Question about EB/MM JPM guitar

[Crimson Sunrise]

Hello,

I have a question about my ErnieBall/Musicman John Petrucci Model with Piezo p/u. I want to be able to fade distorted sounds with a volume pedal seamlessly into acoustic sounds. You know, being able to go in and out ....acoustic to distortion and visa versa.


I was actually able to ask this question to John Petrucci himself on his website and he answered me. But, I just need to clear up some things. He's response was:

"Crimson,
There are two ways to do this. Either use both outputs. One to the amp and one to a DI into a board or acoustic amp. Or use one rts cable out of the stereo jack and use a splitter box to split the piezo and magnetic. Then set the mag/piezo selector on the guitar to the middle position. With a volume pedal on the electric rig, you can fade in and out your magnetics while playing the acoustic. Got it?
John"


My question is: What exactly is a rts cable? And, what is a good splitter box to use? I saw one splitter box at musiciansfriend.com for $49.99 (ETEK Personal Active Stereo DI Box/Splitter). Also, I saw in a Harmony-Central press release, that you guys are suppose offer a splitter box?

"Ernie Ball also offers a splitter box for use with a stereo cable, which divides the signals at the amp or pedalboard."


Anyway, thanks for reading...and any help you might be able to provide. Crimson

 

[Mike Pierce]

John Petrucci w/piezo

Hey Crimson,

An RTS cable is split in a Y shape. You can plug the two ends into your guitar and the other end into the Ernie Ball Piezo/Magnetic Splitter box (item number 6190). You plug the magnetic signal into the volume pedal. Then when the volume on the magnetic signal is up, you can't hear the piezo. When you use the pedal to reduce the magnetic volume, the piezo signal comes through.

That's one way to do it.

The other way is cheaper. Just use two separate cables. Run one cable from the magnetic out on the guitar to the volume pedal to your amp. Then run the piezo output to your acoustic amp. Use the volume pedal (like above) to raise or lower the magnetic signal, which will inversely affect the piezo signal.

Hope that helps!

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

Hey, thanks a lot for that reply. I assume an EB volume pedal (6166) would work fine for this? Thanks again, Crimson

 

[Mike Pierce]

6166 will work just fine!

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

COOL! Thanks a lot for the help.

 

[Rossie]

I've been searching around for how to use the EBVP to control the piezo/mag signals, but I still have some questions.

When the magnetic pickup is engaged (toe position) is the piezo signal actually still "travels" to the PA? It's not audible only because the volume of the magnetic signal over powering it? Or the magnetic signal cancelled out the piezo signal in the toe position, so that the piezo signal doesn't even "travels" to the PA at all?

I hope I make some sense...

I'm a little confused here

Didn't what to waste bandwidth, so I dug up this 4 year old thread!

 

[darren]

There is currently no volume/blend/pan pedal on the market that will give you piezo at one end, magnetic at the other end and a 100% blend of the two in the middle position.

I've been able to figure out a workaround using a stereo expression pedal controlling my BOSS GT-6 and Yamaha AG-Stomp to achieve this, but it's not possible in my rig without those two pieces of hardware. It would also be possible to accomplish this using MIDI-controllable preamps for both magnetic and piezo.

One thing that i've considered trying is getting a regular pot-driven volume pedal and modifiying it with a blend pot replacing the standard volume pot, and dual inputs and outputs.

 

[Rossie]

There is currently no volume/blend/pan pedal on the market that will give you piezo at one end, magnetic at the other end and a 100% blend of the two in the middle position.

I've been able to figure out a workaround using a stereo expression pedal controlling my BOSS GT-6 and Yamaha AG-Stomp to achieve this, but it's not possible in my rig without those two pieces of hardware. It would also be possible to accomplish this using MIDI-controllable preamps for both magnetic and piezo.

One thing that i've considered trying is getting a regular pot-driven volume pedal and modifiying it with a blend pot replacing the standard volume pot, and dual inputs and outputs.

Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate it!

EBMM JP w/ piezo -> EB Splitter -> (mag) -> EBVP -> MESA
........................................... -> (piezo) -> DI -> PA
*Piezo selector in middle possition

Are you saying that the way JP sets up his VP to switch between piezo/mag, like in SCORE's The Spirit Carries On, the piezo is actually still running through the PA even though the VP is in the toe position, which allows the magnetic signal to pass?