Sarno Music Solutions -
Steel Guitar Black Box
tube buffer/impedance matcher
These days, it's
important to optimize every link of the audio chain,
starting at the source. Often this source is a guitar
pickup. Despite the name, the Steel Guitar Black Box is a
device that fills a long-time need for studio rats and
guitarists of all types. The tube-driven SGBB is intended
to be placed immediately after a guitar pickup (and before
any pedals and effects). It optimizes the pickup/amp
relationship by matching impedances and circumventing
capacitive loads.
A handsome, minimalist box (yes, it's black), the SGBB is
about 8'' _ 5'' _ 2'' and is a surprisingly hefty 5 lbs.
There's an attached 120 V power cable, a user-changeable
fuse, a blue pilot light, and 1/4'' I/O jacks. No on/off
switch—it's on when you plug it in. The unit that I
tried was outfitted with a true-bypass switch (very handy
for A/B'ing sounds), but production models do not have this
feature (nor do they need it, really).During a recent
recording session with The Self Righteous Brothers at
Verdant Studios, I hooked up the band's pedal steel player
with the SGBB. He flipped. With his steel plugged into the
Black Box, then into his volume pedal, then amp, his pickup
was noticeably more responsive than without the Black Box.
Not louder, not driven, just more "present." He said it
felt like playing was a bit easier, like you could "feel"
the notes a little better. In any case, the steel tone that
went to tape was superb. This was not a passing fancy; the
steel player wrote down the Black Box's website address and
said he planned to buy one. Later, I tried the device out
with a few conventional guitars. Same kind of results: more
presence, improved "feel." The tone was "strong" and not
overly-colored. It just sounded like the guitar and amp
were perfectly matched.Because it is a
tube buffer, the Black Box imparts a bit of harmonic
distortion on whatever signal it is fed. There is no gain.
In addition to improving guitar and steel performance, it
is also quite effective at "warming up" unbalanced,
line-level signals from the likes of keyboards and drum
machines. All in all, it's a great tool to have kicking
around the studio or as part of a stellar guitar rig.
(www.steelguitarblackbox.com)
-Pete Weiss, www.weissy.com