Played first solo gig last night - Preamp Questions

[J Patrick]

Originally Posted by sublro

haven't experienced any of these issues, but am reminded of one thing I did experience. I am sometimes a percussive player, and will "thump" the top a bit sometimes during rowdier passages. this would cause a very pronouced static burst that was very disruptive. the cure is to get the 18v adaptor that headway makes for this unit. It can be run on a 9v battery, but that leaves it unable to handle the occasional signal "spikes" that heavier playing could throw at it. with the full 18 volts, the problem disappears as the unit then has plenty of "headroom" to draw on to handle the signal spikes. I wonder whether the misbehavior that cuki79 reports might have anything to do with this, and be fixed by using the 18v adaptor. for what it's worth....

...that static burst has been known to be an issue with K&K's on some guitars....(very lightly built instruments especially)....as it is a very sensitive sbt system and percussive players that thump on or around the bridge can set if off....using a lower gain setting is an effective way to combat the problem as is the use of an 18 volt power supply....

...i thought the Headway preamp uses a dual 9 volt battery setup to provide the 18 volts you get from an AC adapter....(just like the venerable Raven Labs PMB i used to use with K&K's).....at least thats what the manual says...i'll know for sure soon because i just scored a used one that will be coming this week...i currently use a Red Eye which i like but i'm intrigued by the host of useful features on the EDB-1....will post my comparison results when it arrives....

[MrErikJ]

Supposedly the Red Eye is 1 million (mega) ohms, which K&K minis require to sound their best. A Baggs or Fishman preamp/DI will be a mismatch and result in a muddy sound with a K&K. Not a bad or unusable sound, but it may not be ideal to your ears. K&K Minis are generally too low and unbalanced an output to work when run straight to an amp or PA.

It could be the frequency response of the amp as well, but I'd recommend trying a K&K preamp to preamp the Pure Mini before sending to an amp or PA. Their preamps are specifically calibrated for their pickup designs and there may be something missing from the Red Eye's capabilities that's effecting your sound.

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by Creekside Guitar

I played my first solo Acoustic gig last night and it went much better than expected. It's definitely a different thing than playing in a full live band! I was pretty nervous before the show but once I started playing I was fine.

Leading up to the gig I was having a hard time with my Acoustic guitar sound. This led to some of the nervousness about how I would sound. I have a D-18GE with a K&K Pure and bought a Red-Eye preamp as a backup to my Roland AC90. When I plugged straight into my AC90, it sounded awful! I ended up rolling back all the EQ settings to flat and using the Shape button as I was mostly strumming chords. No chorus, No anti-feedback and just a little Reverb. It was a manageable sound but honestly not very good. I also tried running the Red-Eye into a little PA I have. This sounded better than the Roland but was still very average sounding.

I ended up packing everything up and going to the gig. When I got there, one of the other musicians had a EDB-1 preamp hooked up to the house PA. I plugged into that without even adjusting the settings and it sounded great! I used that for the night and the gig went very well. This now leads me to a quest for a good preamp for my situation. Obviously the EDB-1 worked well but I'm looking for opinions on the EDB-2, AER Colurizer or even the K&K XLR Mach 2. I'd love to hear what others have had success with using the K&K mini in a solo Acoustic setting.

I'd be the last one to discourage you from getting an EDB1 or EDB-2. They are both nice tools for interfacing with a PA. But before you trash your AC-90, how did you have the "Pickup Switch" set? I assume you were using channel 1 ("Guitar Channel"), since you mention the "Shape" switch. I imagine the "Pickup Switch" position would matter with a K&K going directly into that amp--at least that's the only thing I can think of beyond some wacky EQ settings that might make a K&K going directly into that amp sound bad.

Louis

[J Patrick]

...so i did get the Headway EDB1...i got it used in like new condition for a great price....its as good as advertised....there is a very audible improvement in tone over the Redeye i've been using for about 5 years...it has a softer more natural attack and the addition of eq and notch filter make it more versatile...plus it has dual inputs....has more gain on tap....maybe not as bulletproof in design as a Redeye but plenty well built........its a keeper and i'll probably sell the Redeye even though i still think its a terrific piece of gear worthy of the high praise it gets...

[Creekside Guitar]

Originally Posted by lschwart

I'd be the last one to discourage you from getting an EDB1 or EDB-2. They are both nice tools for interfacing with a PA. But before you trash your AC-90, how did you have the "Pickup Switch" set? I assume you were using channel 1 ("Guitar Channel"), since you mention the "Shape" switch. I imagine the "Pickup Switch" position would matter with a K&K going directly into that amp--at least that's the only thing I can think of beyond some wacky EQ settings that might make a K&K going directly into that amp sound bad.

