AcmeGuitarWorks
Junior Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2011
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 3
The ToneShaper unit is described in some detail here. This is the best source for information about all ToneShaper products.
We suspect that many will find the device decidedly simpler to use than first appears. The "huge manual" will be substantially smaller than some may expect. We should have it completed tomorrow.
For those who still doubt the viability of PC boards as opposed to hardwired components, we would say simply that it's not tone that passes through the wire or PCB traces. It's electrons. Nothing more and nothing less. One could argue that there are some other esoteric factors involved, and there are with certainty, just like it's a certainty that if a fly lands on a 2' steel beam it deflects the beam. But it's not worth arguing over these other factors any more than it's worth considering the occasional fly's weight when designing a building's roof.
Strat pickups have traditionally been wound with 42 AWG wire, which is roughly .0024" in diameter. The area of its cross section cannot be written down until you get to six decimal places. That's right, the area is less than .00001 sq. inch. That's mighty small, but not an issue, as the amperage of a typical Strat pickup's output is on the order of .000024 amps. That's 24 microamps, or millionths of an amp.
A typical circuit board trace (1 oz. copper) has a cross sectional area that's almost three times that of the 42 AWG wire (0.00001400 sq inches vs. 0.00000452 sq. inches). If the wire will handle the voltage/amperage involved, so will the circuit trace. And the 42 AWG wire does handle it, handily. In fact, the hottest humbuckers we're familiar with have 44 AWG wire, which is only 0.00000314 sq. inches in cross section, and they have significantly higher output than the Strat pickup.
When people argue the merits or demerits of one technology over another from an uninformed point of view, their arguments will lack persuasiveness. Copper cross-sectional area is copper cross-sectional area, whether it's the cross section of a piece of wire or of a PCB trace. PCB-based products are as capable of being "toneful" as hardwired components. Just ask Reinhold Bogner.
We suspect that many will find the device decidedly simpler to use than first appears. The "huge manual" will be substantially smaller than some may expect. We should have it completed tomorrow.
For those who still doubt the viability of PC boards as opposed to hardwired components, we would say simply that it's not tone that passes through the wire or PCB traces. It's electrons. Nothing more and nothing less. One could argue that there are some other esoteric factors involved, and there are with certainty, just like it's a certainty that if a fly lands on a 2' steel beam it deflects the beam. But it's not worth arguing over these other factors any more than it's worth considering the occasional fly's weight when designing a building's roof.
Strat pickups have traditionally been wound with 42 AWG wire, which is roughly .0024" in diameter. The area of its cross section cannot be written down until you get to six decimal places. That's right, the area is less than .00001 sq. inch. That's mighty small, but not an issue, as the amperage of a typical Strat pickup's output is on the order of .000024 amps. That's 24 microamps, or millionths of an amp.
A typical circuit board trace (1 oz. copper) has a cross sectional area that's almost three times that of the 42 AWG wire (0.00001400 sq inches vs. 0.00000452 sq. inches). If the wire will handle the voltage/amperage involved, so will the circuit trace. And the 42 AWG wire does handle it, handily. In fact, the hottest humbuckers we're familiar with have 44 AWG wire, which is only 0.00000314 sq. inches in cross section, and they have significantly higher output than the Strat pickup.
When people argue the merits or demerits of one technology over another from an uninformed point of view, their arguments will lack persuasiveness. Copper cross-sectional area is copper cross-sectional area, whether it's the cross section of a piece of wire or of a PCB trace. PCB-based products are as capable of being "toneful" as hardwired components. Just ask Reinhold Bogner.
