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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Guitar amplifiers
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| PhenixRising Guru  Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1711 |
This YouTuber never fails to impress me with the lengths that he goes to: Amplifier tone This one for guitars, I find amusing but I learned $$$$$ way  Guitar tone Edited 2025-11-18 19:43 by PhenixRising |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5660 |
Hi Phenix, Very entertaining, and in a way educating. It certainly takes down some myths. But. In some way this is the same as comparing expensive HIFI systems on a youtube video, on $3 earphones. And, it is only focussing on distorted guitar sounds (his way to play guitar). I was once invited to design a solid state guitar amp that would sound the same as a tube amplitier. I rejected to invite, since I am playing classical guitar, and would focus on undistorted guitar sounds. But.. in essence this guy pinned down what it takes. The important thing is "where in the amplification chain the distortion is made, makes all the difference". Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1711 |
Hi Harm, It's a crazy market and the majority of guitarists are luddites. It's only "cool" when you believe the myths. Naturally, I have to rock the boat I was an early adopter of guitar modeling (DSP) and promptly disposed of my big-name amplifiers. We have been able to shape the tone, digitally, for decades now. At work, a cheap acoustic guitar was dumped by my desk.  The owner had given-up, trying to learn. It wasn't playable because the action was ridiculously high. I adjusted the truss-rod and voila, it was fine. I don't care for pure acoustic (although I play clean) and so I grabbed a really inexpensive sound-hole pickup for £5 on Aliexpress.  I already had an inexpensive, rechargeable, modeler:  I fitted new strings and the resulting combo is really nice  I take this to open-mic nights and the cork-sniffers with their £2,000 guitars give me some strange looks. However, I have been playing for 50+ years and certainly know how to handle a guitar. This rig really stands out, thanks to the modeler. The cork-sniffers who are convinced that their overpriced furniture sounds great because they paid such a high price: "Hey what kinda guitar is that?" Me:"Dunno, just some cheap junk from Amazon" I carry the guitar bare, not even a gig-bag |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8498 |
It cost more for that modeller (£67-is) plus a fiver for the pickup than it did for the guitar. You have to ask yourself if it's a good return on your investment? For me it isn't. I play nylon-strung acoustic occasionally If you are playing gigs a fair bit then maybe. TBH I've never really been into processing guitar sounds (being a folkie at heart) so it's something I've not got into. I'd probably spend more time playing with the modeller than playing the guitar. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1711 |
Oh I have lots of modelers and lots of guitars. The one I showed above was only £35 when I got it. I keep it in my backpack and have a wireless connection to the guitar. The settings of the modeler are handled via Bluetooth on my phone so no-one ever sees the actual device. It appears that the sound is coming directly from the Argos cheapie guitar. I have SIX (seven but one appears to be on permanent loan) of these beauties, alone.  So many owners were so overwhelmed that they let them go for a very low price. Digitech messed-up by putting too much in one unit; they make more money by selling separate components: -Amp simulator (can model hundreds of different amp) -All the FX one could ever need -Eight track recorder -Drum machine -Looper -Mic Pre-amp with 48V -MP3 player (backing tracks) My serious guitars also have built-in DSPs. Absolutely incredible but hardly anyone has ever heard of them (Line-6 Variax) I can be in standard (E,A,D,G,B,E) tuning and instantly switch to an alternate tuning. The string tension remains the same, the pitch-shifting is real-time DSP. For example: Brown Sugar, open G tuning. Big Yellow Taxi, open D tuning. She Talks To Angels, open E tuning. From one to the next, instantly by a switch on the guitar or by a compatible modeler. I use this one:  |
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| mozzie Senior Member  Joined: 15/06/2020 Location: AustraliaPosts: 201 |
G'day Phenix, Thanks for the link to those videos, have now watched them all  Awesome that someone has put in the time and effort to dispel the myths that surround guitars and amps  Have sent links to several musicians who's gear I have repaired from time to time with the faint hope they'll learn something, but its a long shot..... Now we just need someone to take the same approach to some of the magic involved in metal detectors (and several other things). I guess if the operator has no understanding of the way something works, and doesn't want to find out, you can bamboozle them with bovine excrement Regards, Lyle. Edited 2025-11-22 02:00 by mozzie |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4224 |
You'll be commenting on those special (very expensive) wires to loudspeakers next... John |
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| Amnesie Guru Joined: 30/06/2020 Location: GermanyPosts: 746 |
