I am a pedal head and have been reverse engineering and building for a little while. I have just been turned on to obsidian wiring and I must ask someone with experience - what is this sorcery?!
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Anybody know much about obsidian wire?
- Thread starter SixtyCycleHum
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- wiring
This is why I live in the south.
I have a Jazz Plus harness waiting to go into a build. It is a very nicely built piece…
Yeah I guess that is what I'm asking. Solderless. They seem to be at the top of the food chain. I'm majorly intrigued by it.
I understand obsidian wire is known for its sharp, glassy tone...
Srs tho, I'm kinda curious to hear about this, too.
Srs tho, I'm kinda curious to hear about this, too.
I used one of their harnesses for a tele build that a friend was doing for another friend. The friend moved to Austin and asked me finish the build. Then Covid hit and the tele sat in an office for two years. It was an easy install at least.
Never used Obsidian but I have boughten three solderless harnesses from Kelling Sound on eBay. All were superb and extremely easy to install.
This is very strange. I've never heard of Obsidian Wire although I am very familiar with obsidian as I am an amateur flint knapper and have about 150-lbs of the stuff. Obsidian is also known as volcanic glass. It comes from lava that cooled very quickly after emerging from the bowels of the earth.
Virtually all of mine is the classic black obsidian, which is the most common type. It is great for flintknapping because it breaks with a concoidal frature (think of a round cone-shaped hole in glass from being shot with a bb). Because it reliably breaks in that fracture angle, you can shape it into arrow heads, spear heads, knives, axes, etc., just like you can flint.
It is extremely sharp. It is actually capable of the sharpest edge in the world - on molecule thick. HOWEVER it is also extremely brittle. If you drop it, it breaks. Great for arrow heads and spear heads where that sharpness makes a difference and ridiculous to use as an axe where durability matters because if it doesn't break on the first swing, it will probably break on the next. Shards of it can be used for skinning and field dressing deer. An obsidian knife can be used too, but being obsidian, it doesn't bend at all. That is what makes it so brittle - it will break instead of bending.
I'm guessing they don't actually use obsidian but instead are using this as a brand? There's just no way you could make wire out of a material that you can't melt, is a very poor conductor of electricity, is not flexible, and is impossible to make a smooth wire out of because it is so brittle. And if you were using it to mount controls on, it's just too fragile for that. You could break it by bumping your bass or even pushing in you instrument cord with too much force.
Sorry for the long bit on obsidian wire. I see that it is a brand offering solderless connections for guitar and bass control panels. Still don't see where they might use actual obsidian in it. I see they did trademark it, so I'm presuming it's just a catchy name for their brand.
Virtually all of mine is the classic black obsidian, which is the most common type. It is great for flintknapping because it breaks with a concoidal frature (think of a round cone-shaped hole in glass from being shot with a bb). Because it reliably breaks in that fracture angle, you can shape it into arrow heads, spear heads, knives, axes, etc., just like you can flint.
It is extremely sharp. It is actually capable of the sharpest edge in the world - on molecule thick. HOWEVER it is also extremely brittle. If you drop it, it breaks. Great for arrow heads and spear heads where that sharpness makes a difference and ridiculous to use as an axe where durability matters because if it doesn't break on the first swing, it will probably break on the next. Shards of it can be used for skinning and field dressing deer. An obsidian knife can be used too, but being obsidian, it doesn't bend at all. That is what makes it so brittle - it will break instead of bending.
I'm guessing they don't actually use obsidian but instead are using this as a brand? There's just no way you could make wire out of a material that you can't melt, is a very poor conductor of electricity, is not flexible, and is impossible to make a smooth wire out of because it is so brittle. And if you were using it to mount controls on, it's just too fragile for that. You could break it by bumping your bass or even pushing in you instrument cord with too much force.
Sorry for the long bit on obsidian wire. I see that it is a brand offering solderless connections for guitar and bass control panels. Still don't see where they might use actual obsidian in it. I see they did trademark it, so I'm presuming it's just a catchy name for their brand.
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I have their P-Bass wire harness installed in one of my basses.
I like the treble bleed circuit as it retains the instrument's tone when the volume knob is turned down.
I don't like the connections where the pickups connect to the harness.
I think they could have used a terminal connection with a screw to tighten the wires to the terminal lug.
It helps to have a BIG Rolodex file:
ObsidianWire | Solderless Guitar Wiring Harness | Guitar Electronics
ObsidianWire | Solderless Guitar Wiring Harness | Guitar Electronics
devnulljp
Supporting Member
I installed a set of solderless EMGs once. The pickups were great, but the connectors were crap and I ended up soldering them anyway.
Hope these guys have it figured out better.
Hope these guys have it figured out better.
It's electro-mechanical specs are very similar to unobtainium but it's not as expensive.
I have them in 3 jazz bases and a P bass. Very clean and easy. Appears to be good quality.
Not sure about the others but I appreciated your knowledge on obsidian. I remember going on a field trip somewhere as a kid and there was obsidian to be found along the trails. Cool stuff.
Solderless connectors are great when you have enough voltage and current flowing through them to keep a good connection. Your house wiring (120 volts, amps of current) qualifies for that. Guitars and basses don't have signals that do that. You need a gas tight connection at every wire to connector and connector to connecter interface or eventually you're hosed.
A good solder joint is a great thing.
I have one of the strat wiring harnesses. Easy install, has been flawless for a year or so.
