Red-Eye Twin as a Blender

Question...

I have a fine Collings guitar with a K&K Anthem installed. How does the Twin work with this dual-pickup system?

Response...

Yes, it works great! The two-channel Red-Eye Twin has a Mode Switch that determines whether the Twin plays one channel at a time or if it blends Channel A and Channel B. Setting the Mode Switch to A+B blends both channels in any ratio. The two channels each have their own separate full-range Gain and Treble Controls.

Microphone support...

The Twin’s B Channel has another feature that supports blending dual-pickup setups like the Anthem, where one pickup is an electret microphone. Such microphones require low-voltage Phantom Power, so there is a switch next to the B Channel input jack that turns on electret microphone Phantom Power. The switch determines if the B Channel input is for an electret mic or if it is for a normal piezo, magnetic, or active pickup.

Be aware that microphones in instruments are sensitive to feedback. So, depending on how much you need to amplify, you would use more or less of the mic signal in the blend. In a quietenvironment where you don’t need a lot of amplification, you could blend in more of the mic ifyou desired. For a louder band environment you would have to reduce the microphone’s GainControl in order avoid feedback when you amplify a lot.

Instrument setup...

Instruments with dual pickups are usually wired with a stereo 1⁄4-inch jack installed in the instrument. In the case of the K&K Anthem wiring, the K&K Mini piezo pickup is wired to the TIP contact of the jack and the electret microphone is wired to the RING contact. When a stereo instrument cable is used, both the pickup and the mic are brought out. At the Red-EyeTwin, a short stereo to mono splitter is used to feed the Twin’s two inputs. The mono TIP split out plug would go to Channel A and the mono RING split out plug would go to Channel B. Lastly the electret mic Phantom Power switch would be set to the “Mic” position to deliver PhantomPower for the mic.

Sometimes a musician may want to play a show where he swaps between two instruments. In that case the musician could use a simple mono instrument cable to deliver only the TIP signal

from the guitar dual-pickup to either of the Red-Eye Twain’s inputs. His alternate instrument would plug into the opposite Twin input. No stereo-to-mono splitter would be needed.