Hey!
So I've built a stomp box (as in Ellis Stomp Boxes, like a mini-electric bass drum?) and I was wondering what resistors I could put into the piezo pick-up circuit to get rid of high-tones/notes.
I can put the lows way up, and the highs and mids all the way down, but then my guitar would sound like crap goin' through it.
Can anyone let me know how to make JUST the lows stand out, or maybe anyone know how I could rig up a potentiometer so I could get variable tone with my stomp box?
Thanks a bunch!
-Bennett
This is a bit foggy for me. I would think that a potentiometer would be best. It is a matter of capacitance though that determines the frequency not resistance. I'm pretty sure that's correct. It has been a long time. :oops:
Well thanks! So what would be a good frequency for a "bass drum" sound? And what capacitor would I use, a link to one to buy would be really nice. :P (Also maybe a link to a potentiometer that could be used.
Thanks a bunch! And yeah, you were right about capitance making the frequency, I looked it up. :P
-Bennett
I would love to help you but I can't. What I do understand is that you need a capacitor that will draw current. The capacitor will maintain uh.......capacitance until it reaches a set point at which it will start to "leak" back into the circuit. So essentially, the tone control will hold full capacitance at 0 and will gradually "leak" current until full open at 10. At least that is how I understand it. I hope someone else will be able to chime in here. It might be best to ask this question at an electronics forum.
You could try a plain ol' guitar tone setup after the stompbox circuitry, rather than before it as you'd get by changing your guitar's tone... but no guarantees ;)
There's a good site for guitar wiring diagrams here, and from that I got one of the most basic wiring setups there is, here - one pickup, one tone, one volume.
As you can see, the tone is a capacitor and a potentiometer in series and is as Hueseph says, it leaks higher frequencies from the hot signal to earth before it gets to the volume control (lower frequencies are affected less by capacitence than higher ones). As for values, it depends how hot your signal is and will probably take a bit of experimentation. If it's comparable to a single coil when it comes out of your stompbox, start with a 250k pot, if it's comparable to a humbucker start with a 500k. They'll need to be logarithmic, not linear, else all the control will be in just a small portion of the dial (you'll go from full tone to no tone in 0 to 2, rather than 0 to 10, if you see what I mean). They'll be called 'log', 'audio' or just have an 'A' after the value.
If that doesn't have the desired effect, you might want to try an EQ pedal for more control, they're cheap and they're always useful to have even if it doesn't work for this particular purpose. If that's not cutting the mustard, you could try a high-pass* pedal - that'll have a sharper cutoff point for the frequencies, and shut out more of the frequencies you don't want.
Good luck!
*or is it low-pass? I never remember which way around they're named. The one that cuts off everything above the frequency you set :mrgreen:
Haha, alright, I found a very simple diagram for a low-pass filter, and that lets all the lows go through, and cancels the highs...but I can't find a dang 7 uF Capacitor ANYWHERE in town! It sucks! lol
Thanks for the reply, I'll check the guitar wiring site, maybe it'll have some info.
-Bennett
