fransoos
16 juli 2009, 12:18
Hoi,
Ben een interessant artikel tegen gekomen over pickup's, gitaarkabel en capacitance load factor en de invloed hiervan op je gitaargeluid.
Klinkt allemaal heel ingewikkeld maar het is vlgs mij wel de moeite waard om het eens door te lezen.
de link : goran.tangring.com/index-filer/Pickup-cabletheory.htm
enkele fragmenten eruit:
Erik Ringtved Jensen's :
‘What guitarists ought to know about pickups’.
In the search for ‘that sound’ - or just good guitar tone in general - I think there is a few points often being overlooked.
One of these is the capacitance/impedance load-effect on pickups. Sounds boring, I know – but hold on, it’s not. If you
care about your guitar tone, read on, and if the terms ‘capacitance/impedance load’ are new to you, you may be in for a
surprise or two. In ‘Part 1’ I’ll try to cover the technical parts of the subject, in a simplified and not too technical way – concentrating
on what ‘s important from a players point of view. I’m not a tech, or an expert in any way (in fact I’m still trying to understand the
deeper parts of it). Nevertheless, having experienced all the problems and advantages myself, I’ve through the years come to understand
the main factors involved, and how they influence the sound of any guitar, cheap or expensive. I’d like to point out, that the following in no
way are to be credited to me. Most of it I’ve translated and boiled down from an old german book, I came across more than 15 years
ago – but have since lost. The graphics are made to illustrate the points in a somewhat simplified way, rather than being strictly correct – just
mentioning it, in case any real techs are reading along.
Conclusion.
It’s clear that the life of a pickup is a tough one, being heavily influence by it ‘environments’. And if we think the overall sound we achieve is just a matter of how much we money we’ve spent on the ‘right’ guitar and amp – we are wrong. Fact is – the cable capacitance, together with the input impedance, literately forms, what could be seen as, a graphic equalizer – and the capacitance (quality/length of the cable) determines which frequency point you boost, and the input impedance determines how much you move the fader up, from max (+12 dB), to actually attenuating that frequency and what’s above it. Whether you
bother or not, ‘the external factors equalizer’ will affect your tone, leaving you with only two options. You can say ‘I don’t care’ and live with whatever it at random brings – or you can learn about it, find out what it can do for your pickups, and use it to your advantage.
A theory.
I’m now leaving the facts zone – going into speculations. IMO it seems logical to conclude, that the capacitance/impedance factor would/could have influenced the shaping of ‘That Sound’ – and also how it (to some extend) can explain why we today are having trouble recreating the tones of our heroes. I really believe that we have to consider, especially the capacitance factors – and to some degree also the input impedance factor – just as seriously as which guitar, strings, which amp, echo, Hanks socks etc. Consider the following. In the 60’s we had low quality guitar cables, heavily loading down the guitar signal. If you were there, I’m sure you remember (although, at the time we didn’t have a clue what was going on). I have a video clip from a Cliff & The Shadows concert in ‘63/64. Hanks has a guitar cable so long, that he can easily walk over to Bruce’s side of the stage, sharing a mike with him for vocals, and fool around with Bruce on the far lefts side of the stage. At the ‘Thank You Very Much’ concert, as late as ’78, Hank was using a curly lead – I believe, one of the absolute worst types of cable with respect to capacitance. The question is: Didn’t Hank know what he was doing at all? Well, I think he did – of course he did! IMO Hank used the (dis)advantages of the cable! The cable was part of his sound - and he had a great sound, twangy, bright and full. Even though live he didn’t exactly nail the recorded sounds, it seems to me he always fundamentally had that special sound. Today we have been ‘blessed’ with a lot of technical improvements. We have high quality guitarcables, and those who mostly/only play at home, probably don’t use cables longer than 2-3 meters. We have wireless systems, which transforms the signal right out of the guitar (no capacitance load), to a very low impedance signal after the receiver, effectively eliminating the capacitance/impedance factor, to an extend that it's compensated for (to some degree, but not totally) otherwise. We have a lot of modern equipment – digital effect units, effect pedals and other solid-state devices, most of which has high input- and very low output impedances. Point is, a lot of things have changed since the ‘60’s – some may say for the better, I don’t know? The main thing is, the external factors which are parts of our pickup circuits has changed for sure – affecting the tone of even your beloved ’59! This could very well be the reason why, a lot of Strat player today (IMO) has too much ultrahigh treble in their attempts for ‘that sound’, making the sound too thin in contrast to full - and too metallic instead of just bright. I firmly believe it isn’t enough
Ben een interessant artikel tegen gekomen over pickup's, gitaarkabel en capacitance load factor en de invloed hiervan op je gitaargeluid.
