ToneDexter for Non-Tweakers Who’ve Never Sniffed a Cork

[BluesKing777]

TD for NT tip.....


If you use TD for the guitar to back up your singing, try the TD ‘dry’ (absolutely no effects) and add reverb to your vocal mic only. I think it gives the guitar more contrast in your overall sound.

The wavemaps give such a great guitar sound that you don’t NEED to do the old habit and add reverb or delay or chorus to hide the piezo awfulness....

Try it please, singer guitarist types, and let me know what you think. I know, I know, it is a deeply ingrained habit to turn that reverb dial! But I think that makes the guitar sound more electric......


BluesKing777.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by BluesKing777

TD for NT tip.....


If you use TD for the guitar to back up your singing, try the TD ‘dry’ (absolutely no effects) and add reverb to your vocal mic only. I think it gives the guitar more contrast in your overall sound.

The wavemaps give such a great guitar sound that you don’t NEED to do the old habit and add reverb or delay or chorus to hide the piezo awfulness....

Try it please, singer guitarist types, and let me know what you think. I know, I know, it is a deeply ingrained habit to turn that reverb dial! But I think that makes the guitar sound more electric......


BluesKing777.

Been doing exactly that. Then again, I dumped the guitar EFX way back when I started messing with Aura and Mama Bear. I didn't feel any need to bring the EFX back when I moved on to the iMix and Anthem SL. I definitely don't need EFX with ToneDexter.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by BluesKing777

TD for NT tip.....
Try it please, singer guitarist types, and let me know what you think. I know, I know, it is a deeply ingrained habit to turn that reverb dial! But I think that makes the guitar sound more electric......


BluesKing777.

I tried it. It works for sure. But, unfortunately, my hands are unable to turn the reverb dial to zero. It’s an occupational therapy problem, evidently. :-)

[shufflebeat]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

I tried it. It works for sure. But, unfortunately, my hands are unable to turn the reverb dial to zero. It’s an occupational therapy problem, evidently. :-)

Funny, it wouldn't really cross my mind to put reverb on an acoustic as a rule. In certain circumstances of course depending on material being played but without some on/off contrast it disappears or, if there's too much to disappear, gets annoying.

The qualities I look for in an acoustic sound (crisp, warm, dynamic) are all masked by misapplied 'verb.

Good call.

Careful mic placement during training allows a very definite "early reflection" quality to the TD sound. When time allows I'll be experimenting with adding some short ambiences to the training signal to see if that is reflected (see what I did there?) in the wavemap.

[jonfields45]

I ended up returning the ToneDexter to Shorline. I insisted I pay a restocking fee and they refused. To make up for it I purchased a RedEye from them the next week without invoking the AGF coupon (a nice simple solution for my K&K equipped guitar).

At my first gig using my MiSi Trio equipped RainSong CH-PA, at a noisy Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza and at high enough volume to be heard with our single Yamaha DBR10 high and behind (certainly loud to me), I immediately heard mic resonance in my Wavemap that sounded worse to my ear, than bypass, for leads and strumming regardless of how I tweaked the character control. It sounded great for fingerpicking. I realized I needed to make new Wavemaps with the mic further from the guitar.

I also heard a high pitched squeal through the PA that I had noticed at home but ignored probably because everything else sounded so good and I did not have the PA set up just behind me at high volume like a gig. Also the squeal was completely gone when played through my Loudbox Mini Charge. At the gig the squeal stopped during bypass (muted and not muted) and did not go away with swapping various power supplies (but I did not bring the genuine ToneDexter supply with me to try). My duo partner really hated that squeal (the audience did not hear it according to our wives) and let loose that he thought the effect was too subtle to bother with in general (sort of an interesting position for a guy who has a nice collection of vintage Martins, but consistent with his gig choice of an ES1.3 Taylor instead one of his Martins in which I installed K&Ks).

I keep a cheap knockoff of a 70's analog compression pedal in my gig bag and finished up the gig using it for lead boost and realized for the music we are playing, getting a classic rock lead solo played on an acoustic guitar to cut through the noise is really my highest priority, which a $15 Kokko compressor does perfectly.

