Best electric guitar electronics according to redditors
We found 65 Reddit comments discussing the best electric guitar electronics. We ranked the 45 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 65 Reddit comments discussing the best electric guitar electronics. We ranked the 45 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Electrosocket. Absolutely the only way to do Tele output jacks.
After a brief love affair with a Gibson SG Special, I'm back to my cheaper, better sounding guitar, which I want to make great again!
What i've done so far:
Tuning stability is now decent, though not great (a single use of the trem arm can throw it out of tune by a few cents).
The neck feels really good and looks great, except for the squier logo, which i'm growing accustomed to. Not completely negating a neck change, maybe a mexican classic player's.
The pickup selector is sometimes crackling so i'm taking this as a motivation to fully replace the electronics with better ones.
Currently thinking to do the following:
Also this kit looks nice:
https://www.amazon.com/ToneShaper-Guitar-Wiring-Fender-Jazzmaster/dp/B00ZW7LK96/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=jazzmaster+kit&qid=1575148161&sr=8-3
Any advice is welcome, thanks!
Fender Tex-Mex
Do the rest of the electronics while you're in there too.
If your tele has the classic two singlecoils, it will almost certainly be 250k as 500k pots will make it far too bright sounding. For the same reason, I'd imagine your Edwards (Jealous, btw) has 500k pots.
Even then, there will be differences in the quality of those pots.
You might want to try replacing the ones in your tele with something a bit more premium if it's really bugging you:
https://www.amazon.com/Emerson-Custom-Prewired-Telecaster-Guitars/dp/B015ZVKK6W/ref=pd_day0_hl_267_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B015ZVKK6W&pd_rd_r=ec575b9c-bc25-11e8-8b29-77fe1a29c361&pd_rd_w=EmygL&pd_rd_wg=ri7Q4&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=ad07871c-e646-4161-82c7-5ed0d4c85b07&pf_rd_r=MBPZ6PTCQ79DFKZRW7HR&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=MBPZ6PTCQ79DFKZRW7HR
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Hey man, not trying to be a dick, but you'll probably have better luck selling it for less than they go for new...
http://www.amazon.com/Ernie-Ball-6180-Junior-Pedal-Mono/dp/B0002GZ052/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426873351&sr=8-1&keywords=ernie+ball+volume+pedal
I did a quick search and found this on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-SH-HBTCT-CR-Humbucker-Curved-Guitars/dp/B005SUXM0C
I like the premium bourns pots
http://www.amazon.com/Bourns-Premium-Guitar-Potentiometer-Knurled/dp/B00MEKB1R0
You don't - you just replace it.
This is a very easy job if you have a soldering iron and aren't a complete moron.
Document/photograph/label the wires as they are on the current switch and put them in the same respective spot on the new switch.
Curl the wires into a hook shape and feed them through the holes on the new switch to form a physical connection to make a stronger connection and the soldering process easier.
Steal the knob tip from the old one and put on the new switch.
If you want to go through all the trouble of sending a guitar back to a manufacturer/store for this kind of repair that's your business but it's kinda like sending your car away because you've got a flat tire.
Lap Steels are fairly simple, so you don't really have to spend that much to get a good one. But there are some accessories you will need.
For a first lap steel the SX Lap Steel is very well made and includes a stand and case. Its only $150.
You will also need a good tone bare. Dunlop chromed brass For $20.
Also I would get him a volume pedal Ernie Ball Volume pedal For $65.
Other little nice gifts, would be a clip on snark tuner, a couple of instrument cables, song book, and some extra strings.
Ignore what the other person said about fret wear and action height. You are not pushing the strings down to the frets, you are sliding on the string with a tone bar or a guitar slide. Higher is better in this case.
Does he have an amp? Any other effects pedals?
edit: Also a capo like this will be helpful if he is just playing along with random songs.
That switch should work fine, provided it wasn't assembled poorly, those are the dice you roll with the cheaper parts. They're not complex machines at all, so if you get one that was put together poorly, you may be able to fix things yourself. And you may get one that works fine, or works fine at first. But if you can afford a Switchcraft for about twice the cost, you'll have something that should be more reliable and durable.
Those are standard sized humbuckers and you should be able to replace them with any standard sized humbuckers (aka Gibson sized, not Fender sized - Fender sized are larger, but almost no one makes Fender sized pickups). For your budget, I'd highly recommend GFS pickups. GFS pickups are just fine and a great value for the money.
