Question About Luke w/ piezo

[muzikman]

I'm sure this topic is not new to you guys coz I haven't been in the forum for quite sometime. But I hope that you are, hopefully, willing to give another shot with this. I'm wondering if it's okay to make the Luke w/ piezo bridge to float instead of the factory set-up down-only position. Will the tone be affected piezo-wise? Is is safe with it's electronics? I mean the cables that are connected with the saddles. I had a bad experience with other guitar brand (p....) regarding this matter. Any help is highly appreciated!

 

[Ricman]

Its all about contact with the piezo pickups on the saddles. If you set it up to float there's going to be less downward pressure on the piezo, meaning that when you waddle the bar, you risk the strings losing contact with the piezo, and the output droping out.
So, in theory, keep it as EBMM says for best results.
BUT - I floated my ASS with piezo (same system i believe) and had no real isues. Yes, if I really lean on it I lose the piezo signal, but I adjust my playing style accordingly. It may affect the tone slightly, but thats the trade off I guess.
Hope that helps.

 

[Spudmurphy]

The JP has a floating Trem and Piezo and works perfectly.

I disagree with Ricmans comments above - the string tension will be the same on the piezo saddles whether the trem is fixed or floating - it plays in the same pitch.
What floats is the trem block and has no correlation with the string tension on the piezo saddles.

What can happen is that when you dive the trem then strings lose their tension and the piezo can cut out without the string tension on the piezo saddle.

 

[envy-guitars]

Yeah thats right, as soon as the string 'leaves' the connection block on the saddle it cannot pickup the string because there is no direct contact - hence meaning it will cut off.

I have certainly never found a floating trem ie JP6 any different to a flat set-up bridge ie a Silhouette Special with the springs tightened, in the piezo department anyway, even if you decide to go mental with your trem on the Silhouette Special, it will still cut off as soon as the string leaves the block.

I guess what the original question was are the cables that connect the Piezo saddles up with the on board system safe. All delecate cables like what are on the piezo are susceptable to damage, what I do like about the Musicman piezo systems though, is that these cables are always located well away from anywhere that could be fatal, its almost impossible to accidentally catch the cable whilst restringing as long as your fairly careful.
Each saddle is also independant of one another making fault finding VERY easy to diagnose and repair if you ever were to have a problem.

All in all its just well thought through.

 

[Ricman]

I'm not sure string tension is the thing - my understanding (and what I was trying to say...badly) its about the pressure on the piezo. The reson it works on the JP is because its designed to float and stay flat. With the Luke, for it float you have to raise the action on the back of the bridge, which changes the angle, and therefore relieving the pressure on the piezo pickups.

 

[Spudmurphy]

I guess what the original question was are the cables that connect the Piezo saddles up with the on board system safe. All delecate cables like what are on the piezo are susceptable to damage, what I do like about the Musicman piezo systems though, is that these cables are always located well away from anywhere that could be fatal, its almost impossible to accidentally catch the cable whilst restringing as long as your fairly careful.
Each saddle is also independant of one another making fault finding VERY easy to diagnose and repair if you ever were to have a problem.

also,the wires from each piezo saddle (on a JP) go to a PCB that is screwed to the Trem block so if you dive/pull up on the trem then they all move together (the wires do not go taughter/looser). I'll post a pic to show what I mean.
Edit - here's the pic of my piezo before I rebuilt it. I like to see a LUKE set up.

 

[muzikman]

This is really a very informative topic indeed!

 

[bkrumme]

There's got to be a reason the Luke w/piezo isn't set to float.

I don't think there's any problem with the electronics themselves being in harm's way if you were to set the trem to float. There are single wires from each saddle to the PCB, but a single wire from the trem to the output. That's the same as on all of my JPs and I've gone to the extremes on those trems in both directions.

It could be due to the angle of the bridge when it's set to float. The strings aren't contacting the saddles at the same angle. Basically they're touching less surface area on the piezo sensors.

Maybe someone in customer service can answer?

 

[Eilif]

I had a Luke w/ piezo, which I set up to float for a time. I had no issues with it whatsoever...except that tuning now became a bit of an exercise.

 

[jakedawgwhite88]

Mine is set up to float as well... no problems so far ,a side thought lukather has his guitars floating but then again I dont think any of them have piezo oh well at least in my experience it works fine.