Louis

Of course I tried the pickup switch while looking for a tone. It was negligible as far as improvement in my tone. I do think the AC-90 is a great amp, just not with my current guitar/pickup situation. I'll be listing it for sale shortly.

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by Creekside Guitar

Of course I tried the pickup switch while looking for a tone. It was negligible as far as improvement in my tone. I do think the AC-90 is a great amp, just not with my current guitar/pickup situation. I'll be listing it for sale shortly.

That makes sense. I just didn't want to leave any obvious stones unturned (I often find I've overlooked something obvious when I'm confronted with a puzzling problem).

Louis

[Neon Soul]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Now you have to know that this preamp is a bit noisy... and works on battery (that's the price to pay)

I regularly gig out with the EDB-2 and do not have any noise issues.

Also, works on batteries? No, it has the option to run on batteries. Of course they're not going to last very long if you gig lots and leave it on so I'd suggest running it off a power supply or the supplied wall wart.

I've got it running off the 18v 250mA outlet of my Strymon Zuma with no issues.

[Cuki79]

I believe that Neon Soul.

but I maintain that EDB-1 is noisy. EDB-2 most new feature is lower noise op amp. It should be way better. EDB-2 noise problem are reported on a famous retailer in Europe called Thomann but I did not try myself...

Do you use the jack input or the mic input?

My concern is certainly mainly due to the mic XLR input with 18v phantom power. I used it (again EDB-1) with a DPA 4099G microphone, It was really difficult to have enough gain without noise. My poor old backup Berhinger mixer did better.

Note that I once used the EDB1 live with a Taylor 210CE and it went really well (Maybe the only thing that did well soundwise that night). Can't remember if I used the mic input with a TRS jack or the jack input.

Anyway I remember plugging in a piezo equipped guitar (with onboard preamp) and having definitely less noise problem. But then the EDB-1 only served as an EQ+DI...

Also one thing to reduce noise on the EDB-1 is to use the DI ouput plugged into a line mixer input (10 kOhms impedance). If you plug it into a mic input (1k Ohm or less impedance) the EDB1 has to provide too much current for the onboard opamps... And noise is then really strong. With the 600 ohm mic input of my JAM 150 (SR Tech/Schertler) it was horrible... But in this case, half of the problem comes from the amp.

Neon Soul, in this case, you are cheating a bit: "Strymon Zuma" is not any wall wart. It is dual regulated power supply with the power transformer deported from the last regulator stage. It must be very quiet. The EDB1 provided wall wart was nowhere as quiet as something like that.

Question:
Neon Soul can you please tell me if the Zuma provides power as quiet as batteries? did you try it for sensible stages like preamps on passive pickups?
Can you compare and report about that (with gain to the max)?

I have strong gas for Strymon Ojai to power my DIY rig but I need Super clean quiet power for my modded Lyric preamp and good isolation for the IR pedal (EPSI) that is digital. I am now building a crazy pedalboard with my Lyric preamp + homemade IR and a beatbuddy monster. My Beatbuddy is controlled by midi with an Arduino and a FS3X digitech pedal. So I can increase/decrease tempo by foot and change song/directory too. The beatbuddy pilots a homemade sampler based on a Raspberry pi. So I have 1Gb Samples memory and I can sample bass and chorus vocals for every tempo steps. The idea is that the beatbuddy triggers the samples with respect of the tempo. I know it's crazy but I don't like "streched samples" It's never as good as a recording at the correct tempo.

I need a super strong, isolated power supply because the Raspberry Pi eats 5V , 2 Amps that I will get from the 24v output of the Strymon Ojai and an extra regulator stage. I will post that when it's finished. The power supply must also be super isolated because the Raspberry pi may dump a lot of digital computer noise in the ground.

Strymon power supplies are the only ones that "in principle" can power everything but I want to be sure of the quality... Before I pull the trigger.

[tgaume]

I usually bring 2 guitars to each gig. A '97 Martin D1 with a K&K Pure Mini installed, and a Gibson J45 with a LR Bagg's element. I run a Dean Markley Ultrasound DI Plus Preamp between the guitars and the amp (Fishman Loudbox Artist) in order to get the sound I'm happy with from both.

I did quite a bit of research before making this purchase and found many favorable reviews of this preamp. I also like that it can be powered by 9V battery, 9V power supply, or phantom power.

They're not easy to find, but well worth the hunt.

preamp.jpg