Quote:
Originally Posted by jonfields45
I guess I've posted this too many times, but Leo Fender when he studied tube application notes and decided to make guitar amps used a 1M ohm grid bias resistor for the first tube stage at the input of his amps. Ever since 1M ohm has been a kind of default standard for guitar pickup loads. A piezo pickup with sufficient oomph (like a K&K) loves 1M, where as the tiny polymer piezo in an Element or Matrix would sound terrible (that series capacitance would kill the bass).
K&K and JJB could have designed their PUPs to need a higher impedance and it would be as simple as making the heads (much?) smaller, but that 1M ohm default was no doubt in their minds as they sought a fairly usable no preamp design.
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Thanks for posting that again, Jon. The info about Leo Fender is new to me.
I
do seem to recall some comments on the AGF that there's a downside to using a greater-than-necessary input impedance, but I don't recall exactly why that is.