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Topic: New PSG gear alert - The FreeLoader |
Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 7 Jul 2008 6:32 am |
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 7 Jul 2008 7:08 am
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Brad,
I read the description on your webpage. Looks like a great unit. Can you tell me if it can tame down the hotness of a steel guitar pickup? For instance, when I plug my steel guitar into a lower wattage amp like a Deluxe, the pickup is too hot to get any headroom at all. Apologies if your description of the unit covered this question.
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Jackson Steel Guitars
Web: www.chrisledrew.com |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 7 Jul 2008 7:15 am
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Chris,
this unit is unity gain. In a way it will tame some of the "hotness" because it reduces the resonant peak, which is the highest energy region of the pickup. So, yeah, maybe a bit. But it doesn't have an actual "pad". Most steel guitar pickups will overdrive an input on a Fender guitar amp if you don't have a volume pedal in between the pickup and amp.
Brad |
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 7 Jul 2008 8:36 am
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Thanks for the info, Brad.
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Jackson Steel Guitars
Web: www.chrisledrew.com |
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Olli Haavisto
From:
Jarvenpaa,Finland
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Posted 8 Jul 2008 1:29 am
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Brad,
Compared to a Goodrich Matcbox I have, what would I gain (no pun) with the Freeloader ?
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Olli Haavisto
Finland |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 8 Jul 2008 7:52 pm
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| Olli Haavisto wrote: |
Brad,
Compared to a Goodrich Matcbox I have, what would I gain (no pun) with the Freeloader ? |
Well Olli, the FreeLoader is bright red...
No really, the Matchbox is a great product. I love those guys. Honestly, I don't currently know exactly how their tone control works. I know they offer gain as well. The Freeloader is unity gain, no boost or cut control, just the load control knob.
My main motivaton for the FreeLoader was to create a very simple, light, small device that primarily offers a variable impedance load control for that particular means of shaping the tone of a pickup's response. No real sense of trying to compete with anyone. It really grew out of finding how useful the vari-z knob is on the Black Box, the Rev preamp, and the Tonic preamp, and wanting to offer that simple control to those who don't have those pieces of gear, and who don't want to mess with tubes and the power cords and racks and stuff.
To pull it off, it was natural to need a buffer stage to drive the thing as well. My approach was ultra-minimal. I generally tend to like using discrete transistors instead of opamps when practical. In this case, it just took one single transistor to create the low impedance buffer/driver circuit. This simple buffer stage is very clean, very quiet, and very battery efficient too. I also use real good audio capacitors (Wima and Mallory 150) and good Dale/Vishay resistors, good Neutrik jacks, thick copper traced pc board, nice aluminum powdercoated box, etc. So it really was just the result of having a lot of fun designing something with a very specific purpose: to control the pickup's tone with "variable loading" or "variable impedance".
Brad
Last edited by Brad Sarno on 25 Jul 2008 7:15 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Olli Haavisto
From:
Jarvenpaa,Finland
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Posted 9 Jul 2008 5:34 am
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Sorry Brad, I phrased the question wrong, it`s not about which is better, just about the differences.
Btw the Match Box I have is model 60 which is unity gain, with just the tone pot. It would be interesting to know if it works on the vari-impedance principle. Anybody?
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Olli Haavisto
Finland |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 9 Jul 2008 7:44 am
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David Doggett
From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
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Posted 9 Jul 2008 1:24 pm
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| Brad, can this box make a high impedance modern psg pickup sound like a low impedance old Fender steel pickup? Or vice versus? I use all-tube amps, so haven't felt a need for a Black Box or Revelation. But I do wish I could get a different tone out of my pickup when switching between genres. It sounds like you are saying this thing will cause tonal variations different than what one might get from twiddling the amp tone controls. |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 9 Jul 2008 2:14 pm
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David,
that's a good question. Short answer: not really.
There are inherent characteristics of a pickup, like the frequency of the resonant peak, the Q or width of that peak, and the amplitude of that peak to name a few. You can't change the inductance of a pickup, but you can take control of the "amplitude" of the resonant peak. So essentially this would let you tame back the sharpness in the treble range of that peak by pulling it down giving a warmer, mellower tone if you want. Or sharp and bright if you crank it giving a high impedance load on the pickup. But the pickup will still retain much of it's natural and inherent character no matter what you do. This is like a tone control, but a different flavor. I find this kind of control immensely useful on PSG. Even from song to song and stage to stage. Since the resonant peak of a pickup's response is very much it's dominant characteristic as it is where the pickup's cut and treble live, this really gives a whole new level of tone control without the over-dulling or frequency shifting that traditional treble or tone controls offer.
Brad
RIP 4th Amendment of the US Constitution 1791-2008 |
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Steve Hitsman
From:
Waterloo, IL
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Posted 10 Jul 2008 3:56 am
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| So, would this be more useful than the Black Box for guys playing tube amps? |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 10 Jul 2008 7:41 pm
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Steve,
I wouldn't say "more" useful than a Black Box. If you want a purely tube path, then you may NOT want to introduce a transistor circuit before the amp. But if you're already using other transistor based pedals like a delay or active volume pedal before the tube amp, then maybe it would be quite useful because of the load control. Personally, when I used a Twin, I also liked to have a Black Box right up front and had no problem with all the tubes in the chain. But since the tube amp will give so much of the tubey tone halo, maybe the FreeLoader right up front will help keep things nice and clear without getting too warmed over. Hard to say without experimenting.
Short answer, I can't say. But it's a good question for sure.
Brad
http://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com/products/freeloader.html
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Richard Marko
From:
Dallas, Texas
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Posted 11 Jul 2008 9:49 am
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I play through a POD XT Pro directly to mixer board.
