# Keyztone ExChanger Pickup Remodeler



## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

This is a pedal that models the sounds of different pickups. Give your Strat a virtual P-90 or your Les Paul a Gretsch pickup, etc.
You can find out the price at Keyztone | It's not cheap but it's not all that pricey either. Check out the video.


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## LexxM3 (Oct 12, 2009)

Look what arrived today. Customer #11.


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

Very cool LexxM3. If you can please do a recording (audio or YouTube video) and let us know what you think of it, how accurate it is, any issues, (noise, switching) etc.


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## LexxM3 (Oct 12, 2009)

Had a couple of hours with it. Preliminary summary: I like it quite a bit, I can see it being the first (I think it may need to go even before the tuner, TBD) pedal of any pedalboard aimed at flexibility. In a way, it’s “just” a fancy EQ pedal, but it gives massive flexibility and variety while being very easy and fast to use. And I do agree with their description that it “opens up the pickups”. 

So far, trying a bright Tele bridge and a Gibson HB in a Tele neck, a Tokai with MIJ Tokai HBs, and a Strat with (my current favourite for high gain) old Fender Lace Blue/Silver/Red in neck/middle/bridge pickups into a Friedman Mini Dirty Shirley and a G12M Creamback 1x12 openback ... I can get a very wide variety of sounds I love with all permutations using this pedal, which wasn’t really the case without it. With some simple tweaking, you can get some super rich harmonic sounds from anything, if you’re into that.

But, to get to a point of comparing accuracy with indicated “modelled”
pickups, that’s going to take a lot of careful experimentation — that’s not going to be a quick or easy review.

If I had to pick a favourite so far (I am sure it will change many times), I would say the “Classic 50th” which are supposed to model the old Seth Lover HBs. “Supa’ Clean” is pretty interesting too — seemingly “opens up” the pickup’s natural sound.

More later when I can.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I'm intrigued. Very intrigued.


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2018)

So have you learned if it is a digital modeler or an analog EQ?


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## LexxM3 (Oct 12, 2009)

Player99 said:


> So have you learned if it is a digital modeler or an analog EQ?


At 14mA spec power draw, it is definitely mostly analog. They describe it as digitally controlled analog (I have a good sense of what that can mean), so basically analog in the signal path.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

LexxM3 said:


> At 14mA spec power draw, it is definitely mostly analog. They describe it as digitally controlled analog (I have a good sense of what that can mean), so basically analog in the signal path.


They call it Analogic. Digitally controlled Analog paths sound like analog pedals, at least in the delay world.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Anyone remember this unit?


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## LexxM3 (Oct 12, 2009)

By the way, I think their discount coupon FIRST30EXCHANGER still works.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

cboutilier said:


> They call it Analogic. Digitally controlled Analog paths sound like analog pedals, at least in the delay world.


Okay, that sounds like a sort of fancy-schmancy Sansamp. I don't mean that as a diss. The original Sansamp would use a complex array of active filters to achieve different identifiable tones, although it employed physical switches to select the filtering parameters. The EHX Knockout attack equalizer I linked to uses a pair of fixed filters and pots to adjust the contribution of three parallel paths. These days, one can get small surface-mount gate arrays that can be used to electronically switch component values in and out to achieve different frequency responses.

In 1987, Craig Anderton had a project in Electronic Musician, called the "Peakmaker", that used 6 individually selectable filters (5 bandpass, plus a highpass), plus some other features, to create/mimic different pickup responses, by virtue of which bands one selected and how those resonances were combined with the guitar's straight signal. The Keyzstone pedal strikes me as a more convenient, semi-automated way of doing the same thing. Again, not a diss, just a recognition that this sort of thing has been pondered for a long time.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

LexxM3 said:


> If I had to pick a favourite so far (I am sure it will change many times), I would say the “Classic 50th” which are supposed to model the old Seth Lover HBs.


Same here (after watching the video). 

Impressive pedal overall!


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## Guest (Dec 7, 2018)

mhammer said:


> Okay, that sounds like a sort of fancy-schmancy Sansamp. I don't mean that as a diss. The original Sansamp would use a complex array of active filters to achieve different identifiable tones, although it employed physical switches to select the filtering parameters. The EHX Knockout attack equalizer I linked to uses a pair of fixed filters and pots to adjust the contribution of three parallel paths. These days, one can get small surface-mount gate arrays that can be used to electronically switch component values in and out to achieve different frequency responses.
> 
> In 1987, Craig Anderton had a project in Electronic Musician, called the "Peakmaker", that used 6 individually selectable filters (5 bandpass, plus a highpass), plus some other features, to create/mimic different pickup responses, by virtue of which bands one selected and how those resonances were combined with the guitar's straight signal. The Keyzstone pedal strikes me as a more convenient, semi-automated way of doing the same thing. Again, not a diss, just a recognition that this sort of thing has been pondered for a long time.


I was thinking this is an analog EQ with presets.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

It quite possbly is, but with digital assistance that permits simply scrolling through a menu in round-robin fashion. Alternatively, current-issue DSP chips allow one to create very complex filtering fairly easily. Consider the Korg Hatsune Miku pedal, or the various EHX pedals like the x9 series that emulates keyboards, or their vocoder pedals, or Ravish sitar emulator. The list goes on and on. So, I'm not discounting it being a digitally-assisted analog path, but digital processing is not off the table either.

Heck, YOU own a Variax. You should know what's possible.


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## LexxM3 (Oct 12, 2009)

mhammer said:


> So, I'm not discounting it being a digitally-assisted analog path, but digital processing is not off the table either.


At only 14mA spec draw, yes, I think DSP is very very likely off the table. With best possible assumed power conversion efficiency, that gives an absolute max of 100mW and on a quick scan for ultra lower power audio DSPs, with A/D and D/A conversion, etc. well under 100mW doesn’t seem to be available.

I’d take mine apart, but it’s just so new and I’d need take all the knobs, switches, and i/o off to get to the business side of the PCB ...


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Coming into the clubhouse turn, that information about current draw puts analog into the lead by 3 lengths.

So probably analog with CMOS switching of paths, and possibly component values, to produce different frequency responses.


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