Schatten HFN & ToneDexter

[Marshall]

OK. I do a weekly video during quarantine times. This week's offering is a kitchen recording of an old song of mine. This old guitar is a 1937 Kalamazoo KG-11 with a Schatten HFN installed. The recording is done on my iphone with a small Shure MV88 stereo mic. The guitar is run through my ToneDexter into a Boss Delay Pedal, and into a Schertler David amp off screen. You get about 40% of the acoustic sound of the guitar in the recording. I'd estimate 60% of the amped sound. It's hard to know, because they SOUND ALIKE (except for the delay effect). The delay is on VERY mildly.

The guitar part starts about 30 seconds into the video.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by Marshall

OK. I do a weekly video during quarantine times. This week's offering is a kitchen recording of an old song of mine. This old guitar is a 1937 Kalamazoo KG-11 with a Schatten HFN installed. The recording is done on my iphone with a small Shure MV88 stereo mic. The guitar is run through my ToneDexter into a Boss Delay Pedal, and into a Schertler David amp off screen. You get about 40% of the acoustic sound of the guitar in the recording. I'd estimate 60% of the amped sound. It's hard to know, because they SOUND ALIKE (except for the delay effect). The delay is on VERY mildly.

The guitar part starts about 30 seconds into the video.

Sounds really good! What I have found with the Tonedexter is that a 100% wavemap blend just cuts far too much of the lows and overall body of the pickup. Depending on how natural the pickup is to begin with, I often set the blend at anywhere from 50-70%. It still sounds like a mic'd guitar but I get the enhanced bass and presence of the pickup I am using.

The HFN is a pickup that I still think has the best sound out of all the SBT's that I have tried, I just couldn't get enough bass out of it. I think part of the reason why it sounds so natural is the fact that the transducer itself is quite far from the bridge plate but as a result, you lose a bit of the fullness that something like the K&K has. I have two HFN's lying around and two jacks on my guitar. I need to figure out a way to install it with a UST in place as one of the feet is supposed to go right where the UST wire comes out of the bottom of the bridgeplate. I think blending the two would give me that natural tone of the HFN but the nice bass of the UST. I could then apply a touch of TD. Might not work but not a hard experiment.

[Marshall]

I may have been confusing in my description. I'm running the ToneDexter @ full on. The reason I say 60% is because the iphone microphone is hearing both the un amplified guitar and the amplifier. But the signal through the Tonedexter into the amp is 100% effect on the pickup signal.

[gfirob]

That guitar sounds great to me, though I am a fan of both the 30's Kalamazoo's and the Tonedexter, a winning combination for sure.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Marshall

I may have been confusing in my description. I'm running the ToneDexter @ full on. The reason I say 60% is because the iphone microphone is hearing both the un amplified guitar and the amplifier. But the signal through the Tonedexter into the amp is 100% effect on the pickup signal.

It only takes about a 10% blend of a real mic to totally warp any demo of a pickup. To hear the guitar the way an audience would hear it, you need to be able to shut any vocal/phone/etc mic completely off.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by Marshall

I may have been confusing in my description. I'm running the ToneDexter @ full on. The reason I say 60% is because the iphone microphone is hearing both the un amplified guitar and the amplifier. But the signal through the Tonedexter into the amp is 100% effect on the pickup signal.

Haha sorry, it was me who might have been confusing. I got what you meant but just decided to mention my take on the blend control!

[Marshall]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

It only takes about a 10% blend of a real mic to totally warp any demo of a pickup. To hear the guitar the way an audience would hear it, you need to be able to shut any vocal/phone/etc mic completely off.

Yeah, you're right, Doug. But the amplified guitar with the TD is terrific by itself. I didn't mean this to be a comparison. I was just making a video with the TD and the Kalamazoo. And I was so impressed with the accuracy I get through the amp, I stuck the video in "Acoustic Amplification" instead of "Show and Tell."