Hello all, never thought that here are some guitar players. Over the past years / decade, I have built many many guitar ampliefers myself and can't stress enough how right the guy on this video is. If you play only clean guitar tone it isn't that complex, but if things get distorted or overdriven it is quite different; there are A LOT of myths when it comes to tube sound vs. solid state. In the right place of the tone path, a vacuum tube does sound very different when overdriven. Of course nothing you can't emulate with modern modelers like a Kemper or Fractal Audio, but you always have latency. I have designed some tube amps and preamps myself and found that a hybrid solution is the best (for me). No microcontrollers, no modern processing power of CPUs. I wanted to keep it repairable over the next decades. If anyone is interested, I made a video on my YouTube channel about my guitar preamp electric rain This preamp can do pretty much everything from cleans to heavey metal distrotion with two channels (one single preamp tube, active EQ ,silent channel switching). I am sharing my schematics (video description). If there is interest, I can also provide my Gerbers. Just in case ... Besides that you can find some of my MMBasic projects (mostly Geiger counters built upon PicoMites) there... Greetings Daniel Edited 2025-11-22 02:36 by Amnesie |
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| mozzie Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2020 Location: AustraliaPosts: 201 |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8498 |
You mean 1mm T&E lighting cable? ;) And CAT5 is pretty darn good for audio too. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1711 |
Oh boy oh boy, glad I started the thread. We have members with all kinds of expertise (analogue, digital) This is exciting for me but need to get to my PC (phone is a PITA) |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1711 |
My problem is that; it's the same-old, same-old. It's like every guitarist wants to sound like some old (possibly dead) guitarist. Jam Origin are doing amazing DSP, in that they are able to take the output of a regular pickup and convert it to MIDI. It requires a technique but it only took me a few hours of practice. Once you have MIDI, there are amazing plug-ins for pretty much anything, including nylon-acoustic guitar. Latency: Naturally, the signal needs to be sampled prior to processing but it's not proving to be a hinderance. Using a regular electric guitar pickup Fractal Audio: The first time I saw one of these live was a local band at the local pub: (Mixtel90: What used to be the Lord Stokes...it changed name but I don't remember it) I didn't see the Fractal at first but the rapid change of genres (no fiddle-farting with pedals) made me suspect that modelers were present. Then I saw the familiar Fractal screen. There were two six-string guitarists and they alternated between lead/rhythm. I like dramatic changes from song-to-song because it reduces ear-fatigue for the audience. At break, one of the guitarists came and stood next to me at the bar and he was surprised that I was familiar with the Fractal. He liked it but had buyer's remorse because it didn't do anything that the other guitarist's modeler couldn't do, which turned-out to be a BOSS GT-5. He worried about it developing a fault because he would have to return it to the USA. Fractal and Kemper are hugely over-rated. They just packaged them to look like conventional stage-type gear. Guitarists and their money are easily parted |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8498 |
Hmmm... I know where you mean. That one up Bent Lane, up above the road? The Wagon and Horses. I very rarely go up there. It's been shut down for ages now, unless someone has done something with it very recently. Still coming down from watching Steeleye Span in Preston on Friday. :) (For the second time). Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1711 |
Yeah it's some kind of care home now. I was drinking in there in 1974 when I was 14 before we went to the "Meths" disco. Them wur't days (not very good at Lancashire anymore can't even understand it) |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1711 |
OK don't laugh but can we do something with the PicoMite here? I don't care if I need six RP2350s But there is a cool magnetic HEX pickup. Pretty darn cool What I'm thinking is to sample the frequency and modify it. In reality, a latency of 5-10ms is totally usable. I realize that I'm over simplifying the problem but what can be achieved? |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8498 |
Audio frequencies are relatively low compared to a CPU speed. You'd probably need an op-amp and an ADC channel for each string though. I like that pickup!. I first say a unipole pickup design in a magazine project. They used Eclipse "button" magnets, with a winding round each pole of the magnet. It was all one winding though and very bulky! They were early days though. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1711 |
DOH, of course. I was having a senior moment and was only thinking of the FFIN I'd like to try this. I don't care about capturing anything but the frequency. Tone shaping, etc., would be handled by a modeler. Lots of solo-acts (as opposed to bands) out there but everyone wants a minimal rig. A PicoMite could also play their backing tracks. It would be awesome to simply be able to drop strings five and six an octave to simulate bass. |
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