Solomon

Wow that Sonuus is quite a beast - well certainly in terms of functionality - and seems to sound really nice. I don't know if I got one of those then I would get my value for money - I'm not a massive effects freak but I've got a funk project on the horizon that, if I had one of these, could be quite influential in the band... certainly a very interesting option. Regarding the old 3leaf, I found one on ebay but the guy selling has withdrawn it I had a snipe ready to go as well - it didn't seem to be getting much interest so I think he just chickened out. Gutted!

Lovely idea... but as far as I can tell, I can pick up a 1st edition 3leaf for around £50 and it'll be hard to get a Mutron III for less than £400, and probably get hit by customs fees when it arrives too. I can't afford to throw that much money at it at the moment. What about this HAZ Mutron III+? Is it any good? A poor imitation or a worthy successor?

You know, I kinda picked that up when I was looking around for videos but I assumed I must've made the wrong assumptions - no one that young could be that awesome, could they? Perhaps he's actually 40? I think I'll see if I can pick up the old one for cheap and see how I get along with it - it's sounds great in this video. If I get on well with it I'll upgrade because a blend and delay control would be great too.

Oh yeah, @Bigwan, I'm loving that Proton! Thanks for the tip. It might just be this kid who has sold me on it though... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_5IMP_8kO0[/media] wow - the lads got some chops!

I've not come across that one before - the humanizer effect certainly looks fun but it's perhaps still a little too clinical for me - it's not that far removed from my Digitech pedal.

Alrighty, people. I am about to continue my quest to find the finest autowah / envelope filter on the market and I'm look for a few opinions. And, yeah, I expect this topic has probably been covered before My first experience about 20 years ago was with a box that an old mate built. It cost me 30 quid if memory serves! A simple Maplins' metal box with two knobs and one button. It sounded great. I then owned the Digitech Synthwah which is nice enough but a little too surgical. Clearly, I'm after the Bootsy kind of sound but not necessarily quite so extreme. I want something warm and full, retro as you like,quite versatile, with plenty of bottom end and so funky I need to wear a gas mask! I've also already got a really nice valve preamp pedal to dirty up the signal a little. It'd be great if presets could be programmed in so you can change the effect without having to stop playing, but that could be a bit of a dream unless I buy a few pedals! I've been looking at the HAZ Mutron III+ (probably purely because it carries the Mutron name), the QTron (because it's like the Mutron but cheaper), Source Audio bass envelope filter (which offers far more than I need but offers programmable presets), the Snow White (which sounds great), and others. Just wondering what other people use or would recommend? I''m selling my fairly new SWR Redhead so hopefully I'll be freeing up some money soon - I'd probably be happy to throw a couple of hundred quid at the pedal if I can get what I want for that kind of money. BTW, feel free to check out my Redhead on eBay [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SWR-Redhead-Electric-Bass-Guitar-Pro-Combo-Tube-Valve-Amplifier-2x10-400-650W-/171036556789?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item27d292bdf5"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item27d292bdf5[/url] Cheers!!

bump...?

Touche! Right then... I'm pretty much there now. After barking up a tree for a while I've decided to drop the 4-throw switch idea... mainly because it'll just be too painful to pay £12 from Mouser to get the part I need because they appear to be the only people in the known universe to sell such an item! So, because my plan is to get as much versatility from a single humbucker pickup as possible, I still want to get the series/parallel/north/south options from the pickup... and I've been bashing my brains to figure out how this could be done on two DPDT switches but for the ilfe of me I can't figure it out... I've got very close but not got it nailed. I'm prepared to believe it can't be done! Now my plan is to have 2 SPST switches - one for each coil. Then a DPDT (on/on) for a series/parallel selection. Clearly the series/parallel switch won't do anything if one of the coils is deactivated. Beyond this arrangement a standard volume and tone control... then (just for fun) a kill switch (DPST on/off/momentary). [attachment=118798:wiring-final-pots.JPG] Assuming this wiring idea is sensible and will work I would like to entertain the notion of changing the switches for pots... I don't see any reason why that shouldn't be OK but that might just be my lack of experience talking! So, with that in mind I've thought about swapping over the pickup selection switches (so we now effectively have a volumn control for each coil... clearly the normal volume pot would be redundant in this situation). In principle I reckon this is OK but I can't predict if this will trip up when we start fiddling with the series/parallel switch. If the coil volume controls idea works then I'll certainly imlement it. Beyond that I've started thinking about using a dual pot for series/parallel instead of a switch. Now my O-Level physics knowledge assumes that this won't work... call it a gut feeling... but I have nothing more than a hunch to go on. Is it a stupid idea or is there some mileage here? [attachment=118797:wiring-final-switches.JPG] Actually... while I'm here, one last question... I know it's common practice to solder the earth to the back of the volume pot - but why? Does the pot chassis itself need earthing? Is it just for the convenience of having some kind of earth "hub"? I've been trying to draw up my diagram in a more "real world" type scenario and I probably wouldn't solder anything to the backs of pots - if I need some kind of hub I would probably just twist all the wires together, solder and heat shrink. Am I missing something?

