johnnygeorgia
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- Jan 30, 2023
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Anyone else involved in the guitar community? There's definitely some interesting measurements that could be made to determine the quality of their equipment, but there is little to no actual data of anyone doing so!
In that subculture, most equipment is described very non-succinctly, like a famous pedal called the Ibanez Tube Screamer is "a great overdrive that has a mids hump". I'm left wondering "what frequency range defines 'mids'? what is the more specific shape of this hump? what happens to the bass and trebles?" Being so nonspecific, I'm wondering how we can get better answers on characterizing guitar equipment.
For example, I think the most straightforward item to measure would be a "boost" pedal, which simply amplifies a guitar's signal. I'm wondering what sort of measurements are relevant for this: I can definitely think of at least two items: frequency response at different gain ("boost") levels, and SNR. In one of the pedals I list below, there's mention of THD+n, but I'm not sure why that specifically is relevant.
Research of trying to find the "most transparent" boost online leads me to three separate products by different manufacturers.
1. The Pete Cornish NB-3 provides some data (but not any graphs). This company has a legendary reputation.
2. The Creation Audio Labs MK 4.23 posts some data themselves and a guitar magazine published a frequency response graph
3. The L.A. Sound Design BB-01 provides no data whatsoever (but the company has an outstanding reputation in guitar history)
I don't necessarily trust any of these as they are not third-party measurements (except perhaps the bass magazine one). Even if I did, they each provide different data, which makes comparing the products a headache.
So I guess my question to you guys is: what measurements are relevant in this case? And how could I obtain such measurements? Electrically, a guitar is a high-output-impedance driver that can only put out small signals, in the range of millivolts, if that matters.
Thanks so much!
In that subculture, most equipment is described very non-succinctly, like a famous pedal called the Ibanez Tube Screamer is "a great overdrive that has a mids hump". I'm left wondering "what frequency range defines 'mids'? what is the more specific shape of this hump? what happens to the bass and trebles?" Being so nonspecific, I'm wondering how we can get better answers on characterizing guitar equipment.
For example, I think the most straightforward item to measure would be a "boost" pedal, which simply amplifies a guitar's signal. I'm wondering what sort of measurements are relevant for this: I can definitely think of at least two items: frequency response at different gain ("boost") levels, and SNR. In one of the pedals I list below, there's mention of THD+n, but I'm not sure why that specifically is relevant.
Research of trying to find the "most transparent" boost online leads me to three separate products by different manufacturers.
1. The Pete Cornish NB-3 provides some data (but not any graphs). This company has a legendary reputation.
2. The Creation Audio Labs MK 4.23 posts some data themselves and a guitar magazine published a frequency response graph
3. The L.A. Sound Design BB-01 provides no data whatsoever (but the company has an outstanding reputation in guitar history)
I don't necessarily trust any of these as they are not third-party measurements (except perhaps the bass magazine one). Even if I did, they each provide different data, which makes comparing the products a headache.
So I guess my question to you guys is: what measurements are relevant in this case? And how could I obtain such measurements? Electrically, a guitar is a high-output-impedance driver that can only put out small signals, in the range of millivolts, if that matters.
Thanks so much!