Totally unnecessary. Soldering is a basic skill that takes minutes to learn.
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Anybody know much about obsidian wire?
- Thread starter SixtyCycleHum
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Obsidian is mostly a SiO2 glass and has effectively zero electrical conductivity. So there’s no electrical wiring with it, full stop. [Retired materials science prof.] Marketing.
True enough, but I’ll pay for the luxury of not having to do it.
Is it a luxury to save yourself 30 minutes of really easy work that you'd otherwise spend being angry at somebody on this forum?
Besides, I thought that rich people hated PCB mounted circuits.
D
Is it a luxury to save yourself 30 minutes of really easy work that you'd otherwise spend being angry at somebody on this forum?
Besides, I thought that rich people hated PCB mounted circuits.
LOL. Clearly PCBs are only a cheap option when they're used in amps. In basses they are now a boutique choice. Point-to-point wiring is apparently only cool in expensive amps, not is basses.
Joking aside, it looks tidy, they seem to use good quality components and I think it's really cool that they've managed to build a business around this. But there's no magic here. It's really just an easy plug'n'play option for people who can't solder. There're nothing here that can't be done with traditional wiring. Personally I'd much rather choose the exact components/values I want and solder it myself.
Learning how to solder takes about 5 minutes btw. Maybe a bit longer for a professional, clean result but anyone should be able to solder the wiring inside a P/J-bass, even if they have no experience with electronics whatsoever. I re-wired a Squier P-bass with better components the same day I got my first soldering iron. I'm sure it looks a bit messy inside it I open it up but the point is: I've never needed to. The bass still works fine almost 30 years after my first adventure with a soldering iron. If I can do it, ANYONE can do it and the cost will be significantly lower than for these solderless PCBs.
An in case anyone REALLY needs to know this: Obsidian is just the name of the manufacturer. They don't actually use volcanic glass in their wiring. At least I hope they don't...
Not saying that a lot of folks haven't used em but the entire av and low voltage industry does not use phoenix connectors. I worked for a synth manufacturer and have repaired, modded, built, studied countless pieces of audio gear and have rarely seen them used in a professional / manufactured setting. Most of what you will see is idc ribbon connection as it's way more cost efficient. Both from a material cost but as well from a cost to manufacture (ie it takes one press to install vs turns of a screwdriver and the possiblity of being over or under torqued).
As far as connections in basses, my opinion is meh, do whatever floats your boat. Personally I own professional equipment and have enough experience to solder in my sleep, so I tend to use what works well and is long proven as a reliable option (lead/tin solder connections).
As a side how bout idc? Why not use these connectors in a bass harness over the Phoenix style? Seems more straight forward to me and as I've seen plenty of broken over torqued Phoenix connectors I'd be inclined to think an idc would be a better option in this situation.
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Is it a luxury to save yourself 30 minutes of really easy work that you'd otherwise spend being angry at somebody on this forum?
Besides, I thought that rich people hated PCB mounted circuits.
Just an extra gig to me. I’d rather have the time and the neatness. FWIW, I never said you were wrong. And thanks for mistaking me for being rich.
Interesting..maybe they made the change or have always been CTS. I replaced my Obsidian P-Bass Harness because of its poor quality pots. Big improvement when I did so.
I've used Emerson prewired, honestly think they sound a bit better than Obsidian. It may ruffle purists feathers even more, the Emerson Pbass harness is $89usd
There's a lot more to New Zealand than just Obsidian although it has a lot.
I got most of my obsidian on the Arcularius Ranch along the Upper Owen's River in CA. They had 5 miles of the Upper Owen's river, had been a lodge since ~1906, and I taught 3½-day fly-fishing schools there. I'd find bits and pieces that were broken and when I finally got an idea of what a small nodule of it would look like that hadn't been broken I realized it was all over the place and I started picking it up. My wife and my younger brother have both given me crap for moving my Box o' Rocks from place to place over the years.
The Owen's River Valley and Long Valley are located near Mammoth Lakes and bordered by the Eastern Scarp of the Sierra Nevada on one side and the White Mountains on the other side of the valley. That entire valley that goes down to Bishop, CA was a caldera, meaning it had an underground lake of magma. And then the magma blew up and formed the White mountains with the outflow of lava. Those eruptions threw lava all over the place and when it cools quickly it becomes obsidian. If it cools slowly, it turns into granite. So I have a bunch of small nodules of obsidian, big enough for arrowheads but not spear points.
There's also a mountain near there called Glass Mountain that has entirely obsidian section along the top ridge of it. I went there with a sledge to get some samples but all the pieces I ended up with had holes and veins of dirt throughout it that made it impossible to knap into anything. There is a spot in Oregon though where you are allowed to take a bunch out every day - something like 200 or 300-lbs. is the limit per day.
