Off Topic Anyone install their own piezo?

[Pittman75]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at something special I've been wanting for a long time down in Mr. Dubaldo's neck of the woods. Its sort of a "you can't get these now" but its not a one off. And it doesn't have my beloved Piezo. Anyone install their own Graphtech saddles or something like it? If not, does anyone use these on ANY of their guitars?

 

[mbgreene]

Beej has, on his Morse.

 

[Pittman75]

Thanks! Beej....

 

[joe web]

i installed a fishman piezo system on my wolfgang hardtail.
works perfect - on the morse it´s possible too. fishman offers a piezo bridge for LP style brigdes.

 

[beej]

I installed the Graph Tech Ghost system on my Morse. Looked at the Fishman, Baggs and Graph Tech, probably would have been happy with any of them, to be honest.

Overall it was straight forward, just had to think it all out. Some random notes on the process:

- Bridge swap was simple but posts didn't fit exactly, had to "massage" things to get them correct.
- Grounding the bridge was difficult- didn't consider the GT bridge would be hard to solder to. (Easier with the Fishman, I think.)
- Drilled a small hole under the bridge to run the piezo wires. Don't need to do that, you could just stuff them under the pickguard.
- Installed stereo output jack to use TRS cable and so battery would turn off when cable is unplugged.
- Routed a cavity for the battery box, used a Dremel.
- Added a toggle switch for Mag/Piezo/Both.
- Replaced the Tone pot with a dual-concentric pot. Bottom ring tone, top ring Piezo volume.

In testing, the Piezo sound was stellar but I didn't like the hiss I was getting from the Mags when I had the gain cranked up on my amp. Even in the Mag only position, the signal was going through the on-board preamp which was introducing the tiniest bit of noise (but enough that I didn't like it). Tried a replacement pre-amp board (Graph Tech sent me one for free, very helpful), but to no avail. In the end, I wired up the toggle switch to be *fully passive* in the Mag only position (disconnecting both the p'ups from the preamp input and the preamp output from the jack) and active in the Piezo and Both positions. Also means you can play when the battery dies. Worked like a charm.

After living with it for a year, I eventually simplified it. I realized I was really only using the Piezo on it's own, rather than switching between sounds during a set. So I removed the toggle switch and dual-concentric pot. Now the Tone control is really just piezo volume (I never used the Tone). And the guitar is fully passive until you pull out the push/pull Tone control- then it's active and you can blend both Mag and Piezo together, or turn down the volume for Piezo only.

So what did I learn?

It's fun but expensive to do this on your own. If you get the option to do a factory piezo, take it! Also it's a money-losing proposition, I doubt I'd get the money back if I sold it. But you can't get one with a Morse and I'm not selling mine, so it made sense for me.

If you have any q's feel free to email or PM me.

 

[andynpeters]

An easier option if you're not confident at hacking your guitar about is a Boss Acoustic Simulator pedal.....I'll bet no-one notices the difference in a band situation. This is actually my only option as they don't do piezos on leftward guitars

 

[paranoid70]

So you have another switch on the Morse? That's alot of switches.

 

[beej]

So you have another switch on the Morse? That's alot of switches.

Two more, actually. Push/pull to work the Piezo and a toggle to split the bridge & neck p'ups. Yeah, it's a lot.

 

[ShaneV]

An easier option if you're not confident at hacking your guitar about is a Boss Acoustic Simulator pedal.....I'll bet no-one notices the difference in a band situation. This is actually my only option as they don't do piezos on leftward guitars

I've always wondered about that thing, is it any good?

 

[muzikman]

I've always wondered about that thing, is it any good?

The Acoustic simulator from Boss is a good one. i've tried them before. You can even choose differet acoustic voicings. ex. jumbo, standard, piezo...

 

[Ripper]

I have a feelin' you are talkin about doing this to a Autumn Redrise JP6...

 

[Pittman75]

I have a feelin' you are talkin about doing this to a Autumn Redrise JP6...

Wrong!

A Luke...

 

[Sweat]

Wrong!

A Luke...

Nope dont do it, not only not worth the cost, the Luke is killer trust me my fav, but not a guitar for a peizo, peizo alone is fine but found it does not blend well, just my thought and opinion but worthless in the end

 

[Pittman75]

Ah I hear ya fing. Mixes well on the Petrucci, but not the luke?

Anyway, I got another offer for a great price on a morse, but...

 

[dannymusic]

I had a silo with a fishman. The factory ebmm are light years better. The silo was awesome, but the non-factory left it... disappointing.
Sell the guitar and order a new one w/piezo. Thats what I did. It may cost a bit, but it's so worth it.

 

[andynpeters]

I've always wondered about that thing, is it any good?

I found it excellent (the thing is a Boss Acoustic Simulator), but I might be coming at this from a different angle. I used it for an instant acoustic sound in a band situation, whereas I see people on here talking about blending the 2 sounds.......I've never wanted to do that & I'm not sure how the pedal would be used for that, unless you split tha sound first. Still cheaper & easily reversible if you don't like it.

 

[Axilla]

I got my first Ball, the Pearl Purple Silhouette Special in a pretty messed up condition - see for yourselves:

Now what you see there is a poorly selfmade pickguard with 3 German handmade singlecoils and one Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck mini. Way off for my taste... The original owner had swapped out the Wilkinson OEM VSV trem on that Silo in favor of an L.R.Baggs piezo vintage trem, but got that thing off before selling the guitar to me. That's why the guitar had an ugly drilled second hole next to the output jack. First off, Mick installed me a second jackplate and a second jack when installing the pickups I ordered for tweaking that guitar to my taste. Here is an earlier stage of the conversion where you might actually see the two jackplates/jacks:

The extra hole in that ugly old aged-white-pearloid pickguard was used by the previous owner for the piezo volume pot.
Some of you know the story already, but after some time I finally got rid of all the junky dirt features and got the hell of a favourite guitar out of it:

...I am not planning of ever retrofitting a piezo bridge here again, but the fun thing is that both output jacks are now wired in parallel, so should one of those Switchcraft jacks ever crap out on me, I'll just plug into the second one