Dailtone Pickup

[Claus H]

Have you guys seen this..
Dialtone Pickups
Later
Claus

[Rick Turner]

Looks like it probably has a preamp and a tunable resonant low pass filter built in.

[DialtonePickups]

Hi Rick!

This is Tory from Dialtone Pickups. I came across this post and wanted to quickly respond. You are correct in that the pickup technically has a preamplifier, and yes, it is tunable, of course. But, I can't confirm or deny the presence of a low-pass filter without possibly giving some of our product secrets away!

If you, or anyone else, has any additional questions, feel free to contact us - support@dialtonepickups.com. And, thanks Claus for posting about us here!

[Enzo]

Drops in. Has a preamp.

So it does or does not require a power source? (presumably a battery?)

[DialtonePickups]

Yes, it's an active pickup and uses a 9-volt battery.

[Rick Turner]

Tory, we'll know soon enough just by listening and tweaking the knobs. It's the logical thing to do. It's what we did with the Alembic variable low pass filter circuit with a frequency sweep knob and either a three position switch or a knob for the Q.

[DialtonePickups]

Rick - we still have some time before releasing the pickup to market, so we'd rather not give anyone a head start on producing a competing product. We do have a patent pending, but that only offers so much protection. But once it's out, we'll probably release more details, and anyone tinkering with it to figure out exactly how it works is great too! We hope you try it, and most importantly, enjoy it and have a lot of fun with it. Thats really the point! We have a lot of fun playing with it and seeing others use it as well. It's fascinating actually, and as we're talking to more and more people we're discovering a lot of unexpected benefits and advantages. After some time, it actually seems to change the way that folks play - for the better, we think!

[the great waldo]

Hi Dialtone

I hope the pots are replaceable, I get pissed off with people coming up with guitar electronics that can't be serviced. I had an acoustic guitar preamp in recently with a duff endpin jacksocket, but as the electronics were cast together with the socket I had to bin the lot for the sake of a $15 socket.

Cheers
Andrew

[DialtonePickups]

Hi Dialtone

I hope the pots are replaceable, I get pissed off with people coming up with guitar electronics that can't be serviced. I had an acoustic guitar preamp in recently with a duff endpin jacksocket, but as the electronics were cast together with the socket I had to bin the lot for the sake of a $15 socket.

Cheers
Andrew

Andrew - this is probably a question John (our founder) should answer since I'm less knowledgeable on the technical side of things, but since he's travelling all day tomorrow, I'll take a shot at it.

The pickup will be potted with epoxy, which I'm assuming will also encase the pots/potentiometers on the pickup. Therefore, I don't believe they can easily be serviced. But, we are using premium components, including custom-order pots/potentiometers rated at 100,000 turns. Additionally, we are conducting all of our business in the U.S., will be hand-making/assembling a lot of the pickup ourselves, and are very focused on customer service. Our goal is to provide a really cool product and great customer service at a fair price. So, if there's an issue with a pickup, we will be easy to reach and will address any issues that come up quickly and thoughtfully.

Please let me know if that doesn't answer your question and I'll have John weigh in as well. Thanks! - Tory

[the great waldo]

Well Tory

Pots go wrong, and if you can't get at them to change them then you're stuffed. It might be worth a try having the pots as a plugin. I assume they are going to be mini pcb mounted pots.? These things are not the most reliable and not really designed for continuous turning. Maybe a better Idea would be to have screwdriver adjustable pots recessed in the pickup to have the possibility to set the tone and then leave it without fiddling around all the time. Just an idea. I'm a maker and repairer since the mid 70's and am on the sharp end of fixing peoples new inventions, maybe you remember the gizmo (A 120 GBPounds item that took 3 days to get to work! ) A nice idea but the designers never actually had to fit the things. These days so much stuff works on the computer screen and i'll be the guys designing never have to install or use the products they design in the real world. Any that's my thrupence worth, good luck with the pickups.

Cheers

Andrew

[big_teee]

Hi Andrew:
It is a Throw away world.
By the time the pots fail, We more than likely will have moved on to something else.
Or, you simply put Your 50s, 60s PAFs back in!
T

[the great waldo]

Hi Tea

Knowing my luck the cellulose laquer will just fry my brain and keep the body bits working.

Cheers

Andrew

Ps don't forget the new self tuning tuners. They are already starting to fall apart !

Hi Andrew:
It is a Throw away world.
By the time the pots fail, We more than likely will have moved on to something else.
Or, you simply put Your 50s, 60s PAFs back in!
T

[LtKojak]

By the time the pots fail, We more than likely will have moved on to something else.

My thoughts exactly!

[DialtonePickups]

Well Tory

Pots go wrong, and if you can't get at them to change them then you're stuffed. It might be worth a try having the pots as a plugin. I assume they are going to be mini pcb mounted pots.? These things are not the most reliable and not really designed for continuous turning. Maybe a better Idea would be to have screwdriver adjustable pots recessed in the pickup to have the possibility to set the tone and then leave it without fiddling around all the time. Just an idea. I'm a maker and repairer since the mid 70's and am on the sharp end of fixing peoples new inventions, maybe you remember the gizmo (A 120 GBPounds item that took 3 days to get to work! ) A nice idea but the designers never actually had to fit the things. These days so much stuff works on the computer screen and i'll be the guys designing never have to install or use the products they design in the real world. Any that's my thrupence worth, good luck with the pickups.

Cheers

Andrew

Andrew - what we're finding is that different players have very different preferences. One person will tell us that a particular aspect of the pickup is the best thing since sliced bread, and the next minute someone else will tell us that the same exact element should be changed. It's all really interesting and informative for future product development purposes, and we also really appreciate that folks seem to share our passion with achieving great tones. But, for now, we have limited resources and we have to start somewhere, so we're going with what we determine largest proportion of players want.

To respond to your particular point, the overwhelming majority of feedback we've heard about our pickups is that the adjustable knobs are its #1 feature. You're actually the first person to suggest removing that functionality (in its current form) in any way - most people are very excited about rolling the knobs to change tone in a couple of seconds while on stage, in the recording studio, etc.

Please be assured that we wouldn't just ignore a case of potentiometers breaking before their expected lifespan. They're made of metal and are premium quality, so we're not expecting users to run in to any issues with them either.

[big_teee]

Hi Tory:
Just do the best you can, with the best parts available.
You will never please all of us pickup makers here at the MEF.
The customer is who needs to be your main concern.
You're not going to sell much here anyway, since most of us make and sell pickups!
If you sell one to one of us, it will probably be for disassembly!
Epoxy is better than Patents.
Patents get looked at and scutinized, Epoxy if made permanent does not!
At least not as easily!
T