Let's hear it for the Silent Circuit

[beej]

Cool info mang. Where'd you read the patent info?

Best place these days is google.com/patents. Search for "Dudley Gimpel" or "Ernie Ball".

Ok, maybe I'm misreadin this, but does this mean that the silent circuit only works with dummy coils? if a reall single coil is installed, does the silect circuit still work?

The Silent Circuit is a "dummy" coil, just meaning it's sole purpose is to pick up hum and not signal from the strings. Inside it has a coil to pick up hum, resistors/capacitors to load it up (like a regular pickup does when wired up in your guitar) and also a buffer circuit.

The neat thing about it is that the signal from the dummy coil is fed to the buffer before it's combined with the signal from your regular pickups. The buffer isolates the electrical properties of the dummy coil (inductance, resistance) so when you mix the buffered signal with the signal from your pickups, there's no effect on the sound quality. If you didn't have that little buffer circuit in place you'd notice a real change in the sound of your pickups- but you don't ... it's extremely transparent, except for the lack of noise

 

[beej]

HAHA, Phatty your right there by his side...................both you guys are really smart and cool.

Phatty plays it all cool ... but he's down with being a nerd too. Hopefully he strikes it rich with the startup he's at

 

[phatduckk]

Phatty plays it all cool ... but he's down with being a nerd too. Hopefully he strikes it rich with the startup he's at

thanks buddy. like i said - if i get rich i'll fund ya

back on topic: my dad's an electronics whiz and he's been teaching me a bunch of stuff lately. one day ill hopefully have as great of an understanding like my pops n beej.

 

[midopa]

That was a neat read! I'm no pro on electronics but I think I may try it out with a cheap-o BJT on a cheapo project guitar I have.

Here's a Circuit Simulator Java applet that kinda helps explain some electronics stuff visually:
Circuit Simulator Applet

 

[whitestrat]

The Silent Circuit is a "dummy" coil, just meaning it's sole purpose is to pick up hum and not signal from the strings. Inside it has a coil to pick up hum, resistors/capacitors to load it up (like a regular pickup does when wired up in your guitar) and also a buffer circuit.

The neat thing about it is that the signal from the dummy coil is fed to the buffer before it's combined with the signal from your regular pickups. The buffer isolates the electrical properties of the dummy coil (inductance, resistance) so when you mix the buffered signal with the signal from your pickups, there's no effect on the sound quality. If you didn't have that little buffer circuit in place you'd notice a real change in the sound of your pickups- but you don't ... it's extremely transparent, except for the lack of noise

I see... Meaning it doesn't work with with noiseless pickups, or rather, is redundant with noiseless pickups. But does pickup output matter when combining these 2?

 

[beej]

I see... Meaning it doesn't work with with noiseless pickups, or rather, is redundant with noiseless pickups.

Right- what would happen if you combined it with noiseless pickups (or a humbucker) is that you'd actually be putting hum into a noiseless signal. It only works when its signal is subtracted from a signal with the same noise in it (but 180 degrees out of phase). Then the two cancel each other out, leaving only the pure signal with no noise.

But does pickup output matter when combining these 2?

Yep- totally does. But you can tune the output level from the Silent Circuit- the gain from the buffer is adjustable. There's a little screw on the back of it and you can adjust it until the noise level from the SC is the same as that in your pickups.

It's not perfect in that your different pickups are going to have different output levels, but you can tune it pretty close to ideal.

 

[puppiesonacid]

yeah I have one that I scored off ebay a long time ago. Always wanted to wire it up in my sub 1. I modded my first one for SSS and never got around to wiring up the Silent Circuit, then I had to put it back to stock and sell it during a hard time. Now I've got the sub 1 one the way off ebay and I can't wait to get modding. I haven't been on the forums in year and I was very happy to see that people have been modding the sub1's, they look great!!! still wish I could have scored the petrucci tremolo from a french forum member years ago!!! the sub 1 trem is great too but the petrucci tremolo was amazing. I also wanted to get another sub 1 and put an OLP baritone neck on it for a bari with tremolo(thought of that one way before petrucci's was made but no one would believe me hahahah )

Just glad to have my balls back guys!!! hahahah


puppiesonacid

 

[mikeller]

Love it here also, great stuff

 

[Jack FFR1846]

United States Patent: 5569872


There's the patent to read (hi, I'm jack and I'm a nerd)


jack

 

[bkrumme]

Alas...I have never played an EBMM with the Silent Circuit.

Quick! Someone send me an AL MM90!

 

[DaveB]

Hey Beej,

Just had a P90 sized DiMarzio humbucker put in the bridge of my 2 P90 Axis Sport - needless to say it wasnt wired correctly.......

Do you have a diagram for such a mod.

I guess you only want the SC in operation on the front pickup - what would it do in the middle when humbucker and P90 were in town?

Dave

P.S. Shoot me some email broham - havent heard from you in a looooong time

 

[fogman]

His sig says he's in Vegas for his stag party.
I don't know how up to date that is.
He could be a while in replying.

 

[DaveB]

What was it Frank Zappa once said.......

Titties and Beer!

Enjoy Beej

Dave

 

[beej]

Hey fellas! Lots of titties, lots of beer. And came home with a few grand in my pockets. Life is good ('cept for the hangover).

Dave- will shoot ya an email buddy!

 

[bkrumme]

And came home with a few grand in my pockets.

Does this mean there's a new Ball in your future?

 

[beej]

Could well be if a few things work out!

 

[tete1805]

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd bump this thread as it interests me a lot:
I have an Axis Sport with 2 P90 and the SC.
I swapped the DiMarzio pickups a while back for 2 pickups specially wound by J. Lollar and the guitar just sounded divine with them.

Unfortunately, a year ago, the output jack stopped holding the jack firmly enough and it was bothering me, especially on stage.
In a hurry, I decided to change it for a regular output jack and therefore had no other choice but to sop using the SC.

Based on what I've seen here and there, I've adapted the SC schematic/layout I got from the customer service to use it with a stereo switchcraft jack. (I've asked them first of course but had no answer.)
Will it work?
If not, can someone help me wire it with that kind of output jack? (So the battery stops feeding the SC when the jack is unplugged.)
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[threeminutesboy]

stereo switchcraft jack

that's the one you need my friend as for wiring Diagram pm me you address I think I have an Albert Lee MM90 wiring that should do the trick

 

[beej]

Yep, it will work fine with a stereo jack.

With the stereo jack, the idea is to wire the negative from the battery to the ring position on the jack. When you plug in a mono cable, it connects the ring to ground and the circuit is completed, allowing current to flow from the battery to the Silent Circuit. When you remove the jack the circuit is broken so your battery won't drain.

Btw, with the old jacks not fitting correctly, usually you can just bend the metal contact back in to position.

Edit: beaten to the punch

 

[paranoid70]

When I am playing at home, I typically play in my bedroom. Unfortunately, the wiring/grounding in the room is so poor that I get soooo much noise, the silent circuit can't even stop it. Heck whenever I try to use high gain even humbuckers make a lot of noise.