Low Z switch without EQ/preamp?

[mellowgerman]

Hi guys. I've been doing some research into the low impedance/low z sound. I'm interested in experimenting with it, but am not necessarily interested in getting an active preamp with a several band EQ and all the bells and whistles.
Does anybody know if Low Z switches are available to be bought seperately? Or maybe there's a pedal out there that lets you tap into some low impedance sound?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[slyjoe]

In general, any pedal has a low impedance output. Likewise, pickups are considered High-Z.

All switches are low-z - they don't offer any resistance to speak of

Just out of curiosity, why are you interested in "low Z sounds"? Have you noticed a big difference with High vs Low Z? For getting to Low Z the fastest, a preamp or simple buffer is the best option.

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Just use a passive DI-box or a separate Hi-Z/Lo-Z transformer.

Jensen, Lundahl etc. make exellent transformers for that purpose.

I have a vintage Teleste and that's, well..., a piece of modern art (=crap ).

Regards
Sam

 

[walterw]

long juicy thread about that very thing.

 

[mellowgerman]

thanks for the feedback guys.
I'm mainly interested in it because according to rick turner one of the main factors of jack casady's sound was the fact that all those mods included making the pickups low impedance... guess it kind of added a nice extra degree of warmth, even when running mainly the bridge pickup

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Low inpedance pickups are not the same as a Hi-Z to Lo-Z conversion. It's in the characteristics of the pickup itself, not in the impedance alone.

Regards
Sam

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Rick Turner wound low impedance pickups for Jack's Guild bass. They used heavier gauge wire and had fewer turns.

They also have very low output, so you either need a preamp, which is what Turner did, or a step-up transformer, like the Gibson Les Paul Signature/Epi Jack Casady bass.

I used to make low-Z pickups, and used a small jfet buffer to bring the level up, though they did work without the preamp if you plugged them into a low Z input on a mixer. But they still needed the level brought up with the mic pre.

Active pickups on the other hand, are actually high z coils, with the low Z output being a product of the preamp.

Jack's bass with the Hagstrom pickups.

 

[mellowgerman]

I see. Well that makes sense then.
Although Turner did say that something like this (see link below) and some dark stars would get one fairly close to what casady had. Sort of like a modern take on it perhaps (keeping in mind of course that this way you'd have an EQ instead of alembic filters for each pickup)
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[seanm]

thanks for the feedback guys.
I'm mainly interested in it because according to rick turner one of the main factors of jack casady's sound was the fact that all those mods included making the pickups low impedance... guess it kind of added a nice extra degree of warmth, even when running mainly the bridge pickup

Any sort of low-Z preamp/DI/converter is going to brighten your sound.

Low-z pickups, as others have mentioned, are much different from a low-z converter.

Maybe, just maybe, running the pickups into a low-z input might help a bit. Do you have a cheap mixer? Try running your bass into the high-Z input, which is usually about 10k. 10k is very low-z to a passive bass.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

If you plug hi-z pickups into a lo-z input, you will have a very dark tone with a drop in volume. This is because the pickup is being loaded down.

Low impedance pickups have a very flat response without the usual upper mid peak you get with high impedance pickups.

Some people think they are too clean sounding. I like them though, and I'm going to start making them again very soon.

 

[mellowgerman]

Hmmm... well thanks again for the responses/useful info to contemplate!
It's really nice to see some sincere responses from people who know what they're talking about; I feel like these are getting more and more scarce on this forum.