A Little Thunder - New Octave/Guitar Pickup

J

Jeries

Power User
Yesterday the Kickstarter went live for this- and I wanted to share it with the forum, because it seems like something a lot of Fractal people would embrace.

My friend Andy Alt, amazing guitar player, inventor- unveiled his new product/invention to the public and is crowed funding it to get it off the ground and in our hands...

Basically- It's a revolutionary guitar pickup- That adds bass notes to a standard electric guitar- It takes the bottom two guitar strings and can make it one or two octaves lower. It has pretty much no latency, and is polyphonic. The most interesting part- to me- is it can be used monophonic and has a built in- patented- 'low note priority' function that only adds the octave to the lowest note it hears. Requires no routing/modifications and all the controls are on the pickup ring. Made in the USA - signal can even be split to send the bass stuff through a real bass amp.

I've heard he was putting something together for a long time now, and just recently found out what it was- and now he's going.

I'm really looking forward to getting these in one of my guitars... Also it installs in about 5 min- great for all styles-

Really impressive stuff- check it out

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alittlethunder/a-little-thunder-pickup-add-bass-to-your-guitar
 
Hey Andy,
Is it possible to mute lower strings of non processed pickup when combining with octave sound, so only the octave sound can be heard when playing lower strings? i mean 1-4 strings - guitar sound, 5,6 strings - bass sound (no guitar doubling bass).

AndyAlt said:
Thanks Jeries for your kind words and support!

-Andy Alt
Founder
A Little Thunder
Click to expand...
 
pauliusmm said:
Hey Andy,
Is it possible to mute lower strings of non processed pickup when combining with octave sound, so only the octave sound can be heard when playing lower strings? i mean 1-4 strings - guitar sound, 5,6 strings - bass sound (no guitar doubling bass).
Click to expand...

the bass was so much more prominent to me i didn't even notice it blending the guitar with the octaves.
 
:O
waaaannnnt iiiiiiiit!

...innovation is cool.

BTW, Andy, I sent you a message on KS about using this pup with wireless units.

I'd also like to know if it's possible (even through aftermarket mods if necessary) to have an on/off switch much like your prototype instead of on the pickup ring, or to maybe have those switches on the top of the ring instead of the bottom? Would that be as easy as flipping the ring itself, or is the ring and the pup more like a one-piece design, if that makes any sense?

Ok, last question, was this designed to specifically be a neck pickup, or would it work equally well (or better?) as a bridge pup? just imagine this thing in the bridge along with a sustainer pup in the neck!
 
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jlynnb1 said:
wow, that's insanely cool. i was skeptical until i clicked on the video.
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Thanks Jlynnb1! It takes a minute to get used to the thought-- and we had them initially too "So my guitar now has a deep low end? What good would that do?" Then you try it and it's like some other presence in the room. We jammed with drummer Elmo Lovano (Miley Cyrus/Skrillex/+lots of projects) last night and the session was an enourmous amount of fun. Since the Fractal units (II and FX8) have 2 dedicated inputs, you could show up at a gig with a single AXE FX and a guitar with A Little Thunder and have a great stereo rig with many different sounds. We look forward to having a tight relationship with the Fractal Audio community (and I've known M@ forever-- was a "dummy" tester when he originally came to Steve Vai's studio to setup a lot of cool patches back in 2010!)

All the best,
Andy Alt

Founder
A Little Thunder
 
Rotti said:
:O
waaaannnnt iiiiiiiit!

...innovation is cool.

BTW, Andy, I sent you a message on KS about using this pup with wireless units.

I'd also like to know if it's possible (even through aftermarket mods if necessary) to have an on/off switch much like your prototype instead of on the pickup ring, or to maybe have those switches on the top of the ring instead of the bottom? Would that be as easy as flipping the ring itself, or is the ring and the pup more like a one-piece design, if that makes any sense?

Ok, last question, was this designed to specifically be a neck pickup, or would it work equally well (or better?) as a bridge pup? just imagine this thing in the bridge along with a sustainer pup in the neck!
Click to expand...

Hey Rotti,

I just wrote back! Thanks for reaching out. To answer thems questions...

