#31
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Then I saw that it only ships within the USA. Darn it...
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Gibson ES-335 Studio 2016; Furch OM34sr 2015; Fender MiJ Geddy Lee Jazz bass, 2009; Taylor 414CE 2005; Guild D35 NT 1976; Fender MIM Classic 60s Tele 2008; Fender US Standard Strat 1992; G&L ASAT classic hollowbody 2005; Ibanez RG350MDX 2010(?); Ibanez Musician fretless, 1980s; Seymour Duncan Tube 84-40; Vox AC4TV; Ex-pat Brit in Sweden
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#32
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Maybe someone who owns a ToneDextor could chime in and give us the rundown? |
#33
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The Tondexter develops a wave map or image through a learning process. It compares your guitar’s pickup output with the reading from a microphone taken simultaneously. It’s a similar thought process for Fishman, except that they use the same Fishman (Matrix) pickup for every image. So, if you have a Matrix, the Aura works well. Tonedexter, in theory works well with every piezo pickup.
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"Lift your head and smile at trouble. You'll find happiness someday." |
#34
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The Matrix is a good system. My guess is it's not installed correctly or the saddle material could be incompatible. I have a CEO7 that sounds great and it has a Matrix.
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D-18 W/ DTar OM-21 w/ Schatten 57 Historic GT Les Paul ES-335 '63 Relic Strat Willcutt Gibson SG W/ Maestro |
#35
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#36
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Apparently, Guild experimented with making the nut and the bridge with a product called Micarta -- not plastic exactly, but not bone, either. I suspect that there my be some transference issues because the the man-made material. But that is just a guess. |
#37
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Micarta is a material made from paper and resin, if I recall. It’s fine. There are better materials. Cow bone, or even synthetic TUSQ from Graphtec may help. Lots of info available on saddle and nut materials.
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"Lift your head and smile at trouble. You'll find happiness someday." |
#38
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I'm putting this here as sort of an epilogue to this long story... in case anyone stumbles across this in the future:
Oh the things I have learned since first making this post... (And the first thing I learned is what a Luthier is!) So, took my Guild D40C to a Luthier to have him look it over, and give me an opinion on the dreaded quack. After an examination a few very interesting things started coming out. First, the bridge of my Guild is not bone, it is Micarta -- which might account for the "trebly" sound of the pickup. But, what was interesting was the other things discovered. First off, he was surprised because the action of the Guild looked pretty good to the naked eye. When he put his meters on it, he could see a slight rise in the action, but for a 36 year old guitar -- not too bad. Then he looked at the bridge. And I got my first: "Oh oh" from him. The bridge is very low. He told me that what has happened was that over the years, as the neck started moving, my guitar tech had to file away the bridge to keep the action right. And although that worked, it was out of room, and he gave me the dreaded diagnosis: "It needs a Neck Reset." But here's what's weird. I had never had my guitar worked on before. Not ever. I was the first and only owner of the Guild D40C. I had never had it in the shop. Not even to have strings put on it. The only person who ever worked on it was the tech who put in my Matrix pickup (not the Luthier guy, another one.) It seems HIGHLY unlikely that he filed the bridge down. So what happened? It seems that it happened at the Westerly Guild factory. The theory being that the guy who built the guitar (maybe he was new?) set the neck wrong when he initially glued it up. Rather than reset the neck, they filed down the bridge and sent it out as is. IDK. It could have happened, I guess. But does that account for the quack? My luthier doesn't think so. He doesn't have a good answer for it, either. I had him redo the frets, and replug the holes the string pins go into. That solved a light "rattle" I had and the buzzing on the frets. (That actually ended up drawing more attention to the quack, incidentally. Now there is nothing distracting you from the quack!) The quack is still there. Luthier, obviously, thinks I should do the neck reset and replace the bridge with bone. That might solve the quack, but even he won't guarantee it. He has installed the Matrix in some of his custom guitars, and he has never had an issue like this. My hunch tells me it is the bridge. I think replacing the bridge would fix the issue -- but there is no sense in doing it unless/until I get the neck reset. The thing is, I no longer care. There is no quack when I am full acoustic. And the sound I get thanks to the Aura Pedal is really close to my Guild's natural sound (I picked a Guild Dread image from their library). I think before I would bother with the neck reset + bridge and nut replacement (which is pretty pricey) I'd probably give tone dexter a try. It probably would give me the exact sound I am looking for. But what I have now is so close, that I'm pretty content to leave things as they are... and start saving up for my next guitar instead. Thanks for everyone who jumped in with advice! |
#39
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Yep. Dead on. And you are right... there are better materials.
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#40
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Installed a Fishman Matrix Infinity and I hate it -- now what?
Hi ChapinFan,
You’ll need to take some time and consider your options. I see them as distinct. One, with a neck reset, you’ll potentially gain some playing benefits. The action can be lowered and the saddle (note, not the bridge) raised. This probably won’t change the tone of the pickup. Although, when a saddle is too short (as yours might be) the pickup tone can sometimes be degraded. The Aura pedal is already doing its job, so I wouldn’t worry about Tonedexter right now. Stick with the Matrix and Aura pedal. Otherwise, you can often expect an improvement in the acoustic tone of the guitar after a neck set. The geometry improves and the higher saddle will usually result in deeper, more resonant bass, and louder volume overall. In summary, your pickup quack was solved with the Aura as expected. Neck set will possibly breath new life into the guitar. Necks, body, and tops move. Many/most acoustic guitars need a neck set after many years. This is a common occurrence. If you aren’t humidifying your guitar, now would also be a good time to look into that. Cheers
__________________
"Lift your head and smile at trouble. You'll find happiness someday." |
#41
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Glad you took it to someone knowledgeable. I guess if your happy now with the aura then all is well. You can always get a neck reset if the action gets way too high.
Tom Last edited by tammuz7000; 10-20-2017 at 06:43 PM. |
#42
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Just to put a bow on this... I think MartingitDave summed it up pretty well. And I am content with the Aura solution. I think, considering where I started, I am about at the best place I could have ended up. But I do wonder if I would have been better off with a different solution than the Matrix.
Just as an epilogue, I played a $2000 Larrivée guitar at GC yesterday. It had a Fishman Matrix installed. I plugged it into a Fishman acoustic amp. The quack was still there. I am fully convinced this is a fatal flaw in the technology, not in any one installation. |
#43
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I'm convinced you need proper EQ to get that quack out. I still have a Matrix in two of my guitars, and with an Empress Para EQ I'm much happier with those guitars. I own an Aura, and I feel the ParaEQ or the Dtar Equinox (no longer made, but still around as used and reasonably priced), is a much better way to go about getting a natural sound with the Matrix. I also own a Fishman PRO-LBX-300 amp which many people feel is one of the best Fishmans ever made, and the Matrix never sounded good with it's onboard EQ. So good luck with the battle |
#44
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I believe that someone with better EQ skills than I have might be able to fix the quack. But I was never able to... I tried the Mesa Rosette, which has a lot of control. But nothing I did seemed to matter. I could take the highs out, boost the bass, and the quack was lessened -- but at the expense of the nice treble that my guitar has by nature. You may be able to do it. But, I was not able to. The Empress Para EQ is somewhat cheaper at about $249. But, it still seems like a lot of work just to get the pickup sounding right, at least to me... |
#45
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