Dimarzio Black Angel, Boss AD-2, Martin D-1, Cole Clark - questions & observations

[Methos1979]

Anyone following my Dimarzio Black Angel vs. Schertler AG-6 thread will be familiar with some of what follows. But because I like to make sure future people can find these nuggets of information using the search function I decided to make a new post since different things are in play.

First and foremost I have a question for any Dimarzio Black Angel users out there: Do you or have you played your BA pickup with the B and high E pole pieces completely removed? Like many I have found with every magnetic soundhole pickup I've tried that the B and high E strings are always too bright and need to be screwed all the way down. I know many users of the LR Baggs M80 completely removed them altogether. So I'm wondering if this is something others have done with the Black Angel. I did this today and got slightly better results. More on that towards the bottom.

On page 2 of the original thread I had decided to try the Boss AD-2 on the Martin D-1 custom with the Dimarzio Black Angel in it. I can get a decent enough tone straight into the Bose S1 and even better through the little Headway EDM-1 but still nothing as great as any of my three Cole Clark guitars. I'd tried the Boss AD-2 on several occasions with other guitars with different pickup systems in them and never found it to be worthy enough to keep and use. In theory I like the AD-2 for its simplicity, battery operation, mute function and notch. All handy things to have at an open mic or gig.

My thinking was that maybe the AD-2 would provide some improved tone to my Martin D-1 custom with the Dimarzio Black Angel pickup and make that guitar a useable choice for the occasional open mic. For those that are not familiar with the Boss AD-2 it has an 'Ambience' effect which is sort of like a reverb or presence, a simple dial (knob) notch filter, an 'Acoustic Resonance' effect which basically scoops the mids, increases the lows and highs and adds compression the more you dial it up. Plus there's a mute.

My initial tests did not show this being all that useful on the Martin/Dimario set up. BluesKing777 chimed in asking if I'd tried the AD-2 with any of my Cole Clark guitars to which I had not since I can already get an outstanding tone from all of them with their awesome onboard tone shaping controls and the Cole Clark proprietary three-way pickup system. But today as I was playing amplified I decided to give the AD-2 a try with the Cole Clarks just for grins so I could reply to BluesKing777's question.

As expected the AD-2 did not do much to improve the amplified tone of the Cole Clark. (Note: I used the Fat Lady 2 only, a dread.) Well, let me clarify that: It actually did improve the tone but I could also mimic that same improvement by dialing out even more mids and dialing up the lows and highs on the Cole Clark. What the Cole Clark can't do on it's own is provide compression, 'Ambience' and notch but it can mute by turning the volume down.

So I would say to those that are wondering if the AD-2 is useful for guitars like the Cole Clarks, Matons or Takamines, if you find you need a mute, some 'Ambience', compression and/or a notch then yes, it would be useful. These pedals are inexpensive new ($99) and can be found for around $65-$75 used in great shape.

Now, onto more testing. I decided since I'd been playing the Martin D-1 before trying the Cole Clarks, I'd give the AD-2 another try. Part of the reason for this was because as I stated above, I'd removed the B and high E string pole pieces from the Black Angel. At first I pretty much got the same results as previously and did not find it all that useful. One of the problems I'd run into in early testing was that the more I dialed up the Acoustic Resonance, the bass seemed to go away to the point where I could hear it more from the guitar than the amp.

So today I dialed up the amp (Bose S1) volume quite a bit and found that to be much better. I also did another thing in that I moved the pedal a good distance out from the amp via a long cable and put it on the floor so I could stand in front and A/B the tones by pressing the pedal on/off. The last thing I did was to use the 'settings' marks left by the previous owner which had the Ambience a fair bit up and the Acoustic Resonance up at about 45%.

Using all of this plus the removal of the B and high E pole pieces now seemed to give me a much more noticeable improvement of tone. The Martin D-1 custom is an all-hog guitar and as such tends to have a very mids-forward tone. The AD-2 scoops the mids dramatically and improves the low and high end with some compression. It wasn't quite what I would call subtle, but it also wasn't over-the-top. More like, just enough to be beneficial.

This improvement plus the added features of having a mute (holding down the pedal for 2 seconds) plus the notch I think is enough to make this pedal a keeper for this guitar for open mics or any time I might decide to use the Martin over the Cole Clarks (rare) for live play. As for using it with the Cole Clarks, I might use it but since I can get pretty much everything I need with the onboard controls (minus the notch and compression) I doubt it.

I've never had much of an issue with the Cole Clarks with feedback anyway. But you never know. A simple notch dial is a handy tool that I think should be on every preamp, EQ, amp, board, and onboard guitar controls and it's usually not so this would be a great thing to have handy just in case since there's nothing more aggravating than dealing with feedback!

[Ten]

I have the b pole removed and the e way down (maybe all the way) on my BA. I tried with both removed while dialing it in, but after testing found that getting the string balance even with the b string worked better with the e back in but cranked way down.

I can certainly imagine depending on the guitar both being removed may work best, but for me I needed the e in but low to get the same volume as the b string with the b pole removed.

[BluesKing777]

First up, apologies for getting your AD-2 mixed up with the AD-10 in the previous thread - you must have wondered just what I was on about.

I still think the resonance knob is meant only for undersaddle piezo pickups, not mag pickups....

Now, I don't like any of my soundhole pickups without running it to my old Fishman Pro EQ - I try not to alter the settings in the photo at all. I don't use the Pro EQ with other pickups, just mags, and the Black Angel sounds way better with the mids swept and scooped, both bass AND treble cut and the 'brilliance' knob cut. It really gets rid of that jarring thing soundhole pickups do, my opinion!

I took a photo ages ago of 'Old Dusty' in case I move the settings..eek! A friend heard it and went racing off to find an old one!

Edit: As mentioned in the other thread, I always remove both E and B pole pieces. I am a 100% bare skin fingerpicker and this works for my style, no idea for a strummer...but I find the pickup too 'electric guitar' with them still in. I lower the other poles a fair bit as that is supposed to give you more 'wood' while having them high gives you more 'string'. Took a while to get them balanced but I don't really alter them again once I have them how I like.

I bought a Baggs Align EQ asa the Fish's inputs and output s are getting worn, but have not been able to repeat the success of the Fishman EQ'ing. The Baggs is good for piezo style pickups though.






BluesKing777.

[meb]

I did not remove the pole pieces for my BA's. fyi, the settings on the 2 I
still have were:
B String E-String
all in half Black Angel MdRSC
half in even Black Angel not sure

All in All in Blackstack RSC
Removed 1/4 in Sunrise MdRSC
half in Even Sunrise #2 HRCJC

My settings were probably done with my Bose L1mod 2 and L1C.
The S1 treble is imo zingy and forward, which may account for some
of the reason you want less top end.

I hope this helps.

[meb]

My formatting did not translate to the post, but hopefully you can
figure out the 'table'.