Piezo pickups on electric guitars

Gaspode · 07-05-2013 4:11pm #1

I currently haul both an acoustic and an electric to gigs, which is fine most of the time but for support/short gigs I'dl ike to cut it down a bit.
I like the look of the Godin electrics with piezo, as well as the crafter SA hybrids - does anyone here have any experience of playing these? Do you really get a decent acoustic tone from the Godin, and do you really electric guitar playability on the Crafter?
I'm also tempted to try the Fishman piezo bridge on the electric to save me buying a whole new instrument.

I've seen the line 6 variax in operation and it sounds great, but they dont seem to do leftys.

Anyone any opinion on the merits of piezos on electrics?

-=al=- · 07-05-2013 5:30pm

That Godin looks awesome! I've heard a few piezo's on semi hollowbodies and they sound pretty good to me... out of those two the godin looks like it would be a bit better

Not much experience with them since I play lefty myself

martinedwards · 07-05-2013 10:41pm

hmmmmm

Piezo bridge you say?

Here's Bill, my test bed strat.

Over the years it's had all sorts going on.... currently with a pair of Dimarzio PAF Pros with coil splitting.

I HAD a LR BAGGS Piezo bridge on, and discovered that the bog standard Artec piezo under a bone saddle worked just as well, in fact better, bacause I ran a preamp on the strap button to have two outputs so I could process seperately.

doesn't sound like a Martin Jumbo but it's a lot more acoustic sounding than a clean strat!

I have another electric with a cheap ebay X bridge copy which works well, and a bass with a piezo bridge too......

But yeah, the variax and Pod XT LIVE combo is just so much simpler!

I hardly ever play either of the regular guitars since I got the variax.......

68 lost souls · 08-05-2013 10:28am

Another option would be an acoustic simulator pedal, they do a decent enough job. I run mine with some reverb and chorus after it to get a better sound. It works best with a single coil.

Ravelleman · 08-05-2013 10:48am

I've never been a fan of piezos on electrics or acoustics. They have a horrible, brittle pingy type sound.

68 lost souls · 08-05-2013 1:26pm

Gerry Leonard gets a really nice sound from his piezo on his PRS. I remember him saying he used a wound G on the elctric to get a better acoustic sound too.

-=al=- · 08-05-2013 3:16pm

I was at that Gerry thing too, that PRS was beautiful

Gaspode · 27-10-2013 1:44am

Went for that Godin in the end, gassed for it for quite a while as I tried to get cash together. It had it's first outing at a gig tonight and it sounded great both as an acoustic and as an electric. Delighted with it.

The Master · 27-10-2013 4:38pm

Beautiful, and a lefty too

Piezo pickups on electric guitars

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