Piezo do you use it live

warlockII

warlockII

Fractal Fanatic
Even though I have a stupid amount of guitars, I'm jonesing to pick up either a suhr neon drip or a majesty. I LOVE the look of the neon drips, but am thinking the piezo in the majesty would give me an even more realistic acoustic sound. How many of you use piezos live?
 
I have a Parker Fly with piezo bridge, been my main guitar for around 25 years now.

The piezo's can sound very acoustic-like, I tend to use them more as just another sound the guitar is capable of producing, rather than as an acoustic analogue, so to speak; don't really do any "strumming the acoustic" type stuff.

Mostly i use them blended with the mag bridge pup with the tone knob rolled right off. The mag pup gives body, the piezo gives that high twang that defines the picked note, blended together they carry a different/accoustic-ish sound over an amplified band well. Currently use that combination for the solo in one song in a raucous mambo band i play with, just gives it a different feel, try go for a more Flaminco style solo. Obviously it doesn't really sound like a nylon string, but in the context of the band and compared to the usual mag pup sounds with a bit of breakup etc, the ultra-clean sound stands up well.

Also have used the piezo in conjunction with the mag middle out of phase position (2 humbucker) for a really clean sound that works great with phaser type fx, think Zappa Pink Napkins.

And then you can start messing with stereo....

Never tried the whole tonematching though, might have to give it a go!
 
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yeah, lots of options, but for the most natural sound with the least amount of fuss, in terms of eq/blending/processing, then tonematching is the way to go. i just use a little bit of compression, a high pass filter to get rid of handling noise rumble and a touch of studio eq. i use it for "strumming in the background" stuff, soloing, song intros etc and it sounds really amazing
it took a while to get the tonematch sounding good - the recording i used was actually stereo and recorded with two different mics - so i tonematched each side independently, saved them as user cabs and then loaded them both into a stereo cab block, panned hard left and right
 
I haven't done it live yet in the context of a rock band, but I've redone my main patches and rehearsed with it with good results. The only thing stopping me from using it live is that I will need to go direct to FOH, and I'm normally a power amp/cab guy. So I have to get to a point where I'm comfortable using the cab sims in the Axe Fx 2 in a live setting.

I am using an Audio Technica System 10 Pro wireless unit, which has 2 sides - so it's basically the only wireless solution on the market I could find that can handle a guitar equipped with piezo and magnetic pickups.

Output 1 on the wireless (mag pickups) goes into the Left input on the back of the Axe 2. Output 2 goes through a Fishman Aura Spectrum, then that goes into the Right input on the Axe 2. I then have my scenes configured using some stereo routing where Scenes 1-5 use the magnetic pickups, while Scene 8 (assigned to a standalone IA switch) uses the piezo signal (all effects off except reverb). I started off using Tonematch, and the results were good, but I run my patches at pretty high CPU usage and wanted to offload that to the Fishman. Plus the EQ and compression on the Fishman make it much easier to fine tune the acoustic tones.

Now, the Fishman is intended to be used to add the woodiness/body/whatever back to an acoustic guitar with piezo pickups. You're supposed to pick an image that roughly matches the type of guitar you're using. Since I'm using a solidbody electric (Carvin CT624), I had to go through and audition a lot of the Fishman images. I actually found that one of the nylon string images works best with my electric guitar - go figure.

It's not perfect, and I'd probably never use this setup for recording, but it's pretty convincing in a live context. Fingerpicking sounds great, and I can do strumming if I switch out to a light pick. The Fishman definitely adds enough of the woodiness back that you'd do a double take if you walked into a bar and heard that sound coming out of a solidbody electric guitar. Plus it's super convenient - I don't have to switch any toggles on the guitar, I literally step on a switch and go from electric to acoustic tones instantly.
 
I have two piezo equipped guitars. I have a PRS Hollowbody II and a Carvin DC-400. I use them both live. I am very happy with the acoustic sound I get from them.
 
I have a; embarrassing number of piezo equipped axes, some already mentioned (Parker Fly, Hollowbody II, The Epiphone with USB, Piezo and onboard tuner (Pelham blue es-somethings) , but one that should be considered is the LaVoce, by Dean Zelinsky of my hometown Highland Park Il, that really sounds wonderful with amazing tonal versatility for much less cash than most of the above.....
https://deanzelinsky.com/z-glide-guitars/lavoce-z-glide-custom-quilt-top
.....hmm, must be catching on, it’s backordered now....
 
Geezerjohn said:
That Dean looks sweet!!!
Click to expand...
Yup, the dude has had a very interesting career, and it’s a little bizarre that our little suburban enclave has been the incubator for not only Dean, but Paul Hamer, whom I attended high school with..and the original Parker factory is up the road a piece...
 
I use peizos at pretty much every gig. My four main guitars all have peizos in the bridge:
1. Carvin SH575 (the most flexible of the four, since the peizos come out of a totally separate output with hi/low/sweepable mid eq);
2. a Frankenstrat (guitar mill body, warmoth neck and a TremKing bridge with L.R. Baggs Ghost peizo saddles);
3. an ESP strat with a Fishman Powerbridge;
4. an otherwise-stock MIM Tele with a Fishman Powerbridge.

For all but the Carvin, I run a stereo 1/4" cable out of the guitar into a small splitter box. I don't run the peizos into the Fractal or blend the sounds at all; I run the acoustic sound into the guitar input of a TC Helicon Harmony pedal (just to get the vocal notes from) then straight into the PA.

It really sounds cool, especially if the electric sound is effect-heavy; I've got a few very ethereal, reverb-washy patches in the Axe that really benefit from the crisp attack of the acoustic sound running simultaneously.
 
I use my jp12 piezo with the typical acoustic sim patch and effects at will and it sounds great.
 
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