When I got home I decided debugging the squeal (maybe an interaction with my Yamaha MG10XU???) and Wavemaps was not worth it to me. But I think my viewpoint is tainted by playing lead guitar in rock bands when I was young.

[Groberts]

Interesting turn of events having returned your Tonedexter. How is the RedEye working out or do you have it yet?

[larren]

Having seen and heard many Tonedexter videos and soundclips, I acknowledge that they sound fantastic in a studio, rehearsal room, or quiet "listening" venue, but I wonder how many owners use them happily in a noisy bar/pub or outside deck/patio type of gig?

To compete with talking, glasses clinking, laughing and the associated revelry that usually happens in drinking/eating establishments, or passing traffic, noisy birds and other noise that occurs in an outside environment, sometimes........shock horror , please don't burn me at the stake..........a bit of "quack" is not always a bad thing.

[guitaniac]

Still having very good luck using ToneDexter with a Shadow NanoFlex, but the NanoFlex requires a great deal of EQ help when used without ToneDexter. (I'd like a pickup which will also work well with a battery operated preamp and not require any convoluted EQ tweaks.) The NanoFlex is also rather thick and spongy in appearance, so I fear it may be compromising my acoustic tone a bit.

I've ordered one of David Enkes Open To Source Sensors USTs, and am looking forward to trying it out - with ToneDexter AND some battery operated preamps.
The old PUTW I/O USY has been my favorite UST to date, and David claims the newer model is even better. That would be a most welcome state of affairs.

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by Groberts

Interesting turn of events having returned your Tonedexter. How is the RedEye working out or do you have it yet?

I've got the Red Eye and its unlikely to make it to a noisy gig anytime soon. The type of gigs I take my K&K equipped RainSong CH-WS are usually small and quiet. The K&K of course sounds terrible into the 3K and 10K impedance line inputs on my mixer, but the shocker is how marginal it sounds into the 10M input of my Loudbox Mini Charge. The Red Eye fixes that up and has a good minimum set of features (if I need more than a treble control I figure I've got to replace the pickup) and great battery life. It is perfect to put in that guitar's case and forget about until I arrive at the Art Gallery or other small room gig. I found an electric guitar boost pedal was also pretty good at fixing the K&K to Loudbox problem, but it's true bypass and can't be turned off so it can't be used for boosting solos.

The ToneDexter is a great product but maybe not what I need to perform. The squeal might be a one off problem with that unit, or some issue with my other gear, I did not put in the time to figure it out. I was surprised to hear that mic resonance at the gig. I really thought I had shaken down my Wavemaps thoroughly at home...

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

The K&K of course sounds terrible into the 3K and 10K impedance line inputs on my mixer...

I have the same problem. After a little research I decided to find a preamp with 1meg input impedance. I picked up up a used Art Tube MP Project Series preamp for $25 which solved the problem. The guy who handles the sound where I play at an open mic, where I had severe issues, was amazed that the tone seemed absolutely flat. Much warmer tone, however.

I will probably eventually get the Tone Dexter, but since I just paid about $2300 for a Martin HD-28V and K&K pickup installation, I'll have to wait a bit to keep my spouse from going into sticker shock.

[buzzardwhiskey]

I am a tweaker and a cork sniffer. But... I'm trying to move toward less stuff in the signal (and less stuff on stage), and can now (after two big outdoor gigs) report a successful move in that direction.

I had been combining (in a small mixer on stage) the split signal of my K&K equipped Martin through two preamps: the Tonedexter and a Boss AD-2. The idea being fatter mids and less shrill highs as the volume went higher when I often have so little control and virtually no wring-out time.

But I feel that my new rig, a Tonedexter running an L.R. Baggs Align EQ in the effects loop is simpler and even more lifelike while ensuring that the highs aren't wreaking havoc at big volumes.

The EQ box employs a HPF and I pull out a little at 350hz and a little at 1.6Khz. Voila!