But pickups are just wire wrapped around magnets when it comes down to it. Where is the rust? On the pole pieces? Are the lead wires from the pickups intact and not corroded? If it's just the pole pieces that are rusted, that shouldn't be a big deal actually, you can clean that off. The real problem would be corrosion of the coil wires and/or breaks in the wire. If you have the patience and focus of attention to do it right (and to research how to do it right!), then it's actually feasible to unpot the pickup (remove the wax), unwrap the wire, clean it, clean the poles and the magnet, rewrap the pickup wire, and repot the pickups. It's extremely tedious and time consuming (you're talking about at least 6k to 7k wraps around the coils!), and humbuckers are more complex than single coils because you have to make sure that the two coils (north and south -> as in magnetic north and magnetic south) are reverse wound and reverse polarity.
Honestly, unless you have the right tools, patience, a keen sustainable interest in the work, and a LOT of time, it does just make the most sense to buy new pickups, but hopefully if you dig around the links in this post, you'll stumble on some useful information about pickups and guitar maintenance that you can dig into. Youtube has a metric ton of resources for guitar maintenance, repair, setup, and building. Dig in!
Even if you want to replace your pickups with new ones, you'll still need tools. What tools do you have or have access to? Do you have a soldering iron, solder, and a solder sucker? Do you have contact cleaner for electronics? Do you have anything to use to clean rust off contacts (be mindful of toxic chemicals)?
Is there any chance you can get your hands on a multi-meter? Maybe borrow one? These are indespensible when you're trying to figure out whether you have a broken component or bad wiring.
While you're working to replace the switch and pickups, be absolutely certain to check the existing wiring and make sure that nothing's corroded, loose, or broken. Most problems with pickups (assuming the pickup wires aren't corroded or broken), are actually problems with the control electronics and wiring. Since you'd be in there soldering up a new switch and possibly new pickups, it would be a good time to replace the wiring. You can get shielded guitar circuit wire from Amazon, but it's cheaper elsewhere, like Guitar Electronics.
A solid paint job is easy, especially on a bolt-on body with no binding. I did a Strat in candy apple red with gold metalflake when I was 13 (56 years ago). It took forever, but it came out looking like custom shop quality. Make sure the temperature is high/humidity low enough (weather can screw you up), watch some Youtube videos, take your time and you'll be fine.
If you upgrade your pickups, get 4 wire rather than 2 wire if available if you ever want to coil splits, in/out phase or series/parallel setups. I've got some of these mounted in these and the Triple Shots made for an easy install.
Harness and pots? This one is probably okay for a low end stock setup.
You could just make a harness yourself if you can do some simple soldering. (TIP: Cut a piece of cardboard and transfer the vol/tone and switch hole positions to it, then flip it over and mount your pots/switch. Now you can wire without risking your new paint job.)
For a medium quality setup, I might consider something like these and some Orange Drop caps.
For highest quality, I would use these for volume and these for tone and wire it up myself with a couple of Orange Drops. $80 or so for everything.
Be careful of the "vintage toan filled pots/wire/magic-ingredient capacitors" hype. Quality doesn't have to cost and arm and a leg.
Seymour Duncan has a great database of wiring options. Look through the list for some ideas.
A standard 2 vol, 2 tone with a 3 way switch is pretty easy to do.
I prefer push/pull (or push/push pots) and splittable (4 wire) humbuckers pickups for maximum versatility.
The pot's value (250K vs 500K) will make you decide if you want to swap out the pots.
250K cause single coils to be less "Harsh" since single coils are bright pickups. Humbuckers on the other hand are usually darker in tone, so they'll normally be paired with 500K pots as 500K pots cause the tone to be brighter.
Some people have no issues with 250K pots on a humbucker, so I say give it a shot. If you don't like it and find that it's too dark, buy a 500K pot to swap out the 2nd Volume Knob that goes to the humbucker.
For Resistors, you should be fine, but if you're looking to swap out, then I recommend these. I just put them in my Les Paul with a Classic 57 and Seymour Duncan SH-4. Sounds great!