Klinkt allemaal heel ingewikkeld maar het is vlgs mij wel de moeite waard om het eens door te lezen.
de link : goran.tangring.com/index-filer/Pickup-cabletheory.htm
enkele fragmenten eruit:
Erik Ringtved Jensen's :
‘What guitarists ought to know about pickups’.
In the search for ‘that sound’ - or just good guitar tone in general - I think there is a few points often being overlooked.
One of these is the capacitance/impedance load-effect on pickups. Sounds boring, I know – but hold on, it’s not. If you
care about your guitar tone, read on, and if the terms ‘capacitance/impedance load’ are new to you, you may be in for a
surprise or two. In ‘Part 1’ I’ll try to cover the technical parts of the subject, in a simplified and not too technical way – concentrating
on what ‘s important from a players point of view. I’m not a tech, or an expert in any way (in fact I’m still trying to understand the
deeper parts of it). Nevertheless, having experienced all the problems and advantages myself, I’ve through the years come to understand
the main factors involved, and how they influence the sound of any guitar, cheap or expensive. I’d like to point out, that the following in no
way are to be credited to me. Most of it I’ve translated and boiled down from an old german book, I came across more than 15 years
ago – but have since lost. The graphics are made to illustrate the points in a somewhat simplified way, rather than being strictly correct – just
mentioning it, in case any real techs are reading along.
Conclusion.
It’s clear that the life of a pickup is a tough one, being heavily influence by it ‘environments’. And if we think the overall sound we achieve is just a matter of how much we money we’ve spent on the ‘right’ guitar and amp – we are wrong. Fact is – the cable capacitance, together with the input impedance, literately forms, what could be seen as, a graphic equalizer – and the capacitance (quality/length of the cable) determines which frequency point you boost, and the input impedance determines how much you move the fader up, from max (+12 dB), to actually attenuating that frequency and what’s above it. Whether you
bother or not, ‘the external factors equalizer’ will affect your tone, leaving you with only two options. You can say ‘I don’t care’ and live with whatever it at random brings – or you can learn about it, find out what it can do for your pickups, and use it to your advantage.
A theory.
I’m now leaving the facts zone – going into speculations. IMO it seems logical to conclude, that the capacitance/impedance factor would/could have influenced the shaping of ‘That Sound’ – and also how it (to some extend) can explain why we today are having trouble recreating the tones of our heroes. I really believe that we have to consider, especially the capacitance factors – and to some degree also the input impedance factor – just as seriously as which guitar, strings, which amp, echo, Hanks socks etc. Consider the following. In the 60’s we had low quality guitar cables, heavily loading down the guitar signal. If you were there, I’m sure you remember (although, at the time we didn’t have a clue what was going on). I have a video clip from a Cliff & The Shadows concert in ‘63/64. Hanks has a guitar cable so long, that he can easily walk over to Bruce’s side of the stage, sharing a mike with him for vocals, and fool around with Bruce on the far lefts side of the stage. At the ‘Thank You Very Much’ concert, as late as ’78, Hank was using a curly lead – I believe, one of the absolute worst types of cable with respect to capacitance. The question is: Didn’t Hank know what he was doing at all? Well, I think he did – of course he did! IMO Hank used the (dis)advantages of the cable! The cable was part of his sound - and he had a great sound, twangy, bright and full. Even though live he didn’t exactly nail the recorded sounds, it seems to me he always fundamentally had that special sound. Today we have been ‘blessed’ with a lot of technical improvements. We have high quality guitarcables, and those who mostly/only play at home, probably don’t use cables longer than 2-3 meters. We have wireless systems, which transforms the signal right out of the guitar (no capacitance load), to a very low impedance signal after the receiver, effectively eliminating the capacitance/impedance factor, to an extend that it's compensated for (to some degree, but not totally) otherwise. We have a lot of modern equipment – digital effect units, effect pedals and other solid-state devices, most of which has high input- and very low output impedances. Point is, a lot of things have changed since the ‘60’s – some may say for the better, I don’t know? The main thing is, the external factors which are parts of our pickup circuits has changed for sure – affecting the tone of even your beloved ’59! This could very well be the reason why, a lot of Strat player today (IMO) has too much ultrahigh treble in their attempts for ‘that sound’, making the sound too thin in contrast to full - and too metallic instead of just bright. I firmly believe it isn’t enough