Artec electronics

http://artecsound.com/pickups/electronics/index.html


anyone had any experience of these gizmos? I have my eye on the QDD disto pot http://artecsound.com/pickups/electronics/qdd.html
for a Hondo project with DiMarzio HB's and I cant really find any useful reviews or (obviously) videos.

I have one of their sound hole pickups--WSHD-BB (Bubinga). It was inexpensive and works well. I use it on my elDegas Dove and Vantage VW150. I understand that they are suppliers to GFS as well, and they are certainly great pickups.

As for their electronics, PCB's and such...dunno. But I would guess they'd be more than adequate, and reasonably priced to boot.

I used artec ceramic pickups in my recent tele build and I am really impressed with them. If the rest of their stuff is as good For the price I don't think you would have ant complaints.

favourable comments indeed!
might just have to try this doofer out!
thanks chaps

i used one of these on a hot-rod guitar i built
i like the sounds from it, but after about a year of moderate use, the switch is a bit loose and noisey. not from dirty contacts but because the switch mechanism is not tight enough and does not hit each stop consistently.

ok for fun, great tone, but i would not use it if i needed to play onstage (not noise-free and 100% reliable).
perhaps the artec version would have better switch?

my strat with super-switch set-up, master volume/tone, overdrive circuit with battery under the inverted output jack. i only needed to rout a small amount under the pickguard, to allow for the distortion circuit board, and putting the battery under the output jack makes all the wiring short and easy and no more routing necessary.

With the Artec-GFS connection I would guess these 2 circuits come from Artec....maybe? they look very similar.
my son has kind of claimed this hondo project as his first axe and i suspect the guitar and pot will get some rough treatment so £16 for a replacement aint too bad. Do you have any recordings of that unit? love to hear some
Great Idea for the battery housing by the way, never would have thunk of that!

Sgt. Vimes wrote:...Great Idea for the battery housing by the way, never would have thunk of that!

Very creative. However I've done that very same thing on a customer's G&L. The difference being, it was "senior's moment" on my part!
I had it off to repair some shorting out issue or other, then absent mindlessly put the damn thing back in upside down...and the sad part, never even noticed, even though I plugged it in to tune the guitar!

Sgt. Vimes wrote: Do you have any recordings of that unit? love to hear some

dang! dead battery! , i guess it has been there a while... maybe a year or so now...

once i get a new one, i'll try to make some noise and record some samples for you ...

Hoorah! Hoorah! for Harry and Enland:face: Can't wait:)

okay, new battery and all that good stuff... got my toys set up and had a chance to play around a bit. finally got everything here situated properly and so i made a quick recording to demonstrate some of the sounds i get from my superstrat custom.
nothing too fancy, just a little riffing around to compare sounds.

see what you think....
test 1
there is a description of the track along with the audio

Wow thanks for the demo man! I really like the neck and middle / settings 2,3 and 4 a lot.
Do you find this gizmo useful? Would you gig with it?

yeah i suppose i would gig with it.

i don't bash about with my guitar while playing, so i don't worry about it getting damaged while playing.

the rotary switch moves easily from one setting to the next. the switching action is not really tight with hard notches. that's good or bad depending on the player.

it has never failed or had any problem except noisy switching. i don't play out these days, but the switch got dirty and noisy after a short while. (maybe i didn't clean out the control cavity well enough after the small routing necessary for installation). it cleaned up easily with the usual spray stuff and is mostly pretty quiet when changing settings.

it would be on my list to check it before the gig. just to be sure.

i like the sounds from it. each setting can give good sounds. with a little work you could easily find the right tones for your lead or rhythm playing. the distortion effect is quite responsive to your master volume pot. so if you back off the volume the distortion lessens. there is a trimpot on the pc board to adjust the overall gain in the unit. i didn't check to see where exactly mine is set, but it does boost the signal. i like it that way because of all the different settings possible with the superswitch setup.

it would probably respond to humbuckers with even more crunchyness. this is the only guitar i have tried it on.

OK Mr Saurus, I liked your demo so much I went ahead and bought the Artec pot for my son's first build hondo strat with 2 dimarzio super distortions

Not entirely relevant but a while back I had an SGC Nanyo Bass Collection SB-310 that had a weedy tone. I replaced the preamp with an Artec SE-2A on board jobbie and it improved matters but was still a bit thin. But then again it was only £25 or something similar. I also put one into a Fender Precision Lyte with a knackered preamp (I am a magnet for faulty electronics, it seems) and it worked but wasn't great. Replaced that with a J. East preamp which is in a different league entirely. I suppose you get what you pay for.

gittarasaurus, when you installed your unit, did you use a switched or non switched stereo jack socket?

the non-switched stereo jack

Thanks, couldn't find any info on switched or no with the artec.

on the ebay listing at your link there is a picture for hookup instructions.
if you look closely at the drawing, the output jack shown is a stereo jack .

yeah, I just wasnt sure if it was switched stereo or unswitched stereo, didnt know there was that option!

with a switched jack you have to get the right kind (normally open contacts) and then just use a mono jack.

it will wire up the same way as the stereo jack