ha! Perfectly fair enough Shame - it seemed like such a good idea at first! I'm currently cracking on with drawing up my circuit... I'll post it up here shortly for you to have a "laugh at the newbie" moment Thanks for all your help, Mart ([i]et al[/i]) you're a star!

Glad to see I've pushed you to the edge my questions clearly aren't that dumb then I'm prepared to try a little trial and error... I'l cross that bridge when I get to it I guess. I knew pickups worked by induction and I understand that you need magnets to make that work... I just assumed the pickup rods themselves were magnetic Tell you what though, I've been e-mailing [url="http://tweekdoctor.co.uk"]Steve at tweekdoctor.co.uk[/url] and he's been super helpful and done loads of research for me! I really can recommend him. All this help and, when it comes down to it, although he's certainly going to get my business, I'm hardly going to make him rich for his efforts... a good guy! With your (and Steve's) help I'm beginning to refine my wiring ideas now for my SD humbucker involving this 4-way rotary switch, vol, tone and, just for fun, a kill switch. Now I'm just thinking about whch direction to go on the volume pot... 250K or 500K. No, I appreciate conventional think tells you to shove a humbucker through a 500M pot, however due to my lack of experience in these things and to my predisposition to play old-school funk and soul music I feel I might quite like a "bottomy" sort of sound that a 250K might be able to give me. So, here's my idea... if I take a stacked 250K/500K pot and wired it up like the attached picture, would I end up with two volume controls? Basically, if I rolled off the 250K pot the 500K would take over, and vice versa? And if both were fully open I'd just get a normal, straight-through effect? If this did work would the effect be essential the same as a tone control? [sharedmedia=core:attachments:118523]

[quote name='mart' timestamp='1347731432' post='1804453'] It does look like an earth wire is missing; what is that stray wire in the middle of the pickup (at the top of the bottom pickup) ? Anyway, yes, I think you should earth that copper shielding. I think you'll find those magnets are fairly essential - they provide the magnetic field whose flux is dragged by the movement of the strings thereby inducing a current in the wires in the pickup, enabling your instrument to produce electricity which can then be amplified to a nice stadium filling thud. [/quote] sweet... shows how much I understand the principles of these things... I figured the metal rods in the pup were magnetic themselves... I've just tried touching the pups with a ferrous thing with and without the magnets on the back and you're absolutely right... not that I doubted you! So I need to route out a deep enough pup cavity to accommodate these magnet too! I have no idea what that wire is... it does look a little out of place and doesn't seem to be doing anything. I bought this thing from a local guitar shop some 15 years ago and never got round to doing anything with it - I guess it was in this state when I bought it. So I'll connect the two copper surfaces together and then bring an earth wire through into the electronics cavity. It's funny, I've got a good understanding of physics and generally well fettled logic skills, but this is a whole different way of thinking - my questions seem reasonable when I ask them but when they are answered so elouquently and simply by you guys I generally feel the question was quite dumb You do know there's another question coming, don't you?.... Do I need to be careful as to which way round the magnets go on the back of the coils? Or is it enough to know that they are simply magnetised?

[quote name='Solomon' timestamp='1347706057' post='1804160'] Indeed - an excellent link! I've dropped the chap a line - hoping to get a bit of advice about the right selector switch to use [/quote] Just thought I'd mention that I've had a response from this guy, Steve, at doctortweek.co.uk... on a Saturday as well! Friendly chap and clearly knows his stuff. Sadly he doesn't have the component I need but has offered to get hold of one for me if I struggle elsewhere... thanks for the recommendation!