Schatten BB-01 Blackbox Plug-In Volume Control
Drill No Holes In Your Guitar
 BB-01 |
The
"Black Box" is a small lightweight passive volume control unit that
plugs right into the end pin jack or output jack of your guitar. It is
designed to work with virtually any acoustic instrument that has a
pickup system, but lacks a volume control.
Housed in a rugged die cast black aluminum box, the
Black Box is an almost bullet-proof design. It is extremely rugged.
The "Black Box" measures only a scant 2"
x 1 1/2" x 1 1/4" in size.
Weight: only 3 ounces.
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Details
Added Safety For Your Guitar
Your strap
stays in place on the existing end pin jack. There are no
modifications.
Simply plug the "Black Box" into the output jack of your guitar
and plug your guitar cord into the jack on the bottom of the
"Black Box".
The "Black Box" is specifically designed to keep the
output jack (and therefore your guitar cord) positioned pointing
downward towards the floor. This can help to protect your guitar.
Should you step on the guitar cord, the downward pointing plug can
disengage from the black box much more readily than it normally
could from the end pin jack.
Black Box design notes:
As stated, the
Black Box will work with just about any modern pickup system on
the market. That being said, some of the older under saddle pickup
designs (specifically those that are made up of six small
individual crystals in a strip and not fitted with a preamp) do
not have sufficient output to be used with any passive volume
control and are not recommended for use with the Black Box.
Pictures
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Reviews
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purchased and used one of the BB-01's, please be kind enough to
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Thank you.
About Pickups, Preamps, Amps
Terminology
Passive Pickup - A piezo pickup.
Impedance - To simplify things as much as posssible we'll say that impedance refers to the range in which an amplifying device can 'hear' a pickup plugged into it.
Preamp - A device specifically designed for use with piezo pickups that increases the signal strength and lowers the impedance of a passive pickup.
Active Pickup - A piezo pickup with an attached preamp.
Microphone Preamp - a device that may be built into P.A.systems and mixers that is designed to work with microphones. These units will not generally work with passive pickups.
'Normal' Electric Guitar Amps: A passive pickup has an impedance of approximately 2 mega ohms (2 million ohms) which virtually all 'normal' electric guitar amps can generally handle without issue.
'Acoustic' Amps: may or may not require the use of a preamp with a pickup and that will depend upon whether or not there is a special built in preamp section to that amp that specifically allows for the choice in plugging in either a passive (non-preamped) or active (preamped) pickup. This choice is quite often in the form of pushbutton on the amp's control panel. Many acoustic amps show a selection that may indicate the choice of 'high impedance' and 'low impedance'.
Low impedance in these instances usually indicates that in this range the amp will handle an impedance of 1000 ohms or less - which will allow active pickups with preamps to be used.
High impedance in these instances may indicate an allowable impedance into the 2 or 3 mega ohm range - which will allow passive pickups to be used. Or it may indicate a maximum input impedance allowed of 20,000 ohms or less - which will handle magnetic electric guitar pickups but not passive pickups. You should carefully read the technical specifications of your acoustic amp in order to see what it will do.
P.A. Systems, Mixers: all of these units will require the use of a preamp between themselves and a passive pickup. Microphone preamps built into P.A.'s and mixers are not designed for use with passive pickups and will not work properly.
Computers: Due to the vagaries and variables inherent in the sound cards found in computers, the only thing that we can advise is that a preamp will almost certainly be necessary.
