Dear folks,
A few days ago I built a very nice treble booster that apparently sounded a bit too quiet (reference here:
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/246132/treble-booster-vs-boost-with-3-knob-eq/p1). After testing it with some commercial cables, I came to the conclusion that my nice looking tweedy DIY cable was sucking BOTH tone AND volume. It's not a very long cable (10ft tops) and it's got Neutrik plugs on both ends. I hadn't noticed this issue with the Bandit, but now that I'm spending most of my time playing through valve amps it's become pretty obvious – the DIY cable needs more volume from the guitar to get the amp to edge of breakup nirvana. So there must be something wrong at either or both ends of the cable.
My main worry now, and it's becoming a bit of a panic considering my fucking obsession with detail and inability to 'let go', is that I don't know if the myriad DIY cables connecting my pedalboard are OK.
Is there a way to use a multimeter to 'measure tone suck'? I've also got an audio interface with jack inputs – I might be able to do something with it, but it would be tedious to test every little cable (got many).
Thanks!
Jon
Comments
If often doesn't show up well on a multimeter for some reason - but it's normally much more noticeable than just a little bit of tone and volume suck, so the simplest way is just to compare each cable with a known good one, connecting the guitar to the amp - or if too short for that, a bypassed true-bypass pedal to the amp. If it sounds the same, there's no problem.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Every day is a school day.
My trading feedback: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/210335/yorkie
My trading feedback: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/210335/yorkie
My trading feedback: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/210335/yorkie
My trading feedback: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/210335/yorkie
My trading feedback: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/210335/yorkie
Nice work, that doubled shielded cable catches a lot of people out. A lot of mic cable also uses a semiconducting sheaf as well and needs to be peeled back a bit.
One thing I always do is remove the semiconductor layer about 8mm from the end, strip it, tin the conductor and then put a bit of heatshrink over it.
What can happen is too much heat can squash and stretch the insulation on the conductor and it's possible then to get a capacitive fault that won't register on you meter as that uses DC to measure but will degrade an AC audio signal.
I recently swapped my Tu-3 (buffered) for a Korg Pitchblack poly (true bypass with a relay operated switch). I immediately started noticing popping and other strange noises whenever I used the tuner (which mutes the output). Plus popping noises every time I switched between pickups. Sounded just like a capacitor discharging
I have spent a few minutes removing pedals and cables, and there it was: the cable right after the tuner. Subbed it for another one, and now I get basically the same sound going direct vs all pedals on bypass. And the noises are gone.
My trading feedback: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/210335/yorkie