software

I am getting a Hamer Dutone which has regular humbuckers (Duncan 59's) plus piezios. I need an amp to make the piezios sound good. I am thinking about an acoustic amp, a pa system or just a powered monitor. I am looking for something for playing at home and small clubs. The 59's will be run through my 64 Fender Deluxe. I play blues. I am planning on getting one of Duncan's new Papa Bear processors as well. Give me some advice.

any acoustic amp will work. Try the Roland or Peavey Keyboard amps too. I use a JBL Eon powered speaker, which has a 15quot; and a horn.

For the money the Crate acoustic Amps are real good. I have seen the 30 or 40 watt(i don't remember the exact specs) for under $400, and they sound real good.

I put my parker piezos through a pod (tube preamp model), with eq/reverb, then straight to pa. Sounds ok, but not GREAT.

i put mine through a Boss VF-1 for compression.reverb amp; delay, and it sounds awesome...

i use a carvin ag-100D to amplify the RMC piezo in my brian moore with very good results .. on board effects are plenty good enough for a little chorus and reverb ... the EQ controls provide very nice shaping ... 12quot; speaker and a little horn tweeter ... lightweight ... reasonably priced ...

The following has worked very well for me over the years as I've done at least 200 acoustic shows either solo, duo or just plain old Open Mic Night at the local pup. But it's also predicated on the fact that I use a Taylor 310CE which is an acoustic guitar. I don't really have any experience with pizeos in solid body guitars...but the principles are still sound. (no pun intended)

Whatever you do don't try and run it through an electric amp and certainly not guitar speakers. It'll work but ...bleack!!

My chain goes like this. Guitar---gt; Boss GT-6----gt;Mackie mixer-----gt;Power Amp-----gt;EV sx300's (Mains one for monitor)
Some kind of effects unit or a few good stompers (I like BOSS) . Chorus, Reverb and Delay in that order of importance. EQ is also very important. I find my piezo needs about a -5dB cut at 800hz to remove the quot;quack.quot; I tend to find the curve I need and then set and forget. Right now I'm using my BOSS GT-6 multi/floor unit so I get all of the above. First I wrote the basic dry patch that is EQ'd correctly. Using the 1st patch as a template I created my others with varying amounts of the time based effects and a few song specific patches with long syncopated delays.

Some kind of compression might be useful but I don't like compression at all for my set-up.

A powered wedge might well for you but I don't know if your piezo system puts out enough juice to drive a powered monitor to full power. But you might get the necessary gain if your effects unit gives you enough of a boost. A wedge that has a balanced quot;throughquot; jack would be handy for interfacing with the House PA. (I'm pretty sure the powered Mackie wedges have one.)

The SWR acoustic amps sound very good, and have been reliable in my experience. The Mackie mixer with EV SX-300 speakers is also a versatile setup. My brother uses that same rig for his keyboards, and they've been bulletproof for 5 years.

i tend to compress the hell out of the piezos, but I like overly compressed acoustic sounds, like DiMeola, Trevor Rabin, RObert Fripp, etc...I don't use chorus much but nice reverb and short delay, plus a longer delay for loops.

When I had the Nitefly, I sent my electric signal to the POD, and my acoustic signal to a chorus pedal and then direct to the PA.

Acoustic guitar sounds work best through full range speakers, so an acoustic amp, a keyboard amp, or a PA are best.

I'm rather fond of the Peavey Ecoustic amp.

What do you lose by going direct to a PA or powered monitor as opposed to using an quot;acoustic guitar ampquot;? Do you need a preamp or anything or can you just go direct into the PA? Sorry for the basic questions but this is my first attempt at this.

i really like the sound of the swr strawberry blonde amp. i thought it sounded great w/ piezos, both acoustic and electric.


Originally Posted by straightbluesWhat do you lose by going direct to a PA or powered monitor as opposed to using an quot;acoustic guitar ampquot;? Do you need a preamp or anything or can you just go direct into the PA? Sorry for the basic questions but this is my first attempt at this.

the only thing you lose is the ability to modify the signal easily. Amps have tone knobs, reverb, etc...the PA has more power amp; larger frequency response.


Originally Posted by straightbluesWhat do you lose by going direct to a PA or powered monitor as opposed to using an quot;acoustic guitar ampquot;? Do you need a preamp or anything or can you just go direct into the PA? Sorry for the basic questions but this is my first attempt at this.

what mincer said .. plus, you probably will have to at least put a direct box / buffer between the guitar's piezo output and the PA to get the best noise performance .. i'll give you another idea that is fairly inexpensive and hella cool, tone-wise ... the yamaha AG-stomp, or magic stomp AG, .. very cool little box and incorporates anti-feedback device, tuner, EQ, mic modelling, effects, and D.I. Box

good luck
t4d