Yesterday, I tested my new Steel Guitar Black Box by *Sarno Music Solutions through my UltraSound AG-30 acoustic amp. My first impression is the SGBB is well-built and looks cool in its all-black with white lettering color scheme. The only user-adjustable control on the SGBB is the Vari-Z knob that can vary the input impedance from 33 Kohms to 1 Megaohm. This should be a good range to accommodate just about any passive High-Z instrument pickup such as the Schatten HFN and variants, K&K and JJB disc-style pickups, and many brands of resonator/violin/banjo pickups. The SGBB is also recommended for electric and acoustic guitar magnetic pickups. If a higher input impedance range is needed, the Steel Guitar Black Box can be ordered with a Vari-Z adjustable input impedance of 1 Megaohm to 2 Megaohms. Brad Sarno recommends leaving the SGBB on all the time as it doesn't draw a lot of current and runs warm but not hot, and being tube-powered, will always sound best when used at operating temperature. My first test of the Steel Guitar Black Box was done with my new Republic Duolian Metal-Bodied Resonator Guitar with a passive Schatten NR-2 Biscuit Pickup.
Schatten NR-2 Biscuit Resonator Pickup The amplified tone from the Republic Guitars-installed Schatten NR2 is noise-free and sounds surprisingly full and quite well-balanced string-to-string in its output and tone. I'm routing the Schatten's passive output through my new Sarno Steel Guitar Black Box Tube Preamp and that likely accounts for some of the warmth and roundness of amplified tone. The Vari-Z variable impedance knob of the SGBB enables the player to manually find the sweet-spot impedance for the pickup in the instrument being played, and also acts as a kind of volume control as the more the knob is turned toward the higher impedance end of its travel the more there is a noticeable volume increase along with the increasing fullness of tone. For the Republic Duolian with Schatten NR-2 pickup, I've found the most pleasing tone is at the 1 Megaohm end of the knob.
Taylor 614ce Expression System 2 The chords and notes from this guitar's active system have more punch and warmth through the Steel Guitar Black Box than just plugging the guitar directly into the Ultrasound AG-30. With the Expression System 2 being an active-output pickup/preamp system, it's reasonable to assume that the Vari-Z of the Steel Guitar Black Box would have little or no effect on the guitar's amplified tone. This is pretty much the case but slight tonal differences can be heard at different positionings of the Vari-Z knob.
Sarno Black Box Steel Guitar Tube Buffer
Sarno Music Solutions recommends placing the Steel Guitar Black Box immediately after the pickup system in an instrument, whether the system is passive or active, as the most benefit from the tube such as the warmth of tone and touch sensitivity is gained from this placement in the signal chain.
*Sarno Music Solutions by Brad Sarno - Frankly, I'd never heard of this company until it was recently mentioned in the Acoustic Amplification subforum of AGF. The Steel Guitar Black Box and other Sarno Music Solutions products have been well-known and highly regarded amongst the steel-guitar community for many years.
Thanks for the report, Ken. From recent comments in another thread I get the idea that a 1 Mohm input impedance will even work adequately well with crystal piezo USTs. Its the film piezo USTs that tend to need a higher input impedance to achieve a full tone.
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Thankyou for the rundown! I'm seriously considering one of these as the front end for my Sunrises. The Demeter Tube DI looks and sounds great too, but the SGBB is much cheaper and seems like a great all-rounder. Looking forward to hearing the samples!
Sarno Music Solutions recommends placing the Steel Guitar Black Box immediately after the pickup system in an instrument, whether the system is passive or active, as the most benefit from the tube such as the warmth of tone and touch sensitivity is gained from this placement in the signal chain.
*Sarno Music Solutions by Brad Sarno - Frankly, I'd never heard of this company until it was recently mentioned in the Acoustic Amplification subforum of AGF. The Steel Guitar Black Box and other Sarno Music Solutions products have been well-known and highly regarded amongst the steel-guitar community for many years.
Thanks for the report, Ken. From recent comments in another thread I get the idea that a 1 Mohm input impedance will even work adequately well with crystal piezo USTs. Its the film piezo USTs that tend to need a higher input impedance to achieve a full tone.
Black Guitar Pick Necklace Men Women Stainless Steel Pendant Chain Punk Rock Music Note Statement Jewelry Birthday Gift Cool Necklace Psp4515h
Thankyou for the rundown! I'm seriously considering one of these as the front end for my Sunrises. The Demeter Tube DI looks and sounds great too, but the SGBB is much cheaper and seems like a great all-rounder. Looking forward to hearing the samples!
Sarno Music Solutions recommends placing the Steel Guitar Black Box immediately after the pickup system in an instrument, whether the system is passive or active, as the most benefit from the tube such as the warmth of tone and touch sensitivity is gained from this placement in the signal chain.
*Sarno Music Solutions by Brad Sarno - Frankly, I'd never heard of this company until it was recently mentioned in the Acoustic Amplification subforum of AGF. The Steel Guitar Black Box and other Sarno Music Solutions products have been well-known and highly regarded amongst the steel-guitar community for many years.
Thanks for the report, Ken. From recent comments in another thread I get the idea that a 1 Mohm input impedance will even work adequately well with crystal piezo USTs. Its the film piezo USTs that tend to need a higher input impedance to achieve a full tone.
Black Guitar Pick Necklace Men Women Stainless Steel Pendant Chain Punk Rock Music Note Statement Jewelry Birthday Gift Cool Necklace Psp4515h
Thankyou for the rundown! I'm seriously considering one of these as the front end for my Sunrises. The Demeter Tube DI looks and sounds great too, but the SGBB is much cheaper and seems like a great all-rounder. Looking forward to hearing the samples!
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