Trance Amulet MVT Demo/Review

[AeroUSA]

What do you think friends?

[Ten]

I’ve never heard that one before, thanks for the demo.

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by Ten

I’ve never heard that one before, thanks for the demo.

You’re welcome!

[SpruceTop]

Thanks, Aaron but I've got some suggestions. Strum a chord, and while it's ringing, adjust the Tone Control slowly until you hear all frequencies come into balance. Your demo with the Tone Control at Full Bass, at 50%, and 100% of its range misses the sweet spot where the best tone comes into play. Based on your demo, no one, myself included, would buy this system. I've bought two of them and think they sound very good when adjusted properly.

Here's what I do to get the best natural tone from a Trance M-VT system:

1) Start with the Tone Control at the Bass-end of its range;

2) Strum a chord and while it's ringing, slowly advance the Tone Control away from the Bass end and you'll hear the best overall tone (most natural-sounding) just a bit of rotation off the Bass-end of its range, and this occurs in a very short range of rotation of the Tone Control. Your ears will tell you when you hit it. A bit more rotation from the sweet spot and you'll start to get that biting treble tone in the mix, a little less rotation and you get bass muffling in the tone. This process takes about 3-seconds to accomplish.

Frankly, I don't know why Trance designed their Tone Control so heavily weighted for tonal change toward the Bass-end of its rotation? It's like 90% of the tonal change takes place in less than 1/4 of the Tone control's rotation.

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Thanks, Aaron but I've got some suggestions. Strum a chord, and while it's ringing, adjust the Tone Control slowly until you hear all frequencies come into balance. Your demo with the Tone Control at Full Bass, at 50%, and 100% of its range misses the sweet spot where the best tone comes into play. Based on your demo, no one, myself included, would buy this system. I've bought two of them and think they sound very good when adjusted properly.

Here's what I do to get the best natural tone from a Trance M-VT system:

1) Start with the Tone Control at the Bass-end of its range;

2) Strum a chord and while it's ringing, slowly advance the Tone Control away from the Bass end and you'll hear the best overall tone (most natural-sounding) just a bit of rotation off the Bass-end of its range, and this occurs in a very short range of rotation of the Tone Control. Your ears will tell you when you hit it. A bit more rotation from the sweet spot and you'll start to get that biting treble tone in the mix, a little less rotation and you get bass muffling in the tone. This process takes about 3-seconds to accomplish.

Frankly, I don't know why Trance designed their Tone Control so heavily weighted for tonal change toward the Bass-end of its rotation? It's like 90% of the tonal change takes place in less than 1/4 of the Tone control's rotation.

That’s a great tip and makes a lot of sense. You should tell Trance to include that in the manual!

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by AeroUSA

That’s a great tip and makes a lot of sense. You should tell Trance to include that in the manual!

Are you able to redo your Trance video? It would be great for folks to hear how good this system can sound.

[Marty C]

I agree with Sprucetop. I don’t care very much for this sound. Maybe there is a way to balance this better with the controls in the guitar. I couldn’t tell much difference in the 50% and the full. Both seemed to be a bit overdriven. In my headphones, the downstroke was sometimes distorted.

[MaurysMusic]

Great review Aaron & thanks for the shout out! I agree with what's been said... there's a warm sweet spot in the system that doesn't happen at 0, 50 or 100% - but I can see why you'd want to give your viewers those 3 examples.

IIRC Trance said their beta testers wanted fine detail control in the treble side of the wheel and that's why they designed the taper to work like that. 0-40% is bass to treble and then 41-100% is splitting hairs in the top of the treble. Or thereabouts.

[SpruceTop]

Also, I don't find the Trance system any more difficult to install than other systems as far as the transducer location goes. The nice thing about the Trance Amulets is that if you feel you may get a better tone than your initial installation positions, per the Trance instructions for mounting them, just peel them off, change the tape and stick them back on where you think you may get a better-amplified tone.

[GGinMP]

I love the Trance Amulet, but I went with the MV system. I like to set tone through my amp, and not have one more thing to worry about. I understand why some like to have it onboard, but I don’t miss it.

[Petty1818]

Aaron, personally I find your demo to be very close to the tones I was getting when I had one installed. I know people talk about a sweet spot but I could never find one. I think the Trance is a very good system and not knocking it at all but after trying one out, I find it hard t justify its price over the K&K which to me has a much more woody tone. Now with things like the sound scape and tonedexter, it seems to make even more sense to go with the K&K.

[AeroUSA]

I take on board everything that has been said. Thinking back I understand what you mean as the tone control took me from bass only through to a sound where the bass came out a little more and the treble opened up. I wouldn’t say that I found it a sweet spot but definitely optimal. On this guitar it still sounded quite thin and had the typical piezo qualities.

You could say that in my Anthem videos I could show the full range of the mic trim control as well as the blend. I suppose for a really detailed review I should do that. In hindsight what I have been doing is more of an overview.

To be completely honest I think that I just wasn’t impressed with this pickup (in this guitar). It does give decent sound before feedback and it can be plugged in without any other pedals but I didn’t find the tone impressive enough to the point where I would want to take a ToneDexter or similar pedal. At that point, at least for me I would personally prefer a K&K, UT, HFN or similar and use the pedal which would (likely) give me the same results.

If I’m going to install a system into a guitar I’d rather opt for something like the full Anthem system where (for me) it truly is plug and play.

I hope that I haven’t upset anyone here with this review and feel free to add any comments to the video on my channel so that others can hear your experiences too.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by GGinMP

I love the Trance Amulet, but I went with the MV system. I like to set tone through my amp, and not have one more thing to worry about. I understand why some like to have it onboard, but I don’t miss it.

I also prefer the approach of getting a fixed tone from the pickup and EQing elsewhere. My Zoom A1 Four is good for this approach because I can create a retrievable EQ patch for the particular guitar/pickup rig and still have a basic three band EQ available for "quick and dirty" adjustments at the gig (when needed).

[stephenT]

I've heard demos where I thought the Trance Amulet MVT was the best sounding piezo based pickup I'd heard.

No insult intended but I'd never consider the Trance Amulet if this was the only demo I'd see.

On a side note I bought a Trance Amulet MVT system to install but my Waterloo bridge plate is too small.

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

I also prefer the approach of getting a fixed tone from the pickup and EQing elsewhere. My Zoom A1 Four is good for this approach because I can create a retrievable EQ patch for the particular guitar/pickup rig and still have a basic three band EQ available for "quick and dirty" adjustments at the gig (when needed).

How do you find the sweet spot if you don’t have the tone control?