#1
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Zoom A1 Four and Schatten HFN?
Has anyone tried using the zoom A1 Four with a Schatten HFN? I don't use a ton of effects and I think the Zoom would be great but I wonder if I'll still need a preamp. KISS and all that...
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#2
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The A1 Four's input impedance is only 470 Kohms. That's not enough for the passive UST in one of my guitars. It may be enough to get a strong signal and full tone from a passive HFN, but I'd make an inquiry to the Schatten Design folks before buying an A1 Four just to use with a passive HFN.
Hopefully, someone here can relate some first hand experience with the combo. If not, an inquiry to Les at Schatten Design is in order. I can tell you that the preamp used in the active HFN system has an input impedance in the neighborhood of 2 or 3 Mohms. That may well be the ideal input impedance for the passive HFN. |
#3
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Schatten uses about 2M Ohm for his own preamp design. I suspect the ZOOM might sound a little thin?
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"Lift your head and smile at trouble. You'll find happiness someday." |
#4
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I doubt very much that it'll work good for reasons already mentioned. However, if you're set on buying that unit buy the cheap Behringer ADI21 to go with it.
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#5
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Funny thing about the A1 Four, it works fairly well with the passive Baggs Hex system in my classical. On the other hand, it works very poorly with a passive David Enke UST. I have an Enke UST matched with a Schatten Design preamp in another guitar, and that active system works very well with the A1 Four.
The A1 Four does a great job of EQing the Baggs Lyric system in one of my guitars, but I was surprised to find that I couldn't duplicate or approximate that success with a Baggs PADI which I recently had repaired. Go figure. |
#6
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Schatten sells a passive 500K ohm volume control for use with the passive HFN. I have one and it sounds fine with my HFNs.
The Zoom input impedance should not be a problem with the HFN.
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jf45ir Free DIY Acoustic Guitar IR Generator .wav file, 30 seconds, pickup left, mic right, open position strumming best...send to direct email below I'll send you 100/0, 75/25, 50/50 & 0/100 IR/Bypass IRs IR Demo, read the description too: https://youtu.be/SELEE4yugjE My duo's website and my email... [email protected] Jon Fields Last edited by jonfields45; 02-23-2020 at 11:41 AM. |
#7
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Quote:
Everyone else is saying it won’t work. I know your credentials as a EE and seeing as you own both pieces of gear I would be interested in your feed back. I have two guitars with the Schatten HFN passive installed and have been interested in purchasing a Zoom A1 four. |
#8
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Quote:
I was gigging for a while with the Zoom G1 four, also specified at 470K ohm input impedance, before upgrading to the HX Stomp. It worked fine with a passive HFN. 500K clearly works OK according to Schatten and me. But all sorts of other things can go wrong and get assigned by the user to the input impedance. Since everything these days is easily returnable, why not just give it a try?
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jf45ir Free DIY Acoustic Guitar IR Generator .wav file, 30 seconds, pickup left, mic right, open position strumming best...send to direct email below I'll send you 100/0, 75/25, 50/50 & 0/100 IR/Bypass IRs IR Demo, read the description too: https://youtu.be/SELEE4yugjE My duo's website and my email... [email protected] Jon Fields Last edited by jonfields45; 02-23-2020 at 11:41 AM. |
#9
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OP, you said “Schatten HFN” but didn’t specify passive or active.
I have a Schatten HFN active (the version with both volume and tone controls), and separately, a Zoom AC3. They sound very good together. The Zoom AC3 has all the same DSP-based modeling and what-not as the Zoom unit you are considering. So if the question is “will the Zoom models sound good with this pickup” my answer is “yes.” Is it a 100% rendition of “my guitar but louder”? Probably not — but it does sound good. I also like the automatic feedback control on the Zoom AC3, and I think the unit you are considering has a similar feature. I don’t have any experience with a passive HFN so can’t comment on that. |