I've found to get the bottom where I want it I need to turn my treble and mid down between 9 to noon and bass almost all the way up and some messing around with the units EQ settings.
Playing through the POD is very different than an amp so my question is can your box make my guitar sound like it did when I played through my session ??
I want a more deeper warmer tone than what POD offers.
If your box does this alot of other steelers would definitely be interested.
Thanks !! |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 11 Jul 2008 10:57 am
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| Quote: |
| I also use real good audio capacitors (Wima and Mallory 150) and good Dale/Vishay resistors, good Neutrik jacks, thick copper traced pc board, nice aluminum powdercoated box, etc |
I'm not gonna even TRY to understand what all that means, but if Brad likes it, I like it! 
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 11 Jul 2008 3:09 pm
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Richard.
The way I related to having a variable load control is that it's all about getting the pickup's response just right. Dark and full, or sharp and snappy, and anything in between. If you can get your pickup signal balanced before you ever hit your amp's (or Pod's) tone controls, you'll have a lot more control and flexibility with those tone controls since they're all free to tailor the overall "amp" sound instead of getting all used up just trying to get the pickup's tone balanced.
I know the Pod can be real tricky going direct because you have so many amp model's and especially speaker models. On the Pod, I think it's real critical to search and find the right speaker models. Forget about whether the speaker should be the right ones, you need to dial thru them and find the warmest settings if warm is what you're after. On the Pod, I had good luck with the Tweed Bassman as the amp, and then, I think it was the 2-12" Vox AC30 cabinet that gave a nice speaker tone. I didn't like their Fender Twin speaker modeling at all. Too crisp and harsh. There are lots of other good speaker models in there too. Even the Tweed Bassman speaker modeling was pretty good from what I remember. But I would spend some more time with your Pod to see if you can help your situation with a better choice of speaker model.
Jim, don't sweat it. It just means good sounding, fancy electronic guts. But thanks for the kind words!!
Brad |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2008 9:33 am
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Bryan Rankins
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 18 Jul 2008 12:04 am
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| Quote: |
So essentially this would let you tame back the sharpness in the treble range of that peak by pulling it down giving a warmer, mellower tone if you want. Or sharp and bright if you crank it giving a high impedance load on the pickup. But the pickup will still retain much of it's natural and inherent character no matter what you do. This is like a tone control, but a different flavor. I find this kind of control immensely useful on PSG. Even from song to song and stage to stage. Since the resonant peak of a pickup's response is very much it's dominant characteristic as it is where the pickup's cut and treble live, this really gives a whole new level of tone control without the over-dulling or frequency shifting that traditional treble or tone controls offer.
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I couldn't have possibly described this any better. I played out with this unit on Wednesday, and the above statement says it all. Having this unit allowed me to get just the right amount of cut when playing high up the neck, without losing the richness I get near the nut. If I set my rig up to be slightly warmer when playing near the pickup, then I loose the sweet low end and clarity near the nut. It becomes too muddy. I play a Derby SD10 thru a tube amp. With the Freeloader, I was able to be happy at both ends of the spectrum, and instead of turning around to the amp controls to adjust something, I simply reached to my right and move that little knob slightly one way or the other. I also see this as a huge plus for the D10 players that switch back and forth. Another homerun Brad...Thanks. |
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David Anderson
From:
St. Louis, MO, USA
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Posted 19 Jul 2008 12:46 pm
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I just got a chance to try this with my steel. I have a MSA Classic solid maple body, with a Mesa Boogie Studio Pre and a 1-12 enclosed cab. I tried the Freeloader with my steel and a Peavey Nashville 112.
Out of the gate, this unit improved my tone through the Peavey. I was able to really dial in different tones from song to song. Past the 12th fret has never sounded so good. I used to avoid playing high up on the neck just because of the shrill tone I would get. All in all, the Freeloader has been the best and least expensive way for me to improve my sound! |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 19 Jul 2008 8:24 pm
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I got mine this week, played with it at home and then used it on an outdoor winery gig today. It's a subtle effect, but very useful. I think of it as a twang control - it adds or removes twang. When I want to sound really country, I boost the Freeloader control to 8 or 9. When I'm driving effects for rock, I back it off to 3 or 4. Setting it at about 5 or 6 gives a smooth, even tone with my BL-712 pickup.
My setup today was Williams D-12 -> Freeloader -> pot volume pedal -> POD XT -> Mesa/Boogie Maverick amp. The amp wasn't miked, so I was running it pretty loud. I could hear the effect that the Freeloader had on the system. It really helped tame the pickup.
Question for Brad: which jack disconnects the battery power? I've been unplugging them both.
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-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 20 Jul 2008 7:01 am
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Thanks for the great feedback guys.
bOb, I never described it that way, but it really is a "twang" control.
The top (input) jack is the one that turns on/off the battery. Don't sweat it if you happen to leave it on overnight now and then. An alkaline battery should give about 300 to 500 hours of operation.
Brad |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 25 Jul 2008 7:08 am
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Thanks to Jim McLaughlin for the new photos:
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Ron !
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Posted 25 Jul 2008 7:14 pm
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Brad does it change the impedance?
Hope you don't mind me asking you this question. |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2008 8:47 am
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Ron,
yes it does. It takes a high impedance pickup, then lets you adjust the input impedance to the FreeLoader to dial in the perfect pickup tonal response, then inside the FreeLoader is a 9v powered buffer circuit with a low impedance output to drive the line.
So yes, it changes the impedance from high to low.
Brad |
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Donald Rademan
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 1 Aug 2008 11:59 am free loader
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| brad i received mine wednesday, and it works great, i no longer have to try and adjust the tone on my nashville 400. this does the trick. thanks don |
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