Matchboxes

Bill Miller · Post by **Bill Miller** » 11 Nov 2003 1:51 pm

Since I'm way off the beaten path I don't get to interact with other steel players (except here) and I don't get to see their set-ups. Does pretty much everyone use a Matchbox or the equivalent? Is the difference between using one or not something that jumps out at you, or is it a very subtle difference? I play a very old Sho-bud (6pedals/no knees....yet anyways)and I put in a George L's 10-1 pickup which I wired directly to the input jack bypassing the original on guitar volume and tone controls. A lot of times I'm happy with the sound but other times I'd like to have more control depending on the type of song. Does a Matchbox give you a wider tonal range or just what would I hear?

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 11 Nov 2003 3:20 pm

Bill, with a matchbox type device, you should expect to hear more clarity and definition. Higher fidelity. Probably brighter and more sparkly sounding. A matchbox has a tone control on it so it'll do what most single knob tone controls do, reduce the highs to taste. You may like the sound, you may not. It's less about tonal variation than it is cleaning up the sound of the pickup and strengthening the signal so that no tone gets lost as it travels along the wires to the amp.

Brad Sarno

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 11 Nov 2003 5:59 pm

Bill, with your high-impedance humbucking pickup, you might get some additional help on the high end with a matchbox. You see, it's not the pot in a pot pedal that "steals highs", but rather the combination of the pot and a high-impedance pickup that causes a problem. (Also, I wouldn't have recommended the 10-1 pickup on a 'Bud). You'll notice on all the recordings from back in the early '60s (before powered pedals, match-boxes, and hum-buckers) that the pot-pedals used with a single-coil pickup had simply wonderful highs! (Remember Myrick, Emmons, and Brumley from that period?)

Pot-pedals seem to work much better with the lower impedance of a single-coil pickup. The matchbox will give you additional power, remote volume and tone controls, and sometimes, decent distortion-type sounds. As to whether or not it will actually improve the tone of your guitar, that's subjective. Some players like 'em, and some don't.

If your volume pedal is powered, a matchbox is generally unnecessary.

Bill Miller · Post by **Bill Miller** » 11 Nov 2003 6:24 pm

Thanks for the info, it is all helpful. As far as the George L's 10-1 pick-up that I installed...it wasn't my first choice. I had contacted Ricky Davis for advice and he recommended the Bill Lawrence 710 narrow mount. But the problem with Lawrence pick-ups is availability...I couldn't find one in Canada because that model was back-ordered and when I contacted them directly there was an indefinite waiting period. Don, when you say the GL's 10-1 wouldn't have been your choice for my Sho-Bud, what pick-up would you have chosen instead?
I hope to replace my cheap Boss pot volume pedal with either a Hilton or the Goodrich LDR soon, so maybe I'll wait to see what difference that makes before I decide on a Matchbox.

John Lacey · Post by **John Lacey** » 12 Nov 2003 5:55 am

Bill, that would be a very good thing to do. You'll find that either pedal will bring out a lot of the highs that a matchbox would, making it redundant.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 12 Nov 2003 6:16 am

Another view on the 10-1 pickup on a Sho-Bud and a pot pedal. That combo worked pretty well for Jimmy Day.

Just a thought.

Brad Sarno

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 12 Nov 2003 10:16 am

To shed some more light on your original question.

In eletronics, wherever there is a transfer of signal (audio, video or data), there is always a loss; UNLESS there is a perfect match between the source and the destination. IE, if an amp has an output rated at 4 ohms, you will ONLY get the maximum fidelity and level, IF a given speaker is 4 ohms.

This prevails throughout the world of electronics.

Such things as noise, loss of power, distortion and fidelity can and does (sometimes) happen when the destination's impedance does not match the source's impedance.

The best way to understand it is to try an pour a gallon of milk (the source) into a pint jug (the destination). In a word it simply will not work. Much of that milk is going to spill over. Such is the case whenever a PU is Not "matched" to its destination.

And in your question, volume pedal pots become the destination if the guitar's output jack is connected directly to the pedal.

This is why manufacturer's like Peavey, designed an "in" and "out" effects loop, so that the PU could go straight to the amp without any missmatch in between. Since those amps were designed to "match" the volume pedal (in and out); later on down in the circuitry of the amp.

Leaving the theory gobbeldygook behind us, the question remains, how much is audible? What will you hear? will it be better? Well, those are very humongous questions. And depends almost entirely upon the most inaccurate measuring device ever known to man. IE, the human ear.

What one perceives as a negative OR positive is purely subjective. This has always been; and has never been truer than in the case of sound. So "is it a subtle change?", etc, can only be given one answer.

And that is; it depends on the listener. I will leave you with one prime example of just how this plays out.

There are those of us who grew up in a time when there was NO such thing as "hi fidelity" when it came to amplifying sound. As such our ears got "in tune" with those small amps that were all one could buy back in the 30's, 40's and 50's.

These amps had terrible fidelity. Because we did not know any difference it did not bother us. And so to many of us, we do not care for the sound that is emmited from a modern say "hi fidelity" Peavey amp when it comes to running our pre war Rick bakelite lap steels thru it. IN a word, we are hearing things we don't like.

And what we don't like incidently is the true sound of that old steel!! But what we don't like IS exactly what we would have heard way back then, IF hi-fidelity had beeen around. Further, I suggest that we would have liked it THEN because generally speaking we like what "brought us to the show" in any given era.

But "ye caint teach an ole dog new tricks" becomes in vogue when many of us love "in nostalgia" the sound of those old cadmium plated tinkertoys.

"what hath God wrought?"

carl[This message was edited by C Dixon on 12 November 2003 at 10:32 AM.]

Brinton Payne · Post by **Brinton Payne** » 12 Nov 2003 2:57 pm

Hey Bill,
I agree with Carl. I've heard from a lot of guys that play that the more effects, volume pedals, tuners and other stuff one adds, the less "true" the sound is.

On the Matchbox, what I've found with mine is that if you really like pushing up that Reverb on your amp, this is the way to go. I think that the Matchbox is great for slower stuff requiring more sustain.

The only problem with the unit is that there is no way to bypass it. It is unlike effects pedals that have the on/off by tapping the pedal.

Although it has an on/off switch on top, (at least on mine) once you are plugged in, you can't turn it off and play through it. Does everyone else's matchbox perform like this?
BP

sylvainvallieres · Post by **sylvainvallieres** » 12 Nov 2003 5:34 pm

Hi Bill,I suppose you can read in french if not, let me know, it's more easy to me to tell you in french,j'ai un sho-bud D-10 avec des pick-up bill laurence et j'ai un Emmons avec du bill laurence aussi,définitivement le son est meilleur avec un machtbox,c'est plus égale entre chaques corde et le son est plus riche et tu peut avoir avoir un ton plus claire ou plus sourd du bout des doigts plus facilement,j'ai un modele 7A et je suis tres satisfait

Bill Miller · Post by **Bill Miller** » 13 Nov 2003 2:44 pm

Well these posts answer a lot of my questions so thanks everyone, and a special hello to Sylvain....I didn't know there were any other Quebecois on the forum.
If there's one thing about steel guitar equipment that I've noticed, it's that it's all expensive, so my plan is to get a good volume pedal first. It sure sounds like a potless volume pedal should open up my sound. I'd like to try a Matchbox but that will be farther down the road. Come to think about it, I probably should be investing in a couple of knee levers for this old 'all pedal' guitar, but I can never decide if it's worth spending that much money on. But that's off topic here of course.[This message was edited by Bill Miller on 13 November 2003 at 06:09 PM.]