trim pot was not for experimentation purposes, but to tweak the value until the gain was at true unity. I used a signal generator and a 'scope, but you could do it while you had someone playing the guitar. Turns out that 344K was the exact value needed on this particular pedal to achieve unity gain with the gain knob all the way down. The trim pot stays.

 

[jeremy]

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

Re: SD Pickup Booster straight forward queaston

the right pup is the one that works best for you in a specific guitar.

i play one guitar all night unless i break a string then i use the backup. if i break a string on the backup then i have crappy luck and need to change a string. my backup might be totally different than the other one and thats fine. almost any of my guitars can cover the blues/rock stuff i do and sound good doing it with a simple rig. are some guitars more suited to one thing over another, sure, but that doesnt mean they cant sound great anyway.

what type of band are you in that you are demanded to lug six guitars to a gig to please the audience? the audience knows there is a guitar player and maybe if they suck or not. thats about it. the guitar players in the audience will notice a lot more but they are the minority usually.

eq pedals are great for shaping sound but i dont think they make one pup sound like another. sure you can take a 59 and pull back some bottom, add some mids, and cut some high end but that doesnt make it sound like an aph