After managing to unbork the marvellous Mercurial (see related build report 'A week of mixed fortunes (Noiseless pickups, Mercurial, Clandestine)'), I thought it might be fun to try my first combo build by adding a General Tso after the said marvel.
Please note: I'll fix the dislodged out wire from the Merc in due course.
However, I seek the collective wisdom's advice on the following:
1) I'm slightly concerned by phase issues which might emerge after the two are hooked up. I have checked the schematics and as far as I can tell neither the Mercurial or the Tso inverts the signal. I've confirmed this by running the Merc standalone into a similar (standalone) Tso and it sounds fine. Just want to double-check to avoid disappointment later.
2) Is it good in this case to wire this combo with a star ground system (with one ground connected to the input jack, then PS ground, and so on, serially connected to each subsequent pad)? This would preclude a large number of ground wires (I counted six connections in all) and hopefully eliminate a rat's nest inside the box. Relatedly, I believe one leaves the output jack ungrounded. Please confirm that I'm on the right track here.
Any guidance gratefully received. TIA and all best.
1. My thoughts are that neither inverts so you should be fine.
2. Not sure if it's the right thing to do or not but I have just been pulling one long wire for ground and running them all together. I have seen some other people do the same thing. It's way faster than running all the separate wires and I haven't had any issue doing so the grounds are going to connect at the case anyways I see it as an insurance policy against a bad or loose connection. My latest builds are relatively silent.
My other thought was on the order of EQ and compressor. I usually run the EQ after the compressor but I think there might be applications for doing it the opposite way. Have you considered an order switcher? I think the combo of those 2 will be a really good front of the chain and I run something similar most of the time. I'm guessing your hope is to get nice cleans without any perceivable clipping?
Thanks for the swift response @DailyDovetails, much appreciated. The single wire solution is neat and tidy and I’ll give it a go. Hadn’t thought of an order switcher since I generally go EQ into compressor. But it’s certainly worth a try and easy enough to experiment with meanwhile.
Finally, you’re exactly on the money on the nice cleans. I want to use it with bass and possibly upright as well, which it seems quite capable of accommodating given the wide range of tones possible. Thanks again. Will keep you posted on developments.
