What's the best piezo system for electrics?

[That90'sGuy]

Re: What's the best piezo system for electrics?

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[Mincer]

Re: What's the best piezo system for electrics?

I use and love the RMCs...you have to use an insert cable (2-TS to 1 TRS) cable with it, although RMC says it can be wired through a mono cable (using a switching jack) if needed. I can't really see the benefits to this though, since the piezo needs a full range amp and cab, and sounds terrible with your guitar amp. Both my mag signals and piezo get split, my mag pickups to a preamp with speaker simulators (roland GP-100) and to a mixer. The Piezo goes to the mixer with a Nanoverb in the aux send...both signals are mixed together to 2 JBL EONs, 15's and horns. Very awesome!

[rspst14]

Re: What's the best piezo system for electrics?

I looked into this some more, here's what I know:

All the available systems require a stereo jack. If you just want to run the piezo through the clean channel of your electric amp, you can use an ordinary mono instrument cable. The LR Baggs system may require you to file some wood in the jack pocket to make room for the jack assembly, although you can probably get an ordinary Switchcraft jack instead. You'll just need to disconnect the wires from the Baggs pre-wired stereo jack and solder them to the new jack.

You definitely need some type of preamp. The Ctrl-X preamp is installed in the guitar, and the 9 volt battery has about 1000 hours of battery power. You can also use an external preamp unit, but I would suggest the onboard preamp. The volume acts as a master volume for both magnetic and piezo pickups, and the pot included with the preamp allows you to blend the two signals.

Overall, I think it's probably the best of the available systems, although the Graphtech system sounds nice as well. Since I'm building my Strat from parts, I like the fact that the Baggs system is a direct bridge replacement, with a completely hidden installation.

Ryan

[That90'sGuy]

Re: What's the best piezo system for electrics?

Thanks for the research Ryan! (Thanks for the info too Mincer)

Ok... done deal. You can't really argue with 1000 hours battery life with the L.R. Baggs. Sounds like an awesome system. I guess I'll just attach the wires from the other jack to the one on my Switchcraft jack.

I'll definitely be getting the CTRL-X preamp with it (I figured if I was gonna get a piezo system, I'd make sure to get a blend control and a toggle switch to get magnetic/magnetic & piezo/piezo.

Thanks for the info guys. Sounds like L.R. Baggs is the way to go (now I hope they have a replacement for the 1088 Gotoh vintage trem on the new guitar I'm getting )

[rspst14]

Re: What's the best piezo system for electrics?

They make a replacement for the 2 and 6 post Fender tremolos, as well as Fender hardtail bridges and I believe Tuneomatics. If you have something else, you may want to look into the Graphtech system.

Ryan

[That90'sGuy]

Re: What's the best piezo system for electrics?

Thanks for the heads up. I better give L.R. Baggs an e-mail just to check if it would work.