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GigRig Z-Cable


pantherairsoft
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Stumbled across this - [url="http://www.thegigrig.com/acatalog/Z_Cable_catalog.html"]http://www.thegigrig.com/acatalog/Z_Cable_catalog.html[/url]

I'm a huge fan of GigRig stuff, and being the user of a massive pedal board/signal chain I'm quite interested. A google search shows lots of people opinions based on what's written about it, but there's seems to be no one out there that's actually tried one.

I know it's strictly impossible put put back the exact flavour of tone lost through pedals and buffers, but I'd like to think it's significantly better than a little clean boost with a passive tone dial.

Don't suppose a basschatter has had a go? Long shot I know...

Shep

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I'd like to think all my 'true bypass' pedals and decent preamp made it sound brand new. :)

Jokes aside - it looks interesting. I'll see where has one in stock, or if any distributors have any - see if I can get my hands on one to review too maybe?

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If you have lots of true bypass it obviously defeating the point...

My signal chain includes 4 MoogerFoogers, a Whammy IV & 2 Double Pedal Boss units, plus lots more... Those I just listed all have a reputation for tone suck, the 'foogers particularly 'colour' your tone.

I do notice a some top end loss and over all 'fatness' - which I EQ back in on the amp. This compensated sound though is obviously not quite the same tonally speaking as the original sound.

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[quote name='cheddatom' post='1275543' date='Jun 20 2011, 08:37 AM']What's it actually do? Just adjust impedence?[/quote]
i think it tries to show the amplifier a more reactive impedance load than a conventional output stage would have, via additional capacitive and inductive elements. i've no doubt the additional filtering serves to colour the sound somewhat, but i'm also fairly certain it doesn't work quite how they seem to think it works -- in fact, input stages in general don't quite work in the way the designers there seem to think they work.

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[quote name='cheddatom' post='1275954' date='Jun 20 2011, 02:58 PM']It just seems a bit nuts[/quote]
lol, pretty much. all of the the processing between the guitar and amp may be lumped into one transfer function (mathematical way of expressing the changes to magnitude and phase response) -- this transfer function will never be perfectly flat in magnitude and phase, even for the best pre-amps, and is far from it in the worst. This little box adds its own transfer function on top of this, only complicating things further.

Adding to this, good amps tend to have in input impedance of at least 1 Mohm, whilst many (especially cheaper, or older) effects units may have 250k, 100k, or lower. This lowered input impedance combines with the complex impedance of the pickup coils to affect the high frequency response -- which is why many guitars sound better straight into the amp than through effects.

The problem is not the loss of some magical interaction between guitar and amp -- the problem is the magnitude and phase distortion of the signal which occurs between the guitar and amp, something which ironically this little box only serves to make worse.

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to do something like this properly, surely it would take some sort of processor with a loop for your effects, so that it can read the input of your bass signal clean, and try to replicate that after the effects are applied - why you would ever want to do this I haven't a clue, as if you want the original sound of your bass, putting it through a load of pedals isn't a great idea.

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My mate has a pedal which is just a jack socket, wired to another jack socket straight through... theres a big knob and a footswitch on it, just fitted to the chassis and wired to nothing.

Lend it to other players, 50% of them will hear they improvement straight away!

(Not saying this is what the z-cable does, just an amusing story about a pointless pedal).

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I've emailed Dan @ GigRig to get his take on it… and specifically with the use of an active bass (all references mention what wonders it does for the sparkle of an electric guitar tone, as opposed to the fatness of a bass). I'll let ya'll know when I hear back.

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[quote name='pantherairsoft' post='1276178' date='Jun 20 2011, 06:27 PM']specifically with the use of an active bass[/quote]
there is no advantage at all to using this device with an active bass (or full stop, really... :)), if he tells you otherwise he's just being a very good salesman :)

unfortunately, the alterations you hear to your bass's tone are due to the number of gain stages they are being passed though with your pedals in bypass. the only option really, is either a simple bypass-loop, or a really fancy bypass-loop (such as those made by Gigrig, or something like the TC G-system, etc). alternatively, i believe there are ways to convert some of them (such as the moogs) to true bypass.

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