Piezo HELP PLEASE! ASAP.

[waynesworld91]

Hey there I'm ordering a JP7 and need to know a quick break down of what piezo is just to make sure. So far my understanding is that it's a pickup and I THINK it's the one that gives the really clean amazing tone, can someone please clarify asap I'm going to order it soon. Thanks.

 

[mb99zz]

Check this page out: Piezo Pickups

I'm sure others will chime in with more info, but this site has a good overview. I'd give a very highlevel answer that Piezo will give you an acoustic-like sound from your JP. You'd have the choice of either using just the standard magentic pickups (the humbuckers), just the Piezo (for that acoustic sound), or mixing the two together.

 

[bkrumme]

JP uses his to get an acoustic-like tone when DT plays live. I do the same.

When you use the Piezo with an acoustic amp it's amazing.

It also sounds good with compressed/chorused clean tones.

 

[brasco68]

Here is a brief demo so you can hear what the piezo on a JP sounds like:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1D9jFxZTF4"]YouTube - Petrucci Music Man piezo test[/ame]

 

[GodWentPunk]

I noticed that the piezo is only really effective when your playing from a clean channel or a low-low gain channel. When I use mine from a high gain channel, things sound not as nice, almost crappy.

joe...

 

[YtseJam92]

I noticed that the piezo is only really effective when your playing from a clean channel or a low-low gain channel. When I use mine from a high gain channel, things sound not as nice, almost crappy.

joe...

Well yea, do you play an acoustic with distortion? It's meant for clean acoustic tones. Not death metal

 

[Spudmurphy]

Welcome to the forum Waynesworld.
I have a JP6 and an Albert Lee with Piezos. The piezo pickups are housed in each individual saddle. Here's a photo I took of the piezo saddles - I took it at the time I was rebuilding a well worn JP6 - it shows the piezo saddles and as you can see, one is missing from the far right hand side one.

You can run two leads out of the guitar - one lead taking the piezo signal to say an acoustic amp and the other lead taking the magnetic pickups to say a separate tube amp.
Alternatively you can take one stereo lead out of the guitar and split the signal using a splitter box (or I use an EB Stereo pedal which splits the signal) so that once again the piezo goes to an acoustic amp and the mags to a tube amp.
The third option is to take a mono lead out of the guitar and the piezo and mags share the signal path to one amp and you control the piezo on/off/blend option via the toggle switch on your guitar.
I am VERY pleased with my piezo option.
Don't be afraid to think "outside the box" - I put the piezo through a 60's 18 watt amp and the result was Billy Gibbons on steroids!!!

 

[marduke]

heres another example of the piezo in action with the man JP playing
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6k1VdgNeKE"]YouTube - Dream Theater - Hollow Years Live At Budokan[/ame]