Anybody not happy with a Tonedexter?

[Oregon Donor]

Originally Posted by gfirob

I use a Tonedexter with four different guitars (Martin OM, National resonator, Kalamazoo KG 14 and a National/Gibson slope dread) each with its own wavemap. Performing I usually only use two or three of those, and the reset for each guitar is fairly simple, but I don't have it on the floor on a pedal board, I have it on a heavy duty music stand at hand.

I also often run an electric guitar through the system, with the Tonedexter on bypass when I do so.

I am a long-time fan and I think if you are an acoustic solo player or solo duet player the Tonedexter is just about essential. I don't play in a band, but the complaint about a Tonedexterized acoustic having a problem cutting through multiple instruments seems to be fairly common. Sounds like that is not its optimum use, but I have never tried it in that situation.

But if you want your acoustic guitar to sound like it does through a microphone, the Tonedexter is the best way to get there right now.

I’m concerned about the lack of a dedicated mid-control on the TD—I understand that bass+treble can serve that purpose in tandem, but my K&K equipped Taylor 310 is so midsy that I don’t know if TD would be optimal for me. I’m leaning more towards the Grace Design Alix (or waiting a little longer to get a Felix and dual-source), which seems like a better application for me. I could be wrong though!

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Oregon Donor

I’m concerned about the lack of a dedicated mid-control on the TD—I understand that bass+treble can serve that purpose in tandem, but my K&K equipped Taylor 310 is so midsy that I don’t know if TD would be optimal for me. I’m leaning more towards the Grace Design Alix (or waiting a little longer to get a Felix and dual-source), which seems like a better application for me. I could be wrong though!

I think more EQ is always useful, but keep in mind that what you normally are attempting to do with EQ to tame a pickup, ToneDexter is already doing for you, creating a far more complex "EQ" than you can do. The general idea is that what comes out of ToneDexter is already "fixing" the pickup sound, so you need less EQ.

And of course, if you're running into a decent sound system, there should be EQ on the board - and with any luck a sound person out front who can fine-tune your guitar better than you can do from behind speakers on stage. Your setup may vary, of course. You can always put an EQ pedal in the effects loop, I just suspect you won't need it as much as you think

[Pitar]

The device is, in its simplest description, an acoustic emulator from what I've seen from its maker's site. Or, said another way, it's a microphone eliminator by virtue of a microphone emulation output from a Piezo source. Great tool if the venue is not suitable for a mic due to unwanted extraneous noise.

[buzzardwhiskey]

I have unit number 25. I’ve played lots of lower volume gigs and loved it every time, but I’ve played some large venues and sounded horrendous. What I’ve learned is that the more the wavemap sounds “like my guitar” when recording direct, the less even “tolerable” it’ll sound at high volumes.

At this point, at a festival or whatever when I have zero influence over the sound AND we have to get on stage and start playing fast, I’m far more likely to just play through my active DI box with a built-in high pass filter (Radial PZ-DI) rather than my ToneDexter.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by jklotz

I will admit seeing that Mark Knopfler is using them on his current tour peaked my interest.

Where did you see this? I love reading gear articles!

[Petty1818]

The "it gets lost in the mix" is a weird one for me. Why not just blend in 30-40% of the wavemap and not 100%? At even 40%, the pickup used is making up a big portion of the tone. Are people trying a 100% blend and then giving up on it?

[BluesKing777]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

The "it gets lost in the mix" is a weird one for me. Why not just blend in 30-40% of the wavemap and not 100%? At even 40%, the pickup used is making up a big portion of the tone. Are people trying a 100% blend and then giving up on it?

Even 20% wavemap will do it to get rid of piezo quackeroonee.
An acoustic with a nice mic'd sound takes up the WHOLE sound spectrum and it needs to be narrowed right down to fit a band mix.

Good luck using a mic on an acoustic and playing with a band! I get the shivers as I remember prompting the rest of the band at the time on a segue from my full acoustic set to a band set with a 'light' bit of backing and they were instructed to 'stay very quiet, just on and the drums with brushes ONLY', just like at rehearsal! Yeah, right! "Whack!!!" was the first alcohol infused snare drum hit and from then on I didn't hear a thing I did.

I'm sure people do it somehow.......please inform me.


BluesKing777.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

Are people trying a 100% blend and then giving up on it?

Working FOH, I get the sense that it's sorta like "I've put in plenty of money and time and I wanna see some ROI." Like the guy who sits with his elbow on the bar so his cuff won't cover up his new Rolex.

[shufflebeat]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

Working FOH, I get the sense that it's sorta like "I've put in plenty of money and time and I wanna see some ROI." Like the guy who sits with his elbow on the bar so his cuff won't cover up his new Rolex.

There's probably some of that but I suspect it's more often to do with faith vs experience.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by shufflebeat

There's probably some of that but I suspect it's more often to do with faith vs experience.

Great point. That too.

ToneDexter, or maybe Son of ToneDexter, will find its place eventually.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

Working FOH, I get the sense that it's sorta like "I've put in plenty of money and time and I wanna see some ROI." Like the guy who sits with his elbow on the bar so his cuff won't cover up his new Rolex.

Yep, I could see that being the case for sure. I just think of the aura for example. Most people bought that knowing that the best blend would be around 30-40%. Fishman was pretty straightforward about that. Still, the results were pretty great and the Aura isn't a cheap pedal. The Tonedexter is the next step in that you can actually record your own guitar. I too was ready to move on when I first tried it due to the wavemaps being a bit too thin/hollow (great at home, not so great one stage). I have worked with the blend knob and I am starting to discover how great this pedal is.

[Br1ck]

Dazzos into Sunaudio Stage 1 for me too. But I'm going to put Dazzos into my current mandolin build and a Tonedexter for that might be in the picture. But every time I hear any of my Dazzo equipped guitars through the Sunnaudio they sound great. Guys want to play them and hear for themselves, so I've heard them through the mains often enough.

[hiddenmickey]

I like my Tonedexter a lot, but could live without it for sure. I use mine with an Empress ParaEQ in the effects loop. In my opinion, the TD does not have enough “surgical” eq and needs some help from another device. I also feel that the ParaEQ has much more of an impact on improving plugged-in tone. In my situation, the ParaEQ is doing the heavy lifting and the TD is adding texture to the tone.

With that being said, my case for owning a Tonedexter is this; my guitar has a K&K pure mini in it and it sounds a little congested without the TD. EQ alone can’t completely get rid of the stuffiness.

[lppier]

Curious, does the source have to be a piezo, or something like the anthem would also work?

[varmonter]

I too am now using the helix stomp..
Best all around wiz bang box out there.
If I was in the market for a pedal
That is an all around do it all kinda thing
Then the stomp over the TD. All day.
You can load IRs into the stomp.even
Tonedexter IRS. And still have massive EQ
And effect capabilities . For me switching
From guitar to bass to mandolin.
It works great. I'd need a 3 channel tonedexter
To do what the helix does with half the floor space taken up. Well worth the 200 extra
Dollars over the TD.