-The engineers and I have discussed adding a terminal on the pickup to allow players who want to put a button on another area of their guitar an easy place to wire out from. I'm all about this idea. We just have to make sure it's physically possible given the final configuration before manufacturing. I'll keep you posted on this but every indication so far says "yes, possible--and good idea!"

-A Little Thunder sounds great in both neck and bridge positions. Within the pickup housing, you're still getting an 8K humbucker that has some cool EQ'ing tweaks (sounds like a PAF Pro with some added clarity around the mids and highs). When A Little Thunder is in the neck = loads of sustain (the poles are usually where the 24th fret would be, so there's a nice harmonic). When A Little Thunder is installed in the bridge = more attack, still great sustain, but it's probably especially best for a very heavy sound through a rig with gain.

With both positions, you can continue to use your regular selector switch so you can have A Little Thunder in the neck position "on" and be using the bridge pickup in your current setup. That's one way we roll with the James Trussart prototype... Kick on A Little Thunder and flip down to the bridge pickup = very good for cutting through the mix because you're covering lows to highs!

Thanks again for reaching out, we're here if you need anything!

-Andy

Founder
A Little Thunder
 
pauliusmm said:
Hey Andy,
Is it possible to mute lower strings of non processed pickup when combining with octave sound, so only the octave sound can be heard when playing lower strings? i mean 1-4 strings - guitar sound, 5,6 strings - bass sound (no guitar doubling bass).
Click to expand...

Hi Pauliusmm,

Since there are two separate signals within the humbucker sized pickup, it's possible to get a comparable combination; Here's one option, with A Little Thunder on/engaged, turn down the volume pot of your guitar and only bass notes will resound. It isn't currently possible to get no guitar signal on the bottom E&A strings but have D,G,B and e sound through the guitar amp (aka, all 6 guitar strings are coming through your guitar amp but you can control the guitar sound with the volume pot on your guitar or volume pedal/amp volume).

Best,
Andy

Founder
A Little Thunder
 
Let me throw my hat into Andy's ring here too. I've seen the prototype firsthand and I'm sure he'll see this very cool idea booming!
 
Admin M@ said:
Let me throw my hat into Andy's ring here too. I've seen the prototype firsthand and I'm sure he'll see this very cool idea booming!
Click to expand...

Thanks M@! The idea of showing up with an FX-8 or AxeFx II --with it's 2 inputs -- and a single guitar with A Little Thunder in it would unleash a world of sound. In the Kickstarter video, Dweezil is actually doing just that (but with a very early prototype of the pickup).

Thanks for dropping in on this! M@, you're the coolest!
 
This is great idea Andy.

I would like to hear more the actual pickup before ordering. Is it a single coil pickup if you turn off the octave?
 
pauliusmm said:
This is great idea Andy.

I would like to hear more the actual pickup before ordering. Is it a single coil pickup if you turn off the octave?
Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

Both the guitar and bass portion are humbuckers. The photos in the Kickstarter are crude representations of what the final, produced version will be but you can expect zero hum (or the same as a standard humbucker). The DC resistance on the guitar pickup is just a bit over 8K -- similar to a PAF but with a tiny EQ tweak around the 4K-8K range to give a nice contrast to the bass pickup. We think it sounds like a Jeff Beck humbucker that sustains a little better.

Excited to have you aboard... really wanting to see that powerful combination of AXE FX & A Little Thunder in-action. We'll be sure to share any videos or audio samples you send over.

Best,
Andy
 
pauliusmm said:
This is great idea Andy.

I would like to hear more the actual pickup before ordering. Is it a single coil pickup if you turn off the octave?
Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

The pickup dedicated to the guitar signal/tone in A Little Thunder is a humbucker with a little over 8K DC resistance & has a gentle boost in the 4-8k eq band to give some punch and a nice contrast to the bass sound. Let me know if you have add'l questions. I have bookmarked this thread but it might be easier to email at info(at)alittlethunder(dot)com

Best,
Andy
 
As a pickup designer/maker for 15 years, I'm very interested in this. Impressive.

Andy, have you ever poked into the Pickup Makers' Forum? I'm sure there would be some interest in hearing more about this. We're very respective of people's design work, you don't need to worry about copycats.
 
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