Here ya go -- https://www.amazon.com/920D-Custom-Shop-Harness-Switchcraft/dp/B00VMS2XIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473811617&sr=8-1&keywords=920D+Custom+Shop
Not the most attractive instrument, but in terms of functionality, you really can’t beat Traveler guitars. Their Acoustic-Electric is a full scale guitar, can be plugged into an amp or headphone amp (like the the Traveler Acoustic headphone amp), and is otherwise very quiet. There’s a full electric version for about twice the price, but the only major difference is that the Acoustic-Electric sounds like an acoustic guitar when plugged in while the Electric will sound like an electric.
While the JamStick might work for some practice, it isn’t a real guitar. The Traveler is, and it stands to reason that practicing playing guitar on a guitar will be more effective than practicing guitar on an expensive toy.
The display driver board has a volume setting in the menu - that you can adjust to turn the volume up - then you can use the setting within the OS to adjust the volume as needed - Or if you want a volume control knob on the system itself you can add a 1K ohm potentiometer ( similar to these - https://www.amazon.com/Piece-Linear-Taper-Rotary-Potentiometer/dp/B07VV3GHMZ ) on the speaker wire and mount it to the system - If you tend to change the volume often ( youtube video of adding the potentiometer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGKLtKo5HOo
The best option may actually be a 3 way toggle switch. It won't be 24/30mm, rather a much smaller toggle. Try a guitar switch or something of that nature, here's a link!
https://www.amazon.com/Switchcraft-Short-Frame-Toggle-Switch-Black/dp/B00LYFFW9O/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_267_lp_t_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PD3K1NNRJR25BK5SYZXP
"dirt" pedals are overdrive, fuzz, or distortion pedals because they 'dirty' up your signal
if you're okay with waiting, used is always the best to go in terms of cost. if not, here's a small list of cheap, simple pedals that work
delay:
tc electronic the prophet
joyo d-seed
boss dd-3
joyo delay
donner yellow fall analog delay
reverb:
mosky spring reverb
tc electronic drip
caline snake bite
behringer dr-600
chorus:
mxr analog chorus
joyo classic chorus
biyang chorus
danelectro fab chorus
volume pedal:
ernie ball
boss fv-50h
power supply:
cs7
mxr iso brick
here's a cheap/basic place to start. since you're going simple, most pedals you come across will honestly work with what you want you want to accomplish, it's mostly down to your budget. if you're looking used, you can't go wrong with MXR, boss, and EHX pedals, they're usually everywhere on the used market
Ernie Ball VP Jr. P06180 250K Potentiometer for Passive Electronics https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002GZ052/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KtubzbH8EXH2S
I hope you don't mind me linking to Amazon, but this is the one I have. A great pedal for the price.
I was at GC the other day and played the American Vintage 52 Reissue. Loved the pickups. They are these. Totally putting them on once I have $80. They were everything I think a tele should sound like.
Looks like this guy - Ernie Ball VP Jr
Instrument level signals are not intended to be plugged straight into consumer playback equipment. There needs to be something in between first to make the signal stronger and make a signal with the right impedance to be fed into a playback system's low-impedance input. Imagine plugging headphones into an electric guitar's output jack straight - this is more or less what you're trying to do right now.
The cheapest external preamp box for piezo pick-ups to do this which I know of is the Behringer ADI21 (a clone of a Sansamp Acoustic D.I. according to Google). A device like this outputs a line level signal, which you can then plug into any number of things such as effects units, instrument amplifiers, mixers, or other equipment, and they often come with various other features buit in such as multiple outputs and EQ.
Guitar amps, or acoustic guitar amps can have headphone outputs as a practice feature, and ones intended for acoustic guitar generally have a preamp circuit designed for piezos so you can plug a passive violin into one directly. These are fine too, and are easy to use since you only need a single unit to directly plug your passive violin into to get sound, whether you're using the speaker, or the headphone output. I recommend this option personally, as you sound like you're looking to plug and play and aren't familiar with technology.
There's also products intended for the specific thing you're trying to do with this consumer headphone amplifier - small dongles that plug directly into an acoustic instrument and provide a preamp circuit and headphone output and tone shaping features in a single box specifically for headphone practice in a small form factor. Using these on a violin may be awkward depending on where the instrument's output jack is, but shouldn't be impossible depending on the exact use case: https://www.amazon.com/Traveler-Guitar-TGA-1A-Acoustic-Headphone/product-reviews/B075VTWHYG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_next_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=2
It is the Artempo Power Supply10.
