Why does the Clapton signature Stratocaster have 70 Db boost ?

[Peter777]

As I understand it Fender says that 25 decibels more than a passive Stratocaster is 25 Db boost. I measured The Clapton signature Stratocaster to 70 Decibel more with the mid boost and 56 decibel more without mid boost. At 0,6 of the volume on the amp out of 10 I got 114,6 decibel with The Clapton signature Stratocaster with mid boost. I got 100,7 decibels with The Clapton signature Stratocaster without mid boost and 44,6 decibels with a passive Strat. 70 times louder than the other guitar is 181 times louder to the Human ear. 56,3 decibel is 60 times louder than a passive Stratocaster. That is The Clapton signature is between 60 and 181 times louder depending on if you use the mid boost or not. The Clapton signature Stratocaster can only be used on the Clean channel though. The distorted channel is used to single coils with 0,15 volt output or Humbuckers with 0,20 volt output ( Gibson). The Clapton signature Stratocaster has 484 volt output. The amp shuts down Immidiately to protect itself. As an electrician I saw 4 different boosts in the active cuircuit. A preamp called PN014418 making the first boost. Then 3 cascading 2N6429 transistors making a 3 stage boost for a total of 4 boosts. The mid boost is the first boost. Even without mid boost its been boosted 3 times.

 

[Jarick]

There's no way the Clapton Strat is giving a 70 dB boost. I could see 25 dB which is already massive. The whole thing is powered by a 9V battery...I don't know the math but you'd need way more than a 9V battery to get 70 dB of boost assuming you have a strong enough input signal.

I had the Clapton setup for a bit, it is cool but is generally louder than the rest of my guitars. Without the boost the single coils were too low output, and with the circuit on it got louder than the rest. I didn't like that so ended up bailing on it. But I didn't see anything coming out of the guitar that was louder than an average boost pedal.

 

[Zodiac]

Perhaps it has one of these under the pick guard

 

[Peter777]

But its great fun playing it even though it has 70 Db boost. No Strat sound whatsoever but the fattest sound by far I have ever heard from a guitar. 45 seconds to a minute of sustain without moving the finger. Controlled Feed back. But to get the volume at 10 of a passive Strat you have to go down to 4 in volume at the Clapton Strat. At 5 its louder at 6 deffinitely louder at 7 comes a boost and makes it a lot louder then it continued getting louder untill you get to 10 and you have 56-58 Db boost. The midboost ads another 14 Db untill you are at 70-72 Db boost.

 

[Peter777]

Perhaps it has one of these under the pick guard
View attachment 43927

Test it on the Clean channel. Fender measures it as 25 decibel then a passive Strat. Thats what what they call 25 Db boost. If you want to believe in their made up figures you are free to do so, but when I see its 56-58 decibel louder without boost and 70 to 72 decibels louder with mid boost according to Fenders way of maning it its 56-58 Db boost without the mid boost engaged. With the midboost thats 70-72 Db boost. And quite Franklly a guitar thats active with active electronics is about 30 decibel louder than a passive guitar. And that guitar just has 1 boost. The Clapton signature Stratocaster has 4 boosts. So 70 Db boost as I measured both in volume and in the active cuircuit is correct. Those that buy the Clapton mid boost kit is loosing out on power. The same for those that buy The Cara Clapton pedal. Both has 45 decibels more than a passive Strat ( both I measured and looked into the active cuircuit), they only go to 45 Db boost because they just have 2 boosts. The Clapton signature Stratocaster because of its 4 boosts has more than 70db boost. But dont take my Word for it put The Clapton signature Stratocaster vs a passive Strat but in the Clean channel. The output of The Clapton signature Stratocaster is way way way too much for the distorted channel. But on the Clean channel you will get 70 decibels more. But remember that mean that you have a 181 times louder ( for the human ear ) then the other. I would not under any curcumstances take Fenders figures because they are made up to sell guitars.

 

[Zodiac]

Hey Peter, welcome to the forum.
I was in no way disagreeing with your points.
We tend to be humourous on here, as well as talking seriously about guitars, amps, pedals etc.
No offense was intended.

 

[Eagle]

It’s 25 db and stack humbuckers .

 

[gearJunkie]

I think you're confusing sound pressure levels (measured in dB) and signal level (also measured in dB). It's a 25 dB boost in signal over the non-boosted output of the guitar.

When you speak of the dB level of a signal, you are really speaking of a logarithmic comparison between the input and output signals. The input signal is normally used as the reference level.

 

[DrewJD82]

Test it on the Clean channel. Fender measures it as 25 decibel then a passive Strat. Thats what what they call 25 Db boost. If you want to believe in their made up figures you are free to do so, but when I see its 56-58 decibel louder without boost and 70 to 72 decibels louder with mid boost according to Fenders way of maning it its 56-58 Db boost without the mid boost engaged. With the midboost thats 70-72 Db boost. And quite Franklly a guitar thats active with active electronics is about 30 decibel louder than a passive guitar. And that guitar just has 1 boost. The Clapton signature Stratocaster has 4 boosts. So 70 Db boost as I measured both in volume and in the active cuircuit is correct. Those that buy the Clapton mid boost kit is loosing out on power. The same for those that buy The Cara Clapton pedal. Both has 45 decibels more than a passive Strat ( both I measured and looked into the active cuircuit), they only go to 45 Db boost because they just have 2 boosts. The Clapton signature Stratocaster because of its 4 boosts has more than 70db boost. But dont take my Word for it put The Clapton signature Stratocaster vs a passive Strat but in the Clean channel. The output of The Clapton signature Stratocaster is way way way too much for the distorted channel. But on the Clean channel you will get 70 decibels more. But remember that mean that you have a 181 times louder ( for the human ear ) then the other. I would not under any curcumstances take Fenders figures because they are made up to sell guitars.

dB's don't always mean the volume you hear in your ears. What you're thinking of is called 'perceived loudness'. We can hear different frequencies louder than other frequencies, even if they're the same dB level. That's a whole different topic in itself, but you can think of it like this-

IE- if someone pointed a speaker at you that blasted a frequency of 100hz at 75dB at you, it would be much quieter than someone blasting a frequency of 1000hz at 75dB. The lower you go in frequency, the lower the perceived volume generally is.

Or another example closer to how it relates to this- when a engineer is mixing a song in the studio and they need the guitars louder, often times instead of turning the volume up, they'll find an EQ area to raise, usually around 1.5kHz, because boosting that frequency on distorted guitars makes them jump out of the speakers more than turning the actual volume knob up does, due to the way we hear frequencies differently. The Clapton mid boost does exactly that, just a different frequency.

In the context of the Clapton boost, it's a 25dB boost of 500hz, right in the middle of any EQ. It looks like this-

So only the frequency right around 500hz is getting boosted by 25dB, not the whole volume of the guitar. What this ends up doing more is pushing the front end of an amp and gets a bit more dirt out of it. Clapton liked it because it felt like it was adding some compression and actually referred to it to Fender as a compressor. 500hz won't do a lot for the perceived volume you're thinking of, depending on which amp you're playing out of, it could either get a teeny bit louder or it'll just get more distorted.

The EMG SPC boost does something very similar, though I don't know the specific frequency range it boost. It does a great job at making a single coil sound like a humbucker.

 

[sleewell]

70 dB would be bussin tho haha

fuck your ear drums this solo gunna be worth it!!!


Didn't slayer have EMG do something like that for them too? I don't remember how many dbs it was. Was it called the afterburner or something like that?

 

[Frankencat]

Wut?

 

[Sleezy E]

 

[AlbertA]

View attachment 43989

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Sven?