WEEKLY TIP: TAMING THE SHRIEK...

Since the subject of CRYSTAL ELEMENTS has come up on several recent occasions, I thought it might be helpful to pass along a little trick I've experimented with from time to time. This one's especially useful in dealing with the annoying nasality of what's passing for crystal harpmic elemets these days. While Crystal elements are known for their brightness and 'cut', when all you seem to be getting is the brightness and 'cut' you're left with a fatiguingly shrill signal that sounds thin and cheap. Small-format crystals, both the current crop and those found in a variety of smaller low-end vintage mics are the chief culprits.
Feel like experimenting? Try this: Pick up a few low value capacitors (.001mf and up) and alligator test leads at a radio supply source and see/hear what happens when you connect them between the crystal's positive terminal and the positive lead to your amp. You'll notice varying degrees of treble response extracted from the crystal's signal corresponding to the cap's value -just like a tone control without a knob. The results may make that shriekingly bright crystal usable again.