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Topic: Question about the toggle switch on a Fender T-8 Custom |
Tommy Detamore
From:
Floresville, Texas
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Posted 31 Aug 2020 6:53 pm |
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I am currently re-doing a '54 T-8 Custom that was poorly refinished by someone. The toggle switch that turns on all three necks is broken and needs replacing, but it is my understanding that using such a switch drops the volume of all three necks significantly when engaged.
Is there a better method of achieving "all necks on" without the volume drop penalty? Or is that sort of the nature of the beast? I would expect a little no matter what...
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Tommy Detamore
Quilter Labs, Goodrich Sound, Source Audio, Neunaber Audio, and Stringjoy Authorized Dealer
www.cherryridgestudio.com
www.steelguitartracksonline.com |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 1 Sep 2020 7:32 am
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I've wondered the same thing. I experience it on my Stringmaster T8, as well as my Magnatone D8. I don't know the exact science behind it, something about load...and I'm unsure why it is so perceivable an effect when on a single neck guitar, you don't hear a significant drop going from one pickup, to two in parallel. Eg, why if you have two single pickup necks, and you combine them in parallel, does it drop the output more than if you have two pickups combined in parallel on a single neck?
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Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 2 Sep 2020 4:41 am
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| All my (Fender) multi-neck steels have this issue and I think it's unavoidable unless you want to get into active electronics or something like that. It's certainly a feature of the original electronics. |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 2 Sep 2020 4:48 am
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| Nic Neufeld wrote: |
| on a single neck guitar, you don't hear a significant drop going from one pickup, to two in parallel. |
This is probably because, on a single neck guitar you are using 1 pickup at full volume and then 2 pickups together each at slightly reduced volume but they are each putting out a signal so you pretty much end up back at the same volume you started with.
On a double neck, you are switching in more pickups into the circuit (same volume drop) but not using the extra ones to compensate - you're still only playing one neck at a time.
On regular (spanish style) double neck guitars, you notice a definite volume drop when both necks are on. |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 2 Sep 2020 4:57 am
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Oh, of course...how silly of me...on a single neck guitar with two pickups on, the strings are engaging both pickups, so even if they are slightly lower in output, they combine to make about the same amount of output...doubleneck guitar, the strings are only engaging one of the pickups, so your output is less. Makes perfect sense, wasn't thinking that through...
I do wonder about some kind of active circuit to compensate for it! Would be nice...I know we nonpedallers are a little wedded to older tech, I wonder if the pedal steel folks have something for that? They seem to use LOTS of modern things like active electronics, input buffers, and the like. Can't imagine they'd be happy with a drop when engaging C6 and E9, but maybe they rarely leave both on at the same time?
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Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 2 Sep 2020 6:22 am
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Yes, you might be right - not so much neck jumping on pedal steel. I think most players think "this is a C6 song" or "this is an E9 song". In fact, in truth the vast majority think "this is an E9 song and this is the neck I just use to rest my wrists on but a double neck looks more impressive" (I've lost count of the number of pedal players who say they NEVER use the C6 neck).
For me, my volume/tone pedal is very important on most of my non-pedal playing (specifically the tone sweep part) and I have found that pretty much ANYTHING I mess with on the electronics side will kill the boo-wah tone effect - buffers, extra pedals in the chain, it even doesn't like some amps very much. I've never quite worked out what's going on with that but suspect it is something to do with impedence. I'm pretty sure if I started messing with active pickups I'd lose the boo-wah. Come to think of it, it also doesn't work so well when I have more than one neck engaged. It also works much better on the neck nearest to me - which reminds me - have you noticed at the volume also goes down slightly as you use the further away necks? Even engaging one neck at a time. More noticeable on a triple or quad but still there on a double. |
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