I am looking for low impedance pu so I can go directly from the guitar to a mixing board for one of my custom guitars.
I have used search engines but could not find a source, wondering if you know anyone who makes them?
source for low impedance pickups
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Greg Robinson
- Posts: 686
- Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:54 pm
- Location: Coburg North, Victoria, Australia
Re: source for low impedance pickups
Hi Romeo,
Most "low impedance" guitar pickups are of the active type, using a buffer to lower the output impedance of mostly conventional high impedance pickups, as well as some frequency shaping and usually adding some gain. EMG, Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, etc all offer such pickups.
I am not aware of any true low impedance COILS on the market at the moment.
You can always add a buffer to a conventional pickup, either a commercial offering, or one you make yourself (they are not hard).
The harder option would be to wind your own low impedance pickup, but some experimentation would be in order to get a good result. I haven't investigated doing this myself, but another member may be able to offer guidance in this area.
I'll also ask a question, why do you want to run an electric guitar straight into a mixing desk? You might not be happy with the sound. Electric guitars are not normally treated like "Hi-Fi" sources, large amounts of frequency shaping, compression and distortion (even a "clean" guitar sound usually has some amount of distortion) are essential to a "normal" guitar sound. If you haven't tried it before, but have an effect pedal with buffered bypass (like any Boss pedal, or most Ibanez, among others), try it between the guitar and mixing desk on bypass, and see if you can get a sound that is acceptable to you using the desks EQ.
Anyway, good luck, I'll try to help out with any further questions you have.
Most "low impedance" guitar pickups are of the active type, using a buffer to lower the output impedance of mostly conventional high impedance pickups, as well as some frequency shaping and usually adding some gain. EMG, Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, etc all offer such pickups.
I am not aware of any true low impedance COILS on the market at the moment.
You can always add a buffer to a conventional pickup, either a commercial offering, or one you make yourself (they are not hard).
The harder option would be to wind your own low impedance pickup, but some experimentation would be in order to get a good result. I haven't investigated doing this myself, but another member may be able to offer guidance in this area.
I'll also ask a question, why do you want to run an electric guitar straight into a mixing desk? You might not be happy with the sound. Electric guitars are not normally treated like "Hi-Fi" sources, large amounts of frequency shaping, compression and distortion (even a "clean" guitar sound usually has some amount of distortion) are essential to a "normal" guitar sound. If you haven't tried it before, but have an effect pedal with buffered bypass (like any Boss pedal, or most Ibanez, among others), try it between the guitar and mixing desk on bypass, and see if you can get a sound that is acceptable to you using the desks EQ.
Anyway, good luck, I'll try to help out with any further questions you have.
MIMForum staff member - Melbourne, Australia
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Bill Raymond
- Posts: 371
- Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 5:37 pm
- Location: Red Bluff California
Re: source for low impedance pickups
If you are thinking of making your own low Z pickups, you might want to check some of the discussions on the Music-Electronics pickup makers forum. There is a lot of information there.
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Beate Ritzert
- Posts: 607
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:20 am
- Location: Germany
Re: source for low impedance pickups
And if You do not intend so, i would be a bit surprised if one of the custom pickup makers was not able to build a low Z PU according to Your specs. It more or less reduces on using a shorter and thicker wire. Guitar PUs aren't that complicated.
In addition to the info above (the music electronics forum is indeed a great resource), a low impedance PU intended to drive a microphone input must to some degree resemble a microphone - its impedance must be small compared to the (low) impedance of the input. In addition You will need some passive circuitry which manipulates the resonance of the PUs (simple capacitors or better RC combinations) which model the sound of the output. This is the approach taken e.g. in the Les Paul Recording which had the option to go directly into a mixer.
A german resource to the LP Recording can be found here: http://www.gitarrenelektronik.de/nieder ... aumgitarre
In addition to the info above (the music electronics forum is indeed a great resource), a low impedance PU intended to drive a microphone input must to some degree resemble a microphone - its impedance must be small compared to the (low) impedance of the input. In addition You will need some passive circuitry which manipulates the resonance of the PUs (simple capacitors or better RC combinations) which model the sound of the output. This is the approach taken e.g. in the Les Paul Recording which had the option to go directly into a mixer.
A german resource to the LP Recording can be found here: http://www.gitarrenelektronik.de/nieder ... aumgitarre