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New Emerald carbon fiber ABG - impressive!

#82
foothilla said:
I don't know who taught you that, but it's fundamentally untrue.
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Tried it myself, try it yourself, its very easy with your closest ABG with a regular piezo built in. Try to use it with 18v - if the actual preamp allows it - and see what happens.
It's not the actual amp, but the actual pickup that drives the system, the batteries should power the pickup as such, just as a condenser mic. Nothing new or novel about that. And that some systems may require 18v for increased headrom. Just whack the low strings and see how early or late they're choking or producing that dreaded piezo quack.

It's not less no more than you can't compete with a 20W bass amp to a loud drummer. You need above 100W combo to get anywhere. Otherwise you have to resort to LIMITERS and it was limiting that we didn't need in this case. Sure you can get away with murder with a 9v battery and a limiter.
 
#83
Honch said:
Tried it myself, try it yourself, its very easy with your closest ABG with a regular piezo built in. Try to use it with 18v - if the actual preamp allows it - and see what happens.
It's not the actual amp, but the actual pickup that drives the system, the batteries should power the pickup as such, just as a condenser mic. Nothing new or novel about that. And that some systems may require 18v for increased headrom. Just whack the low strings and see how early or late they're choking or producing that dreaded piezo quack.

It's not less no more than you can't compete with a 20W bass amp to a loud drummer. You need above 100W combo to get anywhere. Otherwise you have to resort to LIMITERS and it was limiting that we didn't need in this case. Sure you can get away with murder with a 9v battery and a limiter.
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I've had more 9v bass rigs than I can count. Most of them could rattle the drywall right off of your walls.

Honestly, most of your posts in this thread just seem to be from the position of a contrarian. And I am not the only one to take notice of that.

18v systems can be great. But to say you need that to achieve respectable bass response, that's just not true at all.
 
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#84
Jeff Scott said:
I have owned basses that used 1 9V battery and those that used 2 9V batteries, not to mention a slew of basses that you couldn't put a battery in if you wanted to (passive, for those who don't know what that means ;)). The passive basses have/had the deepest, most defined bottom end of them all.

Hope this helps.
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LOL - spot on.
Much to my wife's dismay, I rearranged all the china in the kitchen cabinets the first time I plugged my tiny little rubber stringed passive Kala UBass into my SVT-VR/Berg 610 rig. She now affectionately calls it the mahogany moose, and forbids me to play it at home with anything larger than a 210 cab.:roflmao:
 
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#87
In the meantime, I'll leave this here - an X20 guitar with quilted maple top in amber stolen from the Emerald website...

image.jpeg
 
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#88
HeavyDuty said:
In the meantime, I'll leave this here - an X20 guitar with quilted maple top in amber stolen from the Emerald website...

View attachment 934439
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That's it! TB needs a LOVE button for those times when a LIKE just isn't enough. An amber quilted maple top with an amber graphite weave back would put me over the top!

Somehow I think I'm rapidly pricing myself out of the market - Must..... Control..... My....... GAS!!!!
 
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#95
Jeff Scott said:
So, the whole thing including the wood top goes into the autoclave/oven together. I guess that would tend to torrefy the wood during that process, I suppose an additional bonus as torrefaction seems to be a popular thing these days in acoustic guitars circles.
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I once used torrified wheat in an English old ale that I brewed, which turned out amazing and got me a few awards at some local homebrew competititions.
 
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#96
Honch said:
See there. That's a solution too, among others. Taylor has made a concession and left their old ES system. They're much better now. I have a slight reluctance to anything blended or double, that one pickup takes up the top and one other takes up strings, when blended, phase errors occurs, and feedback can be harder to buck. If the top or acoustic sound is loud I don't think a strip that senses the top only would be that smart. If a bass, and a loud one with a CF top, it's better to use something else that senses the strings, the Taylor idea MAY be a solution too... but still...powered, not passive, and powered by more than 9v or at least the option to phantom power it with more. It's a bass ya know. And while the bass is CF and high end like around 2-3 K USD you might as well up the ante in the pickup department too, and not equip it with just anything that sounds ... meh.

And for gods sake, no goose neck real condenser microphone inside. That was the thing a decade ago. Wonder whatever they'd been smokin' who came up with that.

* Sorry, but it really doesn't. It leaves at all times the UST (Under saddle) on, and you can only blend in the other one AST (Acoustic Soundboard Transducer) into 50 percent. It's either 100 % UST, or blend in the other. You can't have AST at 100 % with the XOM. You can only have 100 % percent UST, or blend in the AST, you can't get rid of the UST altogether and run only on AST. Not with that XOM preamp at least.
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The original ES sounded alright. Still better than a lot of piezos, as does B-Band's system. The positioning of the ES2 tames the brightness that normally come with a traditional piezo. Surprised it took this long to figure it out.
 
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#99
foothilla said:
I've had more 9v bass rigs than I can count. Most of them could rattle the drywall right off of your walls.
Honestly, most of your posts in this thread just seem to be from the position of a contrarian. And I am not the only one to take notice of that.
18v systems can be great. But to say you need that to achieve respectable bass response, that's just not true at all.
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Notice, I can tune down any acoustic guitar EQUIPPED WITH A PIEZO and make the bass choke and make that piezo quack sooner. I am just and only talking about UNDER SADDLE PICKUPS on any acoustic instrument. I've dozen of basses with just a 9v battery in them. Both active EQ's and 2-3 of them with EMGs. They work best with 9v since they are made for that. Some of EMGs can be run at 18v, but they are made for that from the start on.

We are only talking about removing limiting/and quacking of a piezo undersaddle pickup here. Nothing else that drives magnetic pickups inside any solid body bass. Not even talking about Acoustic Soundboard Transducers such as that B-band. HEADWAY is a company that states this too in their manuals, hence their preamps are popular with some upright bassists, that phantom powers them with 48 v from their PA desks.

Seymour Duncan-Rick Turners Mama Bear D-tar has been done with the same assumptions. Highlander is yet another company that promotes 18v to get rid of piezo quack at LOUD and LOW frequencies. But most regular systems today, including every ABGs I've tried so far I can quack the lowest strings with little effort. Remember when I even tried out a Klein/Taylor acoustic electric bass in Ottawa, some 12 years ago. Cost a fortune! Even second hand! I just wondered...what's the point? Still quacking, still no bottom end at all acoustically, and Klein is revered for high quality. And boy did it neck dive. And they charged 3 K (USD that was, converted, not CAD) second hand. It looked quite beautiful though. If I want to spend 3 K on a conversation piece, it would be a nice wall hanger, but ... I'd rather not.

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I could very well think that Emerald investigates the COAX undersaddle systems too. Like Carlos systems, and Headway. The pickup that pickups not only pressure from the strings above but all around it and picks up body vibrations too. A little unwieldy to change out for something else though, as the slot for saddle must be carved in a half round way, a "half tunnel" so to speak. But I wouldn't mind it. As someone said, something like the new Taylor ES2 could be a thing as well. Now I am contrarian? I was with those suggestions.

- - - -

No, I am not just a contrarian, just giving out the caveats, alternatives and all options that hasn't been ventilated as of yet, what's wrong with that? Why have this forum at all then? Sort of "Have you thought of that...maybe? " and frankly most people haven't.
 

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