Wiring Passive Humbuckers as Balanced-out?

[ElRay]

When I'm done w/ holiday traveling, I'll look at the balanced circuit again. I'm not sure every balanced "mic" has phantom power protection. I think hooking-up a set of passive pick-ups to a phantom powered XLR, wouldn't do much harm, a 2k coil will only allow a couple of hundredths of an amp pass.

The Alumitones are a bit "funky" because they behave like current sources and not voltage sources.

 

[bostjan]

Ok, I'm trying this now, and I'm surprised that it seems to make so little difference.

So, the XLR input is definitely lower output without the transformer, but I was able to adjust the input gain just a little and it made up for it... but by that point, the noise was actually, slightly worse! Not really noticeable audibly, but for sure not better. I tried different cables and different ways to shield the wiring and it's not really different for me. My old house's wiring is super noisy, so, at least in my case, this isn't the be all and end all.

I put the transformer in and it definitely boosted the signal, but boosted the noise, too.

Maybe it's a noisy pickup, but this is not encoraging. After adjusting the gain, it's virtually the same noisiness no matter whether I use unbalanced or balanced with or without the transformer. Plucking random strings, too, it seems no different, really, tonally.

I really expected something more noticeable. I'll try another pickup and report back. Maybe this pup is just shit...

 

[bostjan]

Ahh, ok, I had it wired wrong. The diagram I downloaded said 1 is ground, but 3 is ground, so the way I had it wired was unbalanced, thus why it was the same. I'm happy to say that it is significantly quieter. It's definitely not perfect, but this is a mod worth trying if you have a noisy studio. Not sure the transformer is necessary. I'll see if I can post a clip.

 

[bostjan]

Unbalanced


Balanced


In stereo, right channel balanced left is regular unbalanced