I would expect that you could find a lot of Obsidian in Iceland!
Fishing flies and tackle of course. There's logs of great trout fishing in New Zealand!
I loved your story man. Lol! However, this must be said. I might be a bass player as well as neurodivergent. But I never once thought there was actually going to be obsidian in among all of this. It's a marketing shtick
Is thinking there is obsidian in obsidian wire the new thinking there's a tube in a tube screamer? Haha who else has run into that n00berific assu
They look just like what Gladesville (here in AUS) put out! Around that same price, about $90 US/$140ish AU.
ObsidianWire
Commercial User
Stumbled across this thread and thought I'd chip in, since I know a bit about both ObsidianWire and rocks.
To settle your debate on the name; alas, I do not know of a way to build a working circuit out of obsidian so no, there is no actual obsidian in the harness. Many years ago we were trying to come up with a name for the business, and had already settled on a beautiful black PCB as the basis for the design, so as a geology graduate I of course suggested my favourite glassy igneous rock. We liked it, and it stuck.
I won't pretend to settle any debates on the pros or cons of learning to solder, though. Of course, if you have the ability, equipment and inclination it's a wonderful skill to have. We developed our products for anyone who doesn't have those things, and we're think they sound pretty good too.
Happy to answer any specific questions you have about either wiring or New Zealand geology, fire away.
Cheers,
Caitlin
To settle your debate on the name; alas, I do not know of a way to build a working circuit out of obsidian so no, there is no actual obsidian in the harness. Many years ago we were trying to come up with a name for the business, and had already settled on a beautiful black PCB as the basis for the design, so as a geology graduate I of course suggested my favourite glassy igneous rock. We liked it, and it stuck.
I won't pretend to settle any debates on the pros or cons of learning to solder, though. Of course, if you have the ability, equipment and inclination it's a wonderful skill to have. We developed our products for anyone who doesn't have those things, and we're think they sound pretty good too.
Happy to answer any specific questions you have about either wiring or New Zealand geology, fire away.
Cheers,
Caitlin
Caitlin,
That is an amazing response, far beyond anything I could have expected. Hahaha! This thread is on me due to seeing your brand and thinking it is the only solderless harness in town, so referring to it as such. It definitely opened up a lovely discussion on geology.
Soldering is definitely a valuable skill which we should all have to some degree. I'm merely curious about the solderless path and hot swapping and things of that nature.
Thank you so much for replying personally!
ObsidianWire's sorcery is adept. As a wizard, I thoroughly approve.
One six-way custom harness lives in my Strat, and coexists happily with a pair of SD humbuckers.
An ObsidianWire 'vintage jazz plus' lives in my fretless JB, in which I have installed Fender vintage noiseless pickups.
Contrary to other complaints, both harnesses employ CTS pots, and do not have flawed treble bleeds.
I would say the treble from my JB bridge is a little spitty, though growl is well-pronounced. I'm not able to determine whether this spitty factor is due to ObsidianWire's capacitance or the Fender pickups themselves.
Though it is solderless, the push-block connection on both harnesses is entirely satisfactory and saves time. A tiny flathead jeweller's screwdriver is required to depress the spring-loaded terminals.
As to build quality and signal clarity, a solid 10/10.
I chose ObsidianWire's harnesses on recommendation from a trusted bassist and friend with whom I gigged and recorded for several years in New Zealand, and am not at all disappointed.
Caitlin may know JP - John Parkinson. (Kiaora Caitlin! It's Rohan! Give my love to John.)
One six-way custom harness lives in my Strat, and coexists happily with a pair of SD humbuckers.
An ObsidianWire 'vintage jazz plus' lives in my fretless JB, in which I have installed Fender vintage noiseless pickups.
Contrary to other complaints, both harnesses employ CTS pots, and do not have flawed treble bleeds.
I would say the treble from my JB bridge is a little spitty, though growl is well-pronounced. I'm not able to determine whether this spitty factor is due to ObsidianWire's capacitance or the Fender pickups themselves.
Though it is solderless, the push-block connection on both harnesses is entirely satisfactory and saves time. A tiny flathead jeweller's screwdriver is required to depress the spring-loaded terminals.
As to build quality and signal clarity, a solid 10/10.
I chose ObsidianWire's harnesses on recommendation from a trusted bassist and friend with whom I gigged and recorded for several years in New Zealand, and am not at all disappointed.
Caitlin may know JP - John Parkinson. (Kiaora Caitlin! It's Rohan! Give my love to John.)
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Yeah, you could say that again! Guess whom I got the idea from to get those kits initially.
Yeah, you could say that again! Guess whom I got the idea from to get those kits initially.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say ... Guitar Max?
