[mosaxs]

I may have missed this on another post. I have a Varitone neck with no jack plug. The neck varitone pickup has a black wire about 6" long extending from it with bared ends. Can a plug be soldered to the end of the wire and then run through a normal amp/pa, or is there another way to amplify it without the Varitone amp. It also has the black wire at the bottom of the tenor sax with bared ends.

Thanks

 

[kavala]

At a guess, I would say 'Yes'.

Is the cable co-axial ???

 

[kavala]

oops, double post.

 

[mosaxs]

Thanks for your response

I am not sure what you mean by co-axial. It has a thin center wire wrapped by plastic and a stranded wire on the outside. I would think these two wires would correspond to the two connections on a standard jack.

 

[kavala]

That's co-axial

 

[jazzsax07]

I am not sure what you mean by a Varitone neck, do you have a picture?
I do know Varitone but not its individual omponents.
I play with an attached mic on my VI neck and it will go into any amp so I would think if you get it wired correctly it does not need the Varitone amp.
Is the mic removable? Possibly you could get a new mic so you don't need to do a repair job.

 

[mosaxs]

regarding mic replacement

I don't think the Varitone mic is replaceable. Dr. Sax sent me an email explaining I probably needed a mixer to raise the amplification level before plugging into an amp. I have a plug being put on the end of it now, and will try the DR's advice. My next project will ber to find an inexpensive mixer. Any other suggestions? I'm open.

Thanks for all the feedback,

 

[kavala]

If you are using an instrument amp it will have the pre-amp section built
in so you don't need a mixer.

If you intend to use just a power amp then, yes, you will need some form
of pre-amplification.

You will only need a mixer if you intend to plug in more than one
microphone.

 

[Zacharias]

Get a Telex Telethin Pic-Up and get the cord with it so you dont have to worry about replacing the wire on your varitone pickup, they are the same as the old Maestro pickups.. Just get like a small pre-amp that you can hook onto your belt loop plug into that then an amp.

http://www.fullcompass.com/product/296013.html

 

[mosaxs]

Kavala and Zacharias

Thanks for the help. I handwired my varitone neck to a 1/4" plug and then connected to a Peavey "Audition 30" guitar amp. I got no results, so I think you are telling me the Varitone mic pickup on the neck may be dead. Or hopefully, maybe not.

Thanks!!!

 

[hakukani]

Thanks for the help. I handwired my varitone neck to a 1/4" plug and then connected to a Peavey "Audition 30" guitar amp. I got no results, so I think you are telling me the Varitone mic pickup on the neck may be dead. Or hopefully, maybe not.

Thanks!!!

The varitone had it's own preamp, so I think you would have to plug it in to a mixer to get it up to the level that's output by a guitar pickup.

 

[mosaxs]

Mixer

Thanks. Any special requirements for the mixer?

 

[hakukani]

It also may be that the mic element in the varitone needs a dc voltage from a battery or phantom power.

I would try to put some kind of connector on the leads that goes to an XLR so that you can plug into the mic input of a mixer.

I'll see if I can find more details on the varitone system and concentrate on the specs of the preamp.

 

[mosaxs]

mic element

Any help would be appreciated. I'm just not sure which direction to go with this. Obviously being able to use the Varitone neck connection would be great.

Thanks!!

 

[mosaxs]

Varitone

Just wanted to let you know the my varitone pickup was tested through a small mixer and works. Now I need to find a small mixer to put with it permanently with an octave pedal.

Thanks you all for all the help.

 

[Guest]

There is a auction on Ebay selling a copy of the Varitone manual.
You may find specs, such as output level of the pickup, impedances, ...
If you don't match the output impedance of the pickup to the input stage
of whatever device you plan to use as the step up stage (preamp), you may experience some signal loss.
Here is the link.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VARITONE-SAX-SERVICE-MANUAL_W0QQitemZ160141251145QQihZ006QQcategoryZ38112QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[mosaxs]

signal

Hey thanks! At present, I am checking out options and this info will certainly help. Hakukani said he was going to do some research on this and get back to me. It is amazing how sensitive the pickup on the Varitone is. I wish now I had one for my alto. Thanks again, I have lots of work/research to do.

 

[hakukani]

Hey thanks! At present, I am checking out options and this info will certainly help. Hakukani said he was going to do some research on this and get back to me. It is amazing how sensitive the pickup on the Varitone is. I wish now I had one for my alto. Thanks again, I have lots of work/research to do.

Did it work through your stereo? If it did whhooooohooooo!

I really thought it might be dead.

PM me with details...

 

[mosaxs]

Varitone pickup

Sorry it took so long to reply. Yea, I had a 1/8" plug soldered onto the pickup wire, plugged it into a small mixer, then to a guitar amp. The mic is so sensitive, that if you turn it up to loud, you can hear the tv across the room. That does present a small issue, in that you hear the attack of the reed, breathing, and even a hand touching the neck. I have not had the chance to connect it with a PA yet. I believe I can keep the gain and volume balanced in the mixer to get the right amplification. The effects that were on the mixer made the sound incredible, like playing in a large auditorium, etc.

Thanks

 

[mosaxs]

Varitone pickup

The wire running out the bottom of the sax is very short. I noticed the sax has a female plug at the top that the Varitone neck plugs into. This female plug has metal on the top of it. Does anyone know if this is connected to the wire running the length of the sax? If it is, is it threaded, and can it be loosened, and have a new wire soldered to it. Then can that new wire be rerun through the bead on the sax out the bottom?

Thanks!!!