THE FAT CONTROLLER

Have you ever wanted your Telecaster or Strat to sound like a Gibson? Or maybe you use humbuckers but want an active tone control which will give you an even fatter sound with more mids? The answer to all your prayers could be the MB-2 Mid-boost Fat Control from Demeter Amplification. This is a retrofit unit for your guitar, which features a battery-powered preamplifier with just one potentiometer to control mid-frequency boost. The actual mid-range frequencies, which are boosted, are chosen to give the guitar excellent response and sustain characteristics. The blurb says that if you install this on Stratocaster single coil type pick-ups, you will get a sound very similar to the old Gibson P90 pick-ups, while humbucking type pick-ups turn into superhumbuckers.

Unless you are fairly comfortable with doing your own guitar modifications, you will have to get a guitar technician to install the preamp circuit board and 9 Volt battery inside the guitar body — routing out additional space if necessary and either replacing an existing tone control or adding the Demeter as an additional control. I got round the problem of temporarily installing it by simply soldering a couple of jack sockets to the cables and inserting this lashup between the guitar and the amplifier.

As expected, advancing the control boosted both the volume and the mid-range frequencies. It certainly made my vintage Telecaster sound much fuller with more bottom end and a thick mid-range tone. However, for my taste, the mid-range was a little too 'cloudy' sounding and the boost seemed to take the 'edge' off the top end as well. To listen to real humbuckers in action, I then tried my '60s Epiphone Riviera. This confirmed my impression that the Demeter unit made the tone of the Telecaster too 'thick' in the mid-range, as the Riviera sounded fuller than the Telecaster without losing clarity in the mid-range — although the Epiphone did not sound as 'fat' in the mid-range as the Telecaster with the boost. Next up, I tried the Riviera through the Demeter, with better results this time! Again, I got the volume boost and a fuller mid-range sound, but this time I did not lose the edge off the highs as much as with the Telecaster, and the mid-range sounded smoother, more satisfying, and somehow very 'musical'. A great bluesy/jazzy sound with a rock edge to it — John Scofield rather than Steve Vai.

The Demeter did provide an interesting alternative to the sound of the single coil pick-ups on the Telecaster, but I was much more impressed with the results I got boosting the humbuckers on the Riviera. And it's good value for money.

Further Information
Demeter NIB-2 £76.38 inc VAT.

The UK Office, (Contact Details).

ROLAND DR-10 & DR-20

Roland might be best known for their electronic instruments, but amongst other things, they also make microphones, including these two low impedance hypercardioid models, the DR-10 and the DR-20. They have very similar frequency response characteristics, and used with voice, they sound quite similar too, but the physical design and capsule type differs quite significantly. The DR-10 is essentially a live vocal mic, whereas the DR-20 is more general purpose. Both are finished in semi-matte black paint, with integral on/off switches. Rigid, foam-lined plastic cases are supplied along with mic clips, plus XLR to unbalanced jack cables, although personally, I would have preferred to see XLR to XLR leads.

Both the DR-10 and DR-20 exhibit a gentle low-end roll-off to offset the bass rise that results when directional mics are used close up. In contrast to the DR-10's Shure-esque lines, the DR-20 has a slightly barrel-shaped basket, and in both models, the capsule is mounted upon a sizeable decoupling mass fixed in a resilient shockmount. Although there are subtle differences, both mics have a broad presence peak at around 8kHz, and in comparison with my Shure SM58, they sound slightly brighter with a similar overall sensitivity. The overall sound tends to be fairly open and well articulated, rather than nasal.

Although the response drops away fairly steadily above 10kHz, the legitimate upper limit is probably around 17kHz, with a useful amount of level left even up at 20kHz. The degree of handling noise is acceptable, and both mics actually sound very similar.

Selling any mics other than SM58s must be a music dealer's nightmare, but buying the right mic really is down to choosing one that compliments your voice. These models provide practical alternatives to better established general purpose stage mics, both for vocal and instrument applications. Given their price and performance, they're well worth trying.

Further Information
DR-10 £49 inc VAT.
DR-20 £89 inc VAT.

Roland UK Limited, (Contact Details).