Blending Dimarzio Black Angels

[dumacker]

I am installing a Black Angel Piezo and Black Angel pickups into an old D-45.
Is there any simple way to blend these two passive pickups without active electronics?

thank,

jhv

[MrErikJ]

I have the Black Angels and I blend them with a Pendhlum SPS-1 but you could also use 2 Baggs Para DIs or Venues, 2 Fishman Platinum Stage DIs, or the Baggs Mixpro belt-clip preamp. The MixPro is pretty neat, actually, but it isn’t a DI, it just combines your two signals and then you’ll still need to send it to an amp or DI.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by dumacker

I am installing a Black Angel Piezo and Black Angel pickups into an old D-45.
Is there any simple way to blend these two passive pickups without active electronics?

thank,

jhv

The champ at combining a mag and an SBT passively would be luthier and pickup guru Dave Wendler with his MagPi system.
http://www.electrocoustic.com/


Over ten years ago PUTW had a pickup system which passively combined an SBT, a mag pickup (end-of fretboard mini-mag designed by Jeff Lace) and a UST in various configurations with the pickups combined in parallel and series. I had one of the systems myself, but was underwhelmed with the results. Beyond that, it was difficult to keep the little mag mounted as intended.

PUTW's David Enke designed the system, so he certainly has some expertise with passively combining a mag and an SBT. PUTW's more successful product was the stereo power plug which plugged into the guitar's strap-jack and pre-amped both passive signals before combining them into a mono signal. Its interesting to also note that PUTW's regular Power Plug could be used to preamp the SBT signal and pass on the mag signal passively via a stereo cable.

These days you can contact David Enke at his new company:
https://opentosourcesensors.com/

He may be able to sell you one of the power plugs. I definitely recommend that an OTSS SBT be preamped close to the guitar. Even a regular Power Plug would work because a mag pickup happens to be the only pickup type (because of its relatively low impedance) which can be passively run in stereo with an active pickup without encountering a "cross-talk" problem. ("Cross-talk" is when the signal on one of the stereo channels also shows up on the other channel.)

[GuildF20Guy]

Originally Posted by dumacker

I am installing a Black Angel Piezo and Black Angel pickups into an old D-45.
Is there any simple way to blend these two passive pickups without active electronics?

thank,

jhv

What is your source of amplification? You could simply wire up a stereo jack and use a Y cable to 2 channels of a mixer, dual channel pre amp/amp or 2 amps.

[dumacker]

Does anyone know of the Schatten Artist 2 preamp? Looks like it might work. Checking with the company now. Are there other similar products that you know of? It looks like the big difference between the two pickups is the high impedance of the Black Angel Piezo. Balancing is the goal...

https://www.schattendesign.com/PDF/Artist-II-Preamp.pdf


thanks!

jhv

[dumacker]

What about something internal to blend prior to connecting to a female mono jack?

jhv

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by dumacker

What about something internal to blend prior to connecting to a female mono jack?

jhv

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Schatten-Ar...4AAOSwzppaA2Pl

This Schatten Design Dual Channel Endpin jack preamp will do the job of blending the signals onboard to a mono output.

Personally, I prefer to be able to process the individual signals separately before blending. I use two output jacks to do this. I got into a lot of cross-talk issues back when I experimented with wiring pickups in stereo and using them with stereo cables or stereo-to-Y cables.

[MrErikJ]

I agree w/guitaniac that it's better to have control over the blend if possible. If you're summing them to mono, you'd still want control over how each sounded and was equalized. The BA piezo is a stereo jack and has a mini connector in place for the magnetic pickup. I would just wire them up to that and run them out, passively, to either an outboard preamp that can mix two signals or send them out on a Y cable to two outboard preamps, like two Para DIs.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by MrErikJ

I agree w/guitaniac that it's better to have control over the blend if possible. If you're summing them to mono, you'd still want control over how each sounded and was equalized. The BA piezo is a stereo jack and has a mini connector in place for the magnetic pickup. I would just wire them up to that and run them out, passively, to either an outboard preamp that can mix two signals or send them out on a Y cable to two outboard preamps, like two Para DIs.

Does the DiMarzio SBT kit include a mini-plug to mini-plug cable for connecting the BA to the SBT jack?

[MrErikJ]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

Does the DiMarzio SBT kit include a mini-plug to mini-plug cable for connecting the BA to the SBT jack?

Yep, the piezo comes wired to the tip of a stereo jack and there is mini-jack already soldered to the ring connector so you can just plug it into the mag.

Honestly, I don't know why they just don't offer it in a set. I now have a jack and a cable sitting around for my mag that I don't need and the piezo came already setup for a mag. I

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by MrErikJ

Yep, the piezo comes wired to the tip of a stereo jack and there is mini-jack already soldered to the ring connector so you can just plug it into the mag.

Honestly, I don't know why they just don't offer it in a set. I now have a jack and a cable sitting around for my mag that I don't need and the piezo came already setup for a mag. I

I see the source of my confusion. What you are calling a mini-jack is what I call a mini-plug. In any event, its totally cool that DiMarzio provides a way to take both signals out passively with a stereo or stereo-to- Y cable. I presume if they provide that option then there's no serious cross-talk issue with that pair of pickups.

[MrErikJ]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

I see the source of my confusion. What you are calling a mini-jack is what I call a mini-plug. In any event, its totally cool that DiMarzio provides a way to take both signals out passively with a stereo or stereo-to- Y cable. I presume if they provide that option then there's no serious cross-talk issue with that pair of pickups.

Whoops! Yes, you are correct, it is a black cable with a mini-PLUG pre-soldered to the ring connector. My mistake, I shouldn't drink so early in the day.

And listening through headphones, I didn't observe any cross-talk but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

[dumacker]

The problem with multiple pickups is the impedances can vary so much you have to use a multiple channel preamp to balance gain.

jhv

[nsurround]

I will be using a Fractal FM9 for two separate inputs (preamp) for the piezo and mag. Each will have its own channel gain and eq before being summed/mixed. Then the signal will go to the effects side of things before the final output. Many ways to do this with the FM9. Its kind of overkill but use the same unit for my electric guitars etc.