what's a piezo??

[fsmith]

John Petrucci posted this on his forum in response to a question about how to hook up the piezo and magnetic pickups. I'm thinking he probably knows what he's talking about...



Hello John,

First of all, thank you for allowing us to post questions to you personally. I just recently bought a ErnieBall/Musicman JPM. Now to my question:

I read in a DTIFC fanzine that described one of your clinics. It mentioned and I quote "the most interesting part was when John showed us how he could fade the distorted sound with a volume pedal seamlessly into his acoustic sound, a technique he uses on for instance "Through Her Eyes" and "The Spirit Carries On".

Could you please elaborate on this? And if you could give any other tips regarding the peizo p/u, it would be GREATLY appreciated!


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

fred

 

[bing4sons]

John Petrucci posted this on his forum in response to a question about how to hook up the piezo and magnetic pickups. I'm thinking he probably knows what he's talking about...

Yeah, well if you'd rather take his input then mine....

Nice to know I've been doing something right.

 

[francric]

Thanks Bing and Fsmith, I'll look into all these possibilities?

 

[fsmith]

Yeah, well if you'd rather take his input then mine....

Awwwww Bing, you know I didn't mean to hurt your feelings...

His tech probably told him what to say.

And if John happens to read this stuff, just kidding man, love the guitar!!!


fred

 

[SteveB]

If you want to run a stereo (TRS) cable out of the guitar, you can buy the 6190 Splitter Box from Ernie Ball. It lists for like $25. You would probably need to special order it from your local dealer, as I doubt they would have it in stock.

With this box, you can run the stereo cable from your guitar into the box. The other two "jacks in the box" are the magnetic output and piezo output respectively (both mono). Run a cable from the magnetic output to your pedals/rig and from the piezo output to your PA (via direct box) or Fishman Loudbox type of amp.

If you want to do what Petrucci is describing, stick a volume pedal on one or both signal paths from the splitter box outputs. Then you can blend both sounds to your heart's content. And make sure they're Ernie Ball volume pedals!

 

[pigasos]

Piezo on an AXIS

Hi guys

I am Basil and i come from Greece .
I own an excellent "silent circuit" MM90`s , AXIS (without tremolo) and i want to upgrade to the Piezo system desperately.
I would really aprecciate any links or walkthroughs into this subject because here in Greece technical support on MM is not the ideal one


thx in advance for any possible answers

Basil

 

[kbaim]

EB will tell you that they won't do that modification.

The piezo guitars are routed somewhat differently than non piezo guitars in their line. You may have to buy another guitar, or try one of those pedals that try and simulate acoustic.

 

[pigasos]

EB will tell you that they won't do that modification.

The piezo guitars are routed somewhat differently than non piezo guitars in their line. You may have to buy another guitar, or try one of those pedals that try and simulate acoustic.

Thank you for the speedy reply .
I am not so happy that you told me this though . Isn`t there a way to make an "aftermarket" modification?
The routing work is not a problem if i may say so .

thx again


Basil .

 

[francric]

It's me again!!!! How often do you change the battery????

 

[OrangeChannel]

Thank you for the speedy reply .
I am not so happy that you told me this though . Isn`t there a way to make an "aftermarket" modification?
The routing work is not a problem if i may say so .

thx again


Basil .

You can get a Graphtech GHOST system and install it aftermarket....

 

[bing4sons]

It's me again!!!! How often do you change the battery????

I've had my Super Sport for about a year. I don't remember having to replace the battery yet. Thanks for the reminder... I think I'll go ahead and change it, as a precautionary measure.

 

[fsmith]

Bing,
I've had my Petrucci about the same amount of time and I've had to change the battery twice. I've either heard or read that if you leave the cord in your guitar that it will drain the battery faster. When I hang mine up I always make sure and unplug it just to be on the safe side. And I'm assuming that they mean the stereo output jack and not just the mono magnetic output jack.

fred

 

[pigasos]

You can get a Graphtech GHOST system and install it aftermarket....

Thx Orange , i checked their website and i cheered up again.

cheers


Basil

 

[saplingg]

Piezo

Wait, hope someone can clarify me on this.

Let's say I plan on playing first with piezo on through a PA, and then purely magnetic through a guitar amp in the same song. How exactly do I wire it?

Many thanks.

 

[fsmith]

Wait, hope someone can clarify me on this.

Let's say I plan on playing first with piezo on through a PA, and then purely magnetic through a guitar amp in the same song. How exactly do I wire it?

Many thanks.

You can use one stereo cable out of the piezo (stereo) jack to a splitter and use a volume pedal, (Ernie Ball of course) and fade out the magnetic pickups, piezo switch in middle position. Or you can use 2 cables, one to PA and one to your amp, although you'll have to switch between the pickups during the song.

fred

 

[dan desy]

Wait, hope someone can clarify me on this.

Let's say I plan on playing first with piezo on through a PA, and then purely magnetic through a guitar amp in the same song. How exactly do I wire it?

Many thanks.

I use the "two-cable method". The magnetic output goes to my amp/rig. The Opiezo output goes through a direct box to the PA. Then you simply switch using the piezo/mag switch on the guitar. You can also blend a little electric with the acoustic sound, by going to the middle position and using your mag volume control
for the right blend level.

I use a Tech 21 Acoustic DI direct box, by the way. It's really an acoustic preamp and allows me to shape my acoustic sound going to the PA. Better than EQ'ing it right on the PA board.

 

[bing4sons]

I use 2 cables. The piezo runs through my EB jr volume pedal and then through my LR Baggs Para DI into the PA.

The electriic output goes through another EB volume pedal and through my pedal board into my electric amp.

I leave my piezo/magnetic swich in the middle position (most of the time) and control the volume for each with their respectiive volume pedal. This way I can blend as much of each as I want, or have 100% of either.

 

[fsmith]

Hey Bing,
I never thought about using 2 volume pedals. Nice idea. Are both jr pedals? I'm about to buy one, probably 2 now, , and was wondering about getting the jr over the fullsize pedals.

thanks,
fred

 

[bing4sons]

Hey Bing,
I never thought about using 2 volume pedals. Nice idea. Are both jr pedals? I'm about to buy one, probably 2 now, , and was wondering about getting the jr over the fullsize pedals.

thanks,
fred

The one I have on my electric pedal board is a full sized (mono with the tuner out, I think its a 6166).

The one I use with my acoustics, and the piezo, is a Jr. active pedal, I think it's model 6181.

I don't think the Jr. models were out when I bought my full sized. I like the size of the Jr. pedal better. So, if I was buying a pedal for my electric today, I'd get the passive version of the EB Jr. pedal.

 

[skabassist13]

you could try this as well for the piezo to mag transition. take the stereo cable and run it into the eb splitter, then take those two cables and run them into an eb volume pan cable( product #6165) and then run the respective cables to their amps.