Tonedexter in the field

[Marshall]

Originally Posted by AeroUSA

Can you please post a link to that battery clip...

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/EX-Battery-Co...r+guitar+pedal

I bought a different bundle. I got 6 of them for under $15 I think.

[AeroUSA]

James. Is this recommended or could it fry the ToneDexter (or fry us!)?

[James May]

It'll work. No body or thing will get fried. A regular 9V battery won't last long however.

Something like this would be smarter:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MHNQIR2/ref=emc_b_5_t

[Petty1818]

Very cool experiment! The Tonedexter is definitely making me rethink stressing over the pickup that I use. I don't want to get just a cheap pickup but it definitely does make it possible to put in a simple UST or SBT and let the TD take care of the rest.

I think the main thing for me though is that in many cases, in scenarios like this, the Tonedexter will sound awesome because the environment is usually intimate, with one player. I have found that the more natural I go in my band (celtic group with two guitars, fiddle, bass and sometimes drums), the guitar can get lost in the mix. I am not ruling Tonedexter out but I do feel that even if I get an excellent wavemap, I will most likely have to use the blend control to dial in a bit of the pickup.

I do want to invest in a quality mic though. I was testing with an MXL mic since it's the only pencil style condenser that I own. The results are good but not great. I think there is something to at least using a quality mic.

On a side note, has anyone noticed that the blend control starts around 30% blend? Is this normal?

[Marshall]

I had a lithium ion 9V laying around. Not a regular alkaline. That's what I've used, just because I had one and they have more milleamps.

I wouldn't use the same battery for long. But it's nice to have an easy quickie set up.

[MaurysMusic]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I had an interesting opportunity this past week. I was teaching at a guitar camp and I brought along my ToneDexter to let campers try. We trained a handful of guitars, just plugged them in right on stage, quickly aimed a mic at them, and let them train while listening in headphones, and then letting everyone hear the results thru a PA (QSC K10s) in a medium sized room. We had all kinds of guitars, pickups and players, with a tendency toward heavy strummers. We had uniformly great results, some of these guitars sounded so bad with the pickup that I don't know how they were able to play, and ToneDexter made a stunning difference, that was clear to everyone listening in the room. I was actually surprised myself how well it worked - it may be that the worse the pickup, the greater the improvement. In most cases, the transformation was far greater than what I've experienced with my guitars.

Two examples were especially interesting. One guy had a Martin with the built in Aura. We trained with the Aura off, but then were able to compare the pickup, the ToneDexter, and the Aura. In this case, the pickup sounded really bad, the Aura sounded not great in a different way, and the ToneDexter was really good. It was three different sounds, with TD easily winning. The player's comment was that thru ToneDexter sounded like a high end guitar. The TD output actually seemed to sound better than the guitar sounded acoustically. But especially interesting being able to compare TD and a built-in Aura.

The other case was a failure of sorts. This was a really good player, who got a pretty decent plugged in sound to start with, tho with obvious quack when he dug in. ToneDexter made the quack go away, and was definitely an improved sound, but maybe not as dramatic as others. The player said the sound thru ToneDexter reminded him of how his guitar sounded when he was playing on the couch. Unfortunately, he didn't mean that as a complement - he said everyone in his band used USTs and that "quack" was part of the band's sound, he didn't want a natural acoustic sound, so he wasn't sure ToneDexter would be useful for him. Hard to argue with that - everyone has their own idea of the sound they're going for.

Oh, another notable case was that we also got to try a new V-braced Taylor with the ES-2. That guitar sounded quite good as-is, but ToneDexter still made an improvement.

Anyway, it was fun and somewhat eye-opening to try ToneDexter in a real world setting with a variety of guitars/pickups/players, to hear how it worked for players with very different playing styles than me, and to try training really quick and dirty, just standing right on stage, training seconds before playing thru a PA.

Very interesting, thanks!

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by Marshall

I had a lithium ion 9V laying around. Not a regular alkaline. That's what I've used, just because I had one and they have more milleamps.

I wouldn't use the same battery for long. But it's nice to have an easy quickie set up.

Thanks for the info on the battery. Also, I was thinking that you'd just jury-rigged the power adapter using parts from an old battery pack and a burned out wall-wart supply. I didn't know you could buy them.

[Marshall]

I also bought a rechargeable brick



It has both 9V and 12V output. But I haven't fired it up yet. The simplicity of a little 9V is real nice. Though they can add up if you chew through a lot of them.

I also thought of trying to link 2 or 3 9v batteries in parallel to get more current. But that's just a thought.

[rschultz]

Originally Posted by Schau_ins_Regal

Doug, many thanks for your insights.



May I ask you for a personal opinion?



I currently have a dual-source setup consisting of Dazzos, a DPA4061 and a Headway EDB-2.



What do you think will deliver the most natural sound:



- the two pickups with a Grace Felix or

- the Dazzos with a ToneDexter?

My opinion: 2 pickups into a Helix with 3Sigma IRs on one or both channels, and all the EQ/notch/effects you’ll ever need.

Or, you could always put the TD before the EDB2, or after on the combined signal[emoji848]

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Schau_ins_Regal

Doug, many thanks for your insights.

May I ask you for a personal opinion?

I currently have a dual-source setup consisting of Dazzos, a DPA4061 and a Headway EDB-2.

What do you think will deliver the most natural sound:

- the two pickups with a Grace Felix or
- the Dazzos with a ToneDexter?

Sorry, I missed this question. This is a hard choice that I'm still struggling with myself. I like using a mic in the guitar and have Trance+mic, Dazzo+mic, and Barbera+mic. I think these all sound quite good thru Felix (The EDB-2 has less EQ options, but that may not matter much - other than a mic low-end rolloff, I'm usually running more or less flat). The pickups don't quack, and the mic tends to mask any residual pickup sound. On the other hand, the pickup alone sounds great thru ToneDexter, and there's a simplicity to that setup that's nice. My dream would be to have ToneDexter correcting the pickup and still be able to blend in the mic, but that would currently take a more complex setup than it's probably worth, especially since ToneDexter tends to make the sound more mic-like anyway. My take away from hearing ToneDexter with other pickups this past week is that TD is astonishingly effect at correcting bad sounding pickups. But the Dazzo+mic should sound pretty good as-is. So, what to do?... I'd try it both ways and see what works for you.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by rschultz

My opinion: 2 pickups into a Helix with 3Sigma IRs on one or both channels, and all the EQ/notch/effects you’ll ever need.

Does the Helix support 9 volts bias power for an internal mic?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Does the Helix support 9 volts bias power for an internal mic?

Just looked, it has XLR with 48 volts, so it could support an internal mic with an adaptor.

[AeroUSA]

It even has sectable impedance and of course you can load up a bunch of different EQs. The only issue is it’s size.

[Marshall]

I ran a battery test on my used Lithium 9V battery. It still says it's in the "Good" range. I've got an important open mic next Tuesday on a big stage with a big sound system. I don't want to risk a problem there, so I'll grab another 9V for that. But I will take the original 9V and try it at a different place soon. If I can get another 15-20 minutes out of it, that's almost a hour on a little battery.

I certainly can live with that for quick setups.

[Marshall]

OK - Did the FitzGerald's open mic last night. Fresh 9V Lithium battery. Worked like a charm. I made a video of the first song. You can hear the TonneDexter. The guitar has a soundhole cover in it, so all you're hearing is the pickup &TD.

The mix is a little light. That's the sound guy. I'd prefer more guitar to better match the vocal. But I'm totally happy that the guitar actually sounds like my guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqOMTyueVY