There has been some discussion about use of diodes, so I thought I'd start a separate thread for it.
The common use of a diode is as a one way valve, letting electricity pass through in one direction and not the other. For the 12 volt electricity in your car, the alternator is a small generator making AC power, and diodes are used to allow the juice out when it's in the positive cycle, and block it when its in the negative cycle, thus giving out DC power to the car. In this case the diode's small consumption of 0.2v to turn on is ignorable.
In a git, however, the pickups only generate about 0.3v. Now you can't ignore it, but you can make use of it.
If you put a diode between the tip and ground on your git's output jack so that it acts as a short to ground, you can get a sort of overdrive/fuzz/clipping effect. the pickup spits out a nice wave and when it reaches the diode-acting-as-a-short, the diode will turn on only when the wave gets above the diode's turn-on voltage. the beginning part of the wave is too weak and the diode ignores it and it passes on by to the output jack. when the wave is about to reach it's peak the diode turns on and keeps a steady 0.2 v drop across itself and the excess energy shoots through to ground.
so instead of a nice smooth wave going down the cable, it is "clipped", the nice smooth crest is cut flat giving a distortion to the sound.
This is a little bit simplified, actual voltage produced by a pickup (mag/piezo) varies depending on type, and the cut-on voltage of a diode also varies based on type. a weak pickup may never turn on a strong diode and no clipping happens, and a strong pickup with a weak diode could turn on too soon and clip far too much of the signal.
Tags:
Its been ages since my electrical engineering classes in college (I won't say exactly how long lol) but I believe some very low value resisters would be effective.
David,i've done this on 4 guitars now,and i agree it works very well,any drop in volume is negligible to my ears,where i got my info from the guy was very specific as to which diode to use and i ran with that,with a piezo added to the variables,you get a great variety of tone plus total isolation of sources if needed
Started by Rich Butters in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Crazed Fandango 13 hours ago. 4 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by BrianQ. 17 hours ago. 2 Replies 0 Likes
Started by J. D. Woods in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by J. D. Woods on Saturday. 7 Replies 1 Like
Started by Nomad Jack in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by J. D. Woods on Wednesday. 7 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Moritz Voegeli in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 14. 6 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Apr 10. 14 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Tom T in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 9. 9 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 4. 7 Replies 1 Like
Started by Timothy Hunter in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 27. 1 Reply 2 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 10. 1 Reply 3 Likes
Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by BrianQ. Mar 9. 4 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies 1 Like
Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Ken I in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Brian partington Mar 8. 8 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Cool gear discussion - that's not cigar box related. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 6. 5 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 5. 4 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Carl Floyd Mar 1. 15 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Joe in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Carl Floyd Feb 29. 13 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Chance in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 22. 12 Replies 1 Like
Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 21. 2 Replies 4 Likes
Posted by Vlad on March 31, 2024 at 11:48pm 0 Comments 1 Like
Posted by Vlad on March 6, 2024 at 2:32am 5 Comments 2 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 28, 2024 at 2:09pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 17, 2024 at 11:00pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by Vlad on February 11, 2024 at 1:06am 1 Comment 1 Like
May 11, 2024 from 11am to 8pm – Speakeasy Grill
0 Comments 0 LikesMay 30, 2024 from 6:30pm to 10pm – The Casual Pint of Huntsville
0 Comments 0 Likes© 2024 Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker. Powered by
Cigar Box Nation is presented by C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply, your one-stop-shop for Cigar Box Guitar parts and accessories!