Do you pre-Amp the DeArmond Rhythm Chief floating pickup?

Nuuska

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. . . . In fact kind of surprised to see a piezo p/u on an AA for that reason.
Kind of like putting too-skinny tires on a car designed to corner very well.


Hello

ALONE piezo was/is horrible unless heavily processed - today we have nice digital processors with mighty powers - but back then I used the dual output wiring to process both piezo and magnetic pickup separately and then combining them.

And remember - I did not keep the AA very long - it was not my thing. Extremely gorgeous instrument - but not my alley. So I put the original bridge back and sold it.

The Magnetic pickup gives the body and such and the piezo adds a touch to that - but the balance must be right - this is what SWIVELTUNG was wondering in this thread - http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?194909-Songbird-conversion&highlight=songbird


I was after a certain sound - being Leo Kottke fan and fingerpicker - realising that I touch the strings differently than Leo ( while my head is not like his ) and all that jazz - anyway - I managed to get fairly ok sound on stage with my three guitars - self-made stagebox with two preamps and eq and chorus - power-amp and two JBL Cabaret 2x8+tweeter cabinets.

Today I would connect the guitar into two channels of digital mixer and have a riot.
 

Nuuska

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Hello

While wading thru boxes of old photos I came across these two pics of my modified Artist Award

There is the new Gibson BJB-pickup that was also modified - I cut one of the two bar magnets so it was only under wound strings - to even balance.
There is the modified brige that can be seen in #36 in this thread.
And there is the self-made pickguard - outline was copied from DE400
There are two volume controls - one for BJB - one for pietzo.
There is stereo output jack in harp tailpiece.
So nothing irreversible - even the mounting screws of BJB go in original holes on side of fretboard.

Original pictures are not so stellar in quality - but here goes.


fullsizeoutput_272.jpeg
 

Mr. Lumbergh

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Hello

ALONE piezo was/is horrible unless heavily processed - today we have nice digital processors with mighty powers - but back then I used the dual output wiring to process both piezo and magnetic pickup separately and then combining them.

And remember - I did not keep the AA very long - it was not my thing. Extremely gorgeous instrument - but not my alley. So I put the original bridge back and sold it.

The Magnetic pickup gives the body and such and the piezo adds a touch to that - but the balance must be right - this is what SWIVELTUNG was wondering in this thread - http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?194909-Songbird-conversion&highlight=songbird


I was after a certain sound - being Leo Kottke fan and fingerpicker - realising that I touch the strings differently than Leo ( while my head is not like his ) and all that jazz - anyway - I managed to get fairly ok sound on stage with my three guitars - self-made stagebox with two preamps and eq and chorus - power-amp and two JBL Cabaret 2x8+tweeter cabinets.

Today I would connect the guitar into two channels of digital mixer and have a riot.

Hopefully we haven't reached necrothread status on this, but yeah... Running a piezo pickup into a guitar amp is going to sound poopy. The major issue is that the piezo is a high-impedance source while a magnetic pickup is a low-impedance source, and it needs to "see" a different impedance on the input of the amp/DI/PA/etc. to sound right. A preamp designed for the piezo will match the impedance to the amp properly and get rid of most of that quackiness. Another thing is that most guitar amps are equipped with what is basically a midrange speaker, so the acoustic sparkle is lost because those high overtones are lost. It's funny to me how much more like an acoustic an electric will sound when played through an acoustic amp because of the addition of the tweeter or horn.
Here's how I did it on my Gretsch:
http://www.gretsch-talk.com/threads/new-build-the-electrocoustimatic-5120.163617/
 

PittPastor

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Just as a sort of closure. Playing with some of the settings suggested here definitely helped. I also got pretty good results by plugging the Savoy into my Sure BLX mic pac (just took a converter cable). Since that has its own mic amp in it, the signal came in much louder.

But, eventually, I bought the Rockett Archer IKON as suggested by Quantum Strummer in post #7.

arhcer-ikon-1.jpg


Oh... wow! Is that a nice toy! Plenty loud. The savoy competes nicely with all of the other guitars now. Much easier to get a sound that is balanced. Clearly the IKON isn't the only way to go. But, it is giving me what I wanted. And it is sooo easy to use.

The only thing I wish it had is a boost switch. I'd like to be able to hit a boost for when I am doing a finger pick solo and then cut it back when I strum.
 

PittPastor

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Not the lowest cost pedal out there, is it.

No! it is not. Which is why I held off for so long. There are probably other clones of the Centaur that would do as well for what I am using it... but I figured if I am going to try it, I'll start at the top. Well... the top would have been a used Centaur -- but that is more than the cost of the guitar, so no thanks...
 
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