Black Ice passive overdrive

ChuckManual

After doing some double-tracking with a clean neck single coil and a meatily overdriven bridge humbucker, I've become totally enamoured with the sound and want to replicate it live.  However, short of having a guitar with an output for each pickup - and those outputs then feeding a two amp set-up, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to do it.

Then I discovered this;

https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Components_and_Parts/Black_Ice_Overdrive/Black_Ice.html

It seems like the perfect solution. (installed on the bridge pickup only, of course!)

Has anyone here used the Black Ice system ...or something similar?

All help gratefully received...

ICBM

It won't work on just the bridge pickup when both are selected together, because they're in parallel. It's nothing special anyway - it's not an 'overdrive', it's a simple diode clipper which relies on the natural voltage output of the pickup to work, and is pretty weedy even with very powerful pickups. (And contains about 50p-worth of parts, for what it's worth...)

The only easy solution to what you want is dual outputs from the guitar. Rickenbacker do this as standard on some models, and it works extremely well, exactly as you describe - with different effects or amps, it sounds like two guitars double-tracked perfectly in unison. You can either use one amp or two.

A more complicated solution would be to build an overdrive circuit and a simple mixer into the guitar, which would need to be active.

monquixote

I have one in a guitar and never use it because it sounds shit.

Get an overdrive with a blend control.

ChuckManual

Exactly the sort of answers I've grown to love this place for! 

Cheers, chaps.