Piezo Pickup Input

Alex Kerezy

Inspired
Hi,
What settings would you recommend for a piezo pickup from a a violin going into the Axe-Fx iii. It's an L.R. Baggs violin pickup and to my understanding the pickup output is 1 mOhm (1 million Ohms). It's a high impedance output.

Are there any special blocks for high impedance acoustic instruments?

Are there any special input settings for high impedance acoustic instruments?

Typically I use an L.R. Baggs paracoustic DI as a pre-amp. Can I get away with eliminating the pre-amp?

Thanks in Advance!
Acoustic in Austin
 
I highly doubt the output impedance is 1 Mohm. That would make the pickup all but useless with any significant cable length.
 
Are you sure about that 1M output impedance? If it's true, 1M input impedance Axe-FX provides on its Instrument input is too low, you'll get treble drop, I think. So you would need a preamp, ideally.

But that 1M sounds suspicious though. I would double check. Also, can you just plug it in and try? :)

Other than dealing with impedance, just use the neutral amp in Axe-FX (Tube Pre it's called, AFAIR) and whatever effects you like. Don't use a cab. That should be it.
 
Hi - Thanks for all the replies. Thanks Kamil for looking at the L.R. Baggs manual. Yeah - I checked again and I think the impedance is 1,000,000 which is a MegaOhm (I think).

I'm glad to hear there's no issues with impedance mismatching

Any suggestions on blocks for an acoustic instrument to improve or shape tone?
 
Hi - Thanks for all the replies. Thanks Kamil for looking at the L.R. Baggs manual. Yeah - I checked again and I think the impedance is 1,000,000 which is a MegaOhm (I think).

I'm glad to hear there's no issues with impedance mismatching

Any suggestions on blocks for an acoustic instrument to improve or shape tone?
Re-read what Kamil wrote...
 
He said nothing about tone shaping
I was commenting on this:

The manual says the *input* impedance of whatever you connect the pickup to needs to be 1M Ohm. You should be fine using the Axe-FX instrument input.

Yeah - I checked again and I think the impedance is 1,000,000 which is a MegaOhm (I think).

I was thinking that you were still referring to the impedance of the pickup.

However, on reading it again now, I think I just misread your reply.

Sorry for any confusion :)
 
I was commenting on this:





I was thinking that you were still referring to the impedance of the pickup.

However, on reading it again now, I think I just misread your reply.

Sorry for any confusion :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No worries - thanks for looking at the posts and providing feedback
 
The manual says the *input* impedance of whatever you connect the pickup to needs to be 1M Ohm. You should be fine using the Axe-FX instrument input.

Also note the devices recommended in the Baggs manual have an input impedance of 10M. 1M is the recommended *minimum*.

I've used a bunch of these piezo pickups into various devices... my advice: passive piezo pickups are extremely sensitive, and small changes to cable length, type, and input impedance often have a dramatic effect. You will almost certainly find this pickups sounds very different when run into different preamps, even if they have the same quoted input Z spec.

I use the Axe III with acoustic guitar and mandolin, and it sounds TREMENDOUS. But... I always use a preamp before hitting the Axe III input. I don't love the sound of my Baggs piezo pickups into ANY 1M device I've tried -- they get fuller low end with more impedance, so I use acoustic preamps designed for that purpose.

You *may* like the sound of a passive piezo directly into the Axe, but it really isn't optimized for that.

The good news is there's no harm in experimenting, and you can always add an acoustic preamp in front of the Axe (this is what you'll need to do with essentially any other effects processor, too)

Good luck!
 
Also note the devices recommended in the Baggs manual have an input impedance of 10M. 1M is the recommended *minimum*.

I've used a bunch of these piezo pickups into various devices... my advice: passive piezo pickups are extremely sensitive, and small changes to cable length, type, and input impedance often have a dramatic effect. You will almost certainly find this pickups sounds very different when run into different preamps, even if they have the same quoted input Z spec.

I use the Axe III with acoustic guitar and mandolin, and it sounds TREMENDOUS. But... I always use a preamp before hitting the Axe III input. I don't love the sound of my Baggs piezo pickups into ANY 1M device I've tried -- they get fuller low end with more impedance, so I use acoustic preamps designed for that purpose.

You *may* like the sound of a passive piezo directly into the Axe, but it really isn't optimized for that.

The good news is there's no harm in experimenting, and you can always add an acoustic preamp in front of the Axe (this is what you'll need to do with essentially any other effects processor, too)

Good luck!

Thank you so much - glad to hear other acoustic players are using it. In fact, I play mandolin as well as fiddle. I have a Weber with a K&K mini on it.

So I'm curious as to what type of pre-amp you use with either your mando or your acoustic guitar?

I went to Indianapolis where somebody with a Axe-Fx iii was so kind to meet me at a Guitar Center to try his out. It was very, very punchy and very piezo sounding. With EQ adjustments and compression I could bring it down.

I'd be interested in knowing any settings you use. Thanks
 
Thank you so much - glad to hear other acoustic players are using it. In fact, I play mandolin as well as fiddle. I have a Weber with a K&K mini on it.

So I'm curious as to what type of pre-amp you use with either your mando or your acoustic guitar?

I went to Indianapolis where somebody with a Axe-Fx iii was so kind to meet me at a Guitar Center to try his out. It was very, very punchy and very piezo sounding. With EQ adjustments and compression I could bring it down.

I'd be interested in knowing any settings you use. Thanks

Hey, Alex,

My experience is the Axe III starts out transparent -- any color you add will be intentional. For acoustic instruments, I primarily use eq and reverb. The parametric eq in the Axe is more powerful than any standalone acoustic gear I know of -- I run a separate signal path inside the Axe for my pickup and microphone, with complementary eq on those two sources, then blend them to send out to house. If you basically like the tone of your pickup/mic, you'll get what you put in. If you want to color it up, you can use amp and preamp sims, etc.

My favorite preamp is the Pendulum endpin preamp (into an outboard mic preamp). Unfortunately, they're not made anymore. To pair with your Baggs stuff, you could do a lot worse than the Para DI -- it's a fine sounding preamp in a small package. The K&K Pure also sounds great, and might be a better match with the Axe, since you'll have all the eq you need inside the Axe.
 
Hey, Alex,

I run a separate signal path inside the Axe for my pickup and microphone, with complementary eq on those two sources, then blend them to send out to house.
So as I understand it, I can use my stereo cable out of my Martin, which has an on board preamp, into a couple of inputs and go from there. Does that sound right?
 
So as I understand it, I can use my stereo cable out of my Martin, which has an on board preamp, into a couple of inputs and go from there. Does that sound right?

Yes. Inside the Axe, you can then process the two signals separately, or blend them together as you wish. I generally eq the multiple signals separately, then blend together before routing to other fx like reverb and delay. But you could also keep the two signals from the guitar completely separate and run them to separate Axe outputs without any blending/mixing at all. The flexibility is great for acoustic processing!
 
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