Black Ice distortion wiring?

[Black Mariah]

How the hell do you wire up these Black Ice distortion thingies? The one I have has red, white, and blue leads. The only others I've seen have two leads. WTF?

[Newc]

Re: Black Ice distortion wiring?

What the hell is it? Does it go in the guitar?
Anyhoo, conventional wiring schemes state red and white are both hot, unless it's an active thingy like an EMG, in which case, red to battery, white to out/knob/switch, blue to ground.

Newc

[MountainDog]

Re: Black Ice distortion wiring?

BM, I know the guy that started these, so I just called him. At first he made himself (with two wires), then gave it off to another company. The 3-wire also caused him to pause and think. After some thought, the best he could come up with on the 3 wire version is that the 3rd wire gives you an option of different levels of gain. Think of the 3 wire one as a 2 wire one with an extra lead coming off the middle point between the other leads (kinda like a coil tap on a pickup). He said to try various combinations of 2-wire hookups and see what different sounds you get (ex: try using just the red & white, try using just the red & blue, & try using just the blue & white). Since there is no "input" or "output" on these it doesn't matter which 'direction' you have the wires. So you'd have a total of 3 combinations to try, and just pick the one you like the sound of best! (Again, remember, you are just using two of the wires in each option, the 3rd wire should not be connected and should be taped off).

By the way, I have one of these in my 40th annv Tele, and even though that's a single coil, it worked pretty well. They are more effective on a humbucker (or any thing that's over 10k ohm). StewMac recommends a 250k pot
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...Overdrive.html

[Newc]

Re: Black Ice distortion wiring?

Well that makes sense - maybe it's an output rating: White=Hottest, Red=Middle, Blue=Cooler?

Newc

[MountainDog]

Re: Black Ice distortion wiring?

Black Mariah, I was digging through some stuff and came across a Black Ice I had with the 3 wires and the instructions!!!! It says:
"Connect the White lead to the terminal on the Volume Pot (or switch) that the capacitor was originally connected to. Then connect one of the two remaining leads to the terminal on your tone control that the capacitor was connected to. These two leads are used to match the Black Ice circuit to the output level of your guitar's pickups. The Blue lead will cause the circuit to distort most easily and should be used with low/medium output single coils. The Red lead will require a larger signal to drive the Black Ice circuit into distortion and is best suited for hot single coil and humbucking pickups. Since there's no danger in configuring the circuit either way regardless of pickup type, we suggest you try both and use the one that you prefer."

So there ya go!

[2Loud2Old]

Re: Black Ice distortion wiring?

So, does this "Black Ice" thing actually work??

[Black Mariah]

Re: Black Ice distortion wiring?

I've had it installed for a couple of weeks now. I figured since it's a passive circuit the probably of it doing damage was slim and none.

To call this thing a 'distortion' is laughable. Basically what it does is clips your guitar signal. These two statements seem really contradictory, but given how they're marketed it's a complete joke. It's a very harsh clipping, akin to an EMG or distortion pedal with a dying battery. Running it through a clean channel, it sucks. Straight up crapness. Through a distortion channel, things are a bit different.

Something to remember is that this thing adds NO gain to the output. It simply clips the signal it gets. As a distortion devise it's a horrible little thing, but if you have a guitar and amp combo that for whatever reason is twangy or thin, give one of these a shot. It's less a distortion circuit and more a really subtle tone control. It cuts the high end down without doing that midrange bump that tone controls usually do. As a result, the tone is much fuller. The extra clipping adds an extra edge to the tone, but doesn't destroy it.

If you want more subtle control than you get from a standard tone control, give one of these a shot. I think I'm going to start moving it from guitar to guitar to get an idea how it sounds in everything, but if it can improve this Soloist it's damn near a miracle already. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]