Amazon link >
Not the OP, but is this good quality? I've always wondered what kind of wire to buy for stuff like this
Ok then... short shaft it is
Allparts CTS 500K SHORT Split Shaft Audio Taper Potentiometer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DFIGIB8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_e4v2Cb4CXXVMS
Switch: Switchcraft 3-Way Short Toggle Switch w/ Genuine Switchcraft Black Tip https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PTZYZH0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_csE0Db4BDYDPF
Caps: Bulk Lot of Ten (10X) .022uf/400v Orange Drop Capacitors - 716P - Gibson Les Paul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CGY56UG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_xe4cFpB8lDmRE
I ordered the 10 pack of caps because I did three guitars: an Epi SG Special, my OE20 and an Epi LP Special II. I did the three together to get the experience. The upgrade cost me about $75/guitar and the difference in tone and sound quality was night and day for all three. Note that the old knobs for the import pot shafts won't fit those pots, you'll want to get knobs for American pots.
So I think I'm going make a Thinline Tele. Going to build the body and buy a prebuilt neck. What all hardware do I need? Right now I've found:
I guess I should probably get extra wiring? Anything else?
I just put one of these in my PRS SE Akerfeldt.
https://www.amazon.com/Switchcraft-Short-Frame-Toggle-Switch-Black/dp/B00LYFFW9O/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1493126956&sr=8-4&keywords=switchcraft
Emerson Custom 4-Way Prewired Kit for Telecaster Guitars - 250k Pots https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015ZVKK6W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_cZltDbJS42QAS
Looks like it was a lot more than I remembered.
That's something I noticed too. Not as large of a gap, but I have this tuner around my pickup and it's also a little bit off compared to the rocksmith one. 10-15 ticks too high compared to the rocksmith tuner.
Thanks for your help! I’m planning on ordering this one .
You can check out stewmac.com for some good, solid potentiometers
Or, you could buy a Fender Wiring Kit. I used one of these in my tele copy and I love it. All of the pots work perfectly with no scratches/noises/anything.
Basically, any quality part from a well known company is going to be better than the crap stock electronics that come with the guitar.
Yes—use less gain at your preamp, less output from your pickups themselves, or a combination of both. Then use your power amp (amp's master volume) to make up for lost amplitude.
You can also roll back your tone pot, and if you really want to get fancy, you can install higher impedance volume pots in your instrument (e.g, 500 kΩ instead of 250 kΩ).
The self-noise that single coil pickups generate is a combination of two elements: RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) and electrical grounding inconsistencies.
The best way to combat RFI is to shield your instrument—line your control cavity with copper foil, or paint it with a coat of shielding paint. Also, use as short a cable run as you can tolerate, and make sure that it isn't coiled up at any point, or wrapped around anything (makes an antenna).
There's only so much you can do to combat ground loop hum, though—make sure your PUs are properly grounded to your bridge. If your amp or any pedals you might have feature a ground lift switch, see of those help. As an added measure, you can also plug your amp into a power conditioning strip (like a Furman). Another tactic would be to rein it in with EQ—subtract at even multiples of 60 Hz (50 Hz if you're outside North America).
You can also always use a noise suppressor/gate, like the Boss NS-2 or ISP Technologies Decimator, which will eliminate noise during rests.
Trying to replace the pots on my '94 MIM Strat and have no idea what to buy. Replacing as the tone knobs are super scratchy, and the volume knob was scratchy but now just completely cuts the volume at anything below 10. I've got a tech to do the work but want your opinions on what to buy.
I know I need 250k pots, but are they all the same? Fender sells for $8, but are the Seymour Duncans for $14 better? Any other recommendations?
Are the capacitors worth upgrading on the tone pots while I'm in there digging around? Would these be a fine selection?
The shielding paint I mentioned will do the job. It's usually black and impregnated with metallic compounds that allow to shield in the same way as foil. Lots of higher end builders use it in place of foil too.
This is the sort of thing you want to use. You won't need much for just one guitar so get the smallest container you can.
http://www.amazon.com/Conductive-Shielding-Paint-Strat-Guitars/dp/B00CFSJ8F8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459137578&sr=8-1&keywords=conductive+shielding+paint+for+guitars