GEAR REVIEW
PINSTRIPE PEDALS DISO + | Mitch Bohannon
Photos by Wondering Shutter LLC .
KEY FEATURES
• Converts ¼ ” ( balance or unbalanced ) to XLR balanced output
• Keeps signal level high with no loss of tone
• Transformer isolation for ground lifting
• Run ¼ outputs and XLR outputs simultaneously
• Protects against phantom power damage
Have you heard of the Pinstripe Pedals DISO + Line Isolator ? I have been hearing about Pinstripe Pedals for a little over a year now and finally got one in my hands to test drive . Blown away , I was . Honestly , I didn ’ t quite know what to expect and I ended up finding the answer to problems I ’ ve faced on the worship platform for years .
I ’ ve always been a fan of a “ quiet stage ” for a worship service . In a Baptist Church in the South , having an amplifier on platform simply “ looks ” loud , so IMO , it ’ s best to just not have one . Then comes the problem of actually leveling the electric guitar and figuring out what kind of boost to include in the signal in order for anyone to hear it in the FOH or in the monitors .
Enter the amp modelers from Line 6 , Strymon , Headrush , Boss , and others . Being a fan of Lincoln Brewster , I ’ ve been in favor of these for many years . Yet still , the output of such modelers on the market are low impedance / unbalanced , so they need to be converted to XLR to make the run to the FOH .
Using a standard direct box to send a modeled signal to the house , it ’ s typical to lose 15 to 20dB . For my test , we lost much more than that ! Check out the video on the next page . I took a standard Sunday morning setup and did an A / B test with the regularly-used DI and the Pinstripe DISO +. As of last week , that channel ( running the standard direct box ) had a gain setting over 40 on the PreSonus StudioLive32 and the channel slider was at unity ( or over ).
Installing the Pinstripe DISO + to that signal chain actually scared us at first as it exposed all of the unnecessary gain on the line and we heard an obtrusive buzz in the system . I should have zeroed out the channel before swapping ! You ’ ll see in the video ; with the DISO +, the channel gain was lowered to 11 and the volume ended up at -40. That ’ s a lot of headroom created . This was not created with adding a “ boost ,” but by removing the unwanted “ cut ” caused by the standard direct box and installing a true line isolator . Delivering a higher signal level to the FOH allows the channel gain to be set at a lower level and ultimately reduces overall noise