Thinking about a new guitar: acoustic or electric with piezo?

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geoangus

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Thinking about a new guitar: acoustic/electric or electric with piezo?

I currently have two guitars, a Suhr T HSH and an Ibanez RG570. I'd like to pick up something along the lines of a Taylor 314CE, but I've read many threads about tone matching and piezo electrics. Both acoustic electrics and piezo rigs are totally foreign to me, so I don't know what to expect. From what I think I've read, a electric with piezo can give some great flexibility for cover band material where I need to jump from an acoustic tone to full on electric at the flip of a toggle. But, I'd enjoy the "campfire" mood with a true acoustic in hand. So given the current guitars I own, which I play through an XL and a CLR wedge, what would you recommend?

In the band I'm in, I'm one of two guitarists, who typically swap lead guitar/vocal duties. If I'm singing, he plays the leads and vice versa. We play typical 70's - 00's rock covers. But as I said, there are times where just having an acoustic would be handy for campfire jams.

Thanks
 
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I've been contemplating this too. I'd get an electric with a Piezo in it, and use the tone matching to match a nice acoustic to use with the piezo.
either some JP or a Carvin/Kiesel
 
You could add a piezo bridge to one of your electrics.

I have the GraphTech system on a strat and an RGA121. Works really well along with some acoustic IRs.

I still wish someone would do a great acoustic instrument IR pack (guitar, banjo, etc) along the lines of this:

http://www.soundmachine.co


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I play in a hybrid band using a backing track and full MIDI control on my Fractal and several other devices. Previously I switched between 5 guitars for various purposes. Acoustic, Electric, Bass, Double Drop D Electric and Synth Guitar (Godin with Synth and Piezo). I used an Ultra live so have not done the tone match sounds live but have an XL at home which I tone matched several of my acoustics.

In my experience the Piezo is going to sound good simulating acoustic. It also brings a new element of sound that is a blend of acoustic/electric. It's also easier to play than acoustic however it is still a simulation. Especially in a recording environment.

Using an acoustic live presents another challenge. You're going to have to amplify it so you still have a 'simulated' sound so to speak. Not 'pure' acoustic tone. And you will encounter much more sensitivity to feedback and boom.

In my own experiments I found the order from most realistic to least was:
Acoustic
Mic'd Acoustic (recording)
Acoustic Pickups (live)
Piezo Electric with Acoustic tone matches.

This isn't to say the 'least realistic' did not sound good. Additionally I was able to utilize the Roland GR-55 Synth which has a bevy of acoustic simulations yet again... it got it close but acoustic is acoustic. So the bottom line is a trade off of convenience and purity and the requirement of taking acoustic sound live and how 'acoustic' you actually need the tone to be.

FWIW ultimately in our scenario with many capo changes (which required slight retuning), guitar changes, etc., I wound up recording the acoustic in the studio and play electric live to our backing track. World of difference. Now I can go song to song, no re-tuning, no capo changes and I have the purist acoustic tone I can possibly have... without actually sitting around the campfire...lol.

Disclaimer: This was my experience and I'm not an expert in tone matching, etc.
 
Check out the new Dean LaVoce! Pretty amazing guitar for the money. Les Paul, Strat, and acoustic piezo all in one. Very cool design also. Just my 2 cents..........

Peace,

Mj



deanzelinsky.com
 
Although I gave an XL, I do not currently have an acoustic guitar to generate a tone match from. I guess this is part of the driving force to go with an acoustic/electric like the Taylor 314ce
 
You can tonematch from a recording. I used a video on youtube to tonematch my piezos and it souns great
 
fractalz said:
You could add a piezo bridge to one of your electrics.

I have the GraphTech system on a strat and an RGA121. Works really well along with some acoustic IRs.

I still wish someone would do a great acoustic instrument IR pack (guitar, banjo, etc) along the lines of this:

http://www.soundmachine.co


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

+1 on the IR's


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You can retrofit an active piezo bridge in almost any electric for $250-300. No real need to limit yourself to guitars with stock piezos.

If you are looking for a minimal-invasive and reversible solution, you can grab a passive fishman bridge ($100), file a small hole in your pickup frame and fiddle the wire through there. Then use the existing pickup cavity to connect it straight with the output jack (directly to the ring of a TRS jack; don't forget to connect the ground to the sleeve aswell). All further tone shaping can be done in the Axe just fine anyway.

See the image below for how that could look like.


Will it sound like a mic'ed acoustic? Hell no. But you will still get some interesting sounds out of it that work well in a mix.


EDIT: You can also add a volume pot or switch to your guitar to enable/disable the piezo and instead go MONO by mixing it directly to your magnetic outputs - but I've found a stereo output to be more practical. Once a signal is combined, there is no way to seperate it again - so why limit your creative freedom here? Let the Axe do the EQing and mixing.
 

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I would go with the piezo for live performance, and buy a used $200 acoustic for a campfire guitar. Actually, I already have the $200 campfire guitar that I've used live before I got the Roland GR-55. I'd like a piezo-equipped guitar because I I think it and the Axe-Fx can pull off a better "acoustic" guitar than the Roland can.
 
If I go the piezo route, I'd have to pick a guitar to install it on, both of which have tremolo. The first is a Strat the other an Ibanez RG570. The Strat has been on the market, so I'd be inclined to install it on the Ibanez, but can I do this on that bridge?
 
geoangus said:
If I go the piezo route, I'd have to pick a guitar to install it on, both of which have tremolo. The first is a Strat the other an Ibanez RG570. The Strat has been on the market, so I'd be inclined to install it on the Ibanez, but can I do this on that bridge?
Click to expand...
It's definitely possible... I mean; there are piezo-loaded trem bridges; but it's definitely way more complicated to retrofit a trem bridge than a simple tune-o-matic. And it certainly doesn't help the looks that the RG570 has black hardware (most piezo bridges are chrome).

Your strat is most likely easier to retrofit:
http://www.fishman.com/products/view/vmv-powerbridge-pickup-1

If you have an LP model or anything with a tune-o-matic, I'd start with this.
 
My RG was one of those 90's models with gold hardware and flamed finish. I have nothing with a fixed bridge. Oh well
 
geoangus said:
If I go the piezo route, I'd have to pick a guitar to install it on, both of which have tremolo. The first is a Strat the other an Ibanez RG570. The Strat has been on the market, so I'd be inclined to install it on the Ibanez, but can I do this on that bridge?
Click to expand...
There's a guy who modded Ibanez trems for piezos but I'm not sure if he does it anymore. A quick Google search would no doubt find his page if it's still around. From memory it was labour intensive and costly to do.

The Strat would be much easier. Basically anyone that does an aftermarket piezo kit will have one to suit a Strat, off the shelf with minimal buggering about. There are piezo'd Floyds, but an OFR is of course rather different in design to a Lo-Pro. And Ibanez for whatever reason never sold their Double Edge trem or parts for it separately.
 
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