Seymour Duncan Blackouts Modular Preamp

[JacksonRR]

Anyone else thinking this might be a thing to try? It's cheap enough and there's good reports on sevenstring.org and some others. One dude used it with a set of Warpigs and loved it, for example. Duncan team says it's a 70/30 ratio of change, the 30 being what's retained, but other reports and threads are saying it's not that extreme at all, just more bite and clarity out of what you put into it.

[MDV]

Is this the seymour duncan EMG afterburner?

Why you'd want a blackout, or a warpig, to be hotter I have no idea.

[HTH AMPS]

Is this the seymour duncan EMG afterburner?

Why you'd want a blackout, or a warpig, to be hotter I have no idea.

its just like using an overdrive in front of the amp.

[JacksonRR]

It seems to not make them much hotter. It's the preamp from inside the Blackouts, so you wouldn't use it with Blackouts. It's not a simple booster+ buffer circuit. It uses a differential input to sum the coils together, so you need a 4 conductor wire on both of your pups. Differential summing has a higher noise cancelling/rejection ability, so your pups will be quieter. Also, the low impedance output makes the quality of your cable much less important. The term "brought them to life" seemed to be used a lot by users while I was perusing the web for more info.

[MDV]

Is this the seymour duncan EMG afterburner?

Why you'd want a blackout, or a warpig, to be hotter I have no idea.

its just like using an overdrive in front of the amp.

I guess.

Not something I do often either, but yeah, sure.

[Frank]

It's not a simple booster+ buffer circuit.

Really though, it probably is exactly that.

EDIT: except sealed in expoxy to stop people from dismantling it and realising they could build it for £5 themselves

[juansolo]

Just did this with my Viper as it had a battery provsion already in there and stereo jack that I wasn't using (seemed like a good idea at the time). The biggest expense was the push/pull vol control.  It's just a set and forget SHO (would be very easy to add a buffer). Works very well indeed and can be done for peanuts.



Yeah, it's messy in there.

[JacksonRR]

It's not a simple booster+ buffer circuit.

Really though, it probably is exactly that.

EDIT: except sealed in expoxy to stop people from dismantling it and realising they could build it for £5 themselves

It has four separate inputs, one for each coil of each humbucker, with the appropriate pairs being balanced and differentially summed. It is what I said, not a simple booster and buffer like the super hard on or a dumbed down TS. I'd epoxy that thing too, if I had designed it. Balanced differential inputs are common place in hifi circuits, not ever adapted to guitar gear. Sure, you can do your own research and find out what it takes to do this, perhaps even better. Of course, I don't have one or have heard one, I'm just saying that's not what it is at all.

[Frank]

It has four separate inputs, one for each coil of each humbucker, with the appropriate pairs being balanced and differentially summed.

But that's just marketing speak for a differential amplifier. Seriously, it's a really cheap and easy circuit to build. It's not some amazing new development in amplifier science, it's a few dual 741 opamp IC's. And those are what, 25 cents a time?

EDIT: I just checked the US Patent Office and he hasn't filed a patent since 1983. So this isn't any kind of "new technology", no matter what the publicity department bleats at us.

[JacksonRR]

I know it's not a new idea. I wasn't trying to be argumentative, only clarify the definition of the object at hand. I have no reason to stick up for a $50 device using re-purposed ideas that I haven't even heard yet. If you'd like to continue with your explanation, I'm sure we'd love to read your full understanding.

[Frank]

Well ok then. It's £5 worth of parts and £50 for the name Seymour Duncan on the box.

[juansolo]

Well ok then. It's £5 worth of parts and £50 for the name Seymour Duncan on the box.

This can apply to so, so many things. But there's always someone with Golden Hearing* who'll tell you it's miles better and totally different to an-other product that's essentially exactly the same thing but without the label.




*(tm) Juan. I have a friend who is an audiophile...

[JacksonRR]

Well ok then. It's £5 worth of parts and £50 for the name Seymour Duncan on the box.

Beer at home vs. beer at a restaurant. You don't have to do any of the sourcing, the construction, the packaging, the development, the testing or the shipping. You just have to work for an hour or so doing whatever it is you do. Get on with what you know about the specifics of the circuit already, repeatedly commenting negatively on the obvious is boring and masturbatory. It isn't doing anyone any good. I'm reading up on it right now, but if you'd care to enlighten us to the point it isn't worth the tiny price, do so. I'd surely join in on bashing that Alexi Laiho preamp that was selling for $200, but this isn't much of a price gouge and not something you find in so many pedals and other onboard preamps.

[Frank]

I found a circuit diagram for it!

[Philly Q]

Well ok then. It's £5 worth of parts and £50 for the name Seymour Duncan on the box.

Beer at home vs. beer at a restaurant. You don't have to do any of the sourcing, the construction, the packaging, the development, the testing or the shipping. You just have to work for an hour or so doing whatever it is you do. Get on with what you know about the specifics of the circuit already, repeatedly commenting negatively on the obvious is boring and masturbatory. It isn't doing anyone any good. I'm reading up on it right now, but if you'd care to enlighten us to the point it isn't worth the tiny price, do so. I'd surely join in on bashing that Alexi Laiho preamp that was selling for $200, but this isn't much of a price gouge and not something you find in so many pedals and other onboard preamps.

I agree with you.  Not everyone is a DIY electronics wizard. 

(Seymour Duncan is making a good profit margin on this thing?  The bar-steward.   Why isn't he just publishing a list of the component parts, with advice on where to buy them cheapest and a wiring diagram ?  :roll:  )

This gadget is cheap enough to experiment with, if it takes your fancy.