Piezo Problem!

munkydanny

Howdy!

I'm wondering if anyone else has ever thried to install a piezo system on a guitar with a floyd rose? I've seen the pre-made fishman hard tails on sites like thomann but I don't have the first idea how I would go about sticking one under my floyd..?! I know it can be done I'm just wondering is there any other way than sticking it in the body..

Anyone?

feylya

They wouldn't go under the Floyd. The only piezo equiped floyds that I know of were on Ibanez guitars and they go for about €600 just for the Floyd.

munkydanny

Ouch. So would that really have to be a premade job, or would it be possible to pull off a DIY? Or even get a luthier to haver a look?

I'm wondering because I know Vai had one made for the Grammys one year, sounded great. It had a double output though so perhaps it was a seperate system within a cavity of the body..?

feylya

You need to embed individual piezo elements into each saddle. Not a job most luthiers would do I would imagine.

http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f21/installing-peizos-into-an-edge-pro-bridge-36762.html

Dord

Was he using it for the piezo sound or for MIDI?
If its for MIDI then you could just get a Roland hex pickup for your guitar instead.

munkydanny

As far as I know and having watched the performance he was putting it through two amps to make it sound as if someone was playing acoustic along with his clean electric.

It's kinda my new GAS tbh. I'd love to be able to switch the pickup on and have an acoustic tone come from say a Fender Twin then hit the humbucker back and switch to the Boogie..!

Doctor J

I used to have an Ibanez with one. Always seemed like a great idea but found very little use for it, in truth.

Do a search for Ibanez XAV models, they have both RG and S piezo models, for example my old one was a S2120XAV. It'll be a lot less €€€ than making one or adapting a guitar for one.

Doctor J

munkydanny wrote: »

It's kinda my new GAS tbh. I'd love to be able to switch the pickup on and have an acoustic tone come from say a Fender Twin then hit the humbucker back and switch to the Boogie..!

The piezo sounds ****e through a standard guitar amp, you'd really need a proper acoustic amp (you know what I mean) or put it into the PA.

Dord

munkydanny wrote: »

As far as I know and having watched the performance he was putting it through two amps to make it sound as if someone was playing acoustic along with his clean electric.

It's kinda my new GAS tbh. I'd love to be able to switch the pickup on and have an acoustic tone come from say a Fender Twin then hit the humbucker back and switch to the Boogie..!

Doctor J wrote: »

The piezo sounds ****e through a standard guitar amp, you'd really need a proper acoustic amp (you know what I mean) or put it into the PA.

Yep, Piezo generally sounds like poop. Although it's not bad if you mix a bit in with your regular pickup sound for more definition.

If you're dead set on using piezo then get a guitar with it already installed. It'll save you a lot of unnecessary hassle.

punchdrunk

TADA!
http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?CategoryID=4
...shame on you metallers for having an indie kid learn ya something about a floyd

Dord

punchdrunk wrote: »

TADA!
http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?CategoryID=4
...shame on you metallers for having an indie kid learn ya something about a floyd

I'm not a metaller... :P

But yeah, he can do that and replace the whole floyd. The only downside is the cost... $250~ for a piezo loaded floyd and then at least $70 for the preamp and wiring loom. Then you need to install it yourself or pay someone else to install it.

Sergio

your definitely better off saving your money and buy a piezo equipped guitar instead.
I have a John Petrucci signature musicman which has one and is a great feature which can really expand your tone on the guitar.theres two outputs on my guitar which you can run 2 signals at the same time through a pan/stereo pedal or a splitter box.
check out the man himself alternating between the classic piezo sound and the mesaboogie sound.im planning on incorporating this in my rig that im going to build in the next few yrs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjHoM7Cphf4

munkydanny

Thanks for all your help guys within the space of a day..! I dunno about you guys but I know talking guitar in my house is a no-no at this stage so it's great to actually go somewhere to get great and varied advice!

I know it'd be a more efficient idea to buy a guitar with one already installed, but this is kind of a project to turn an Ibanez Prestige RG from 'that guitar' I wanted to sell into my own Frankenstein. Trust me, it's bigger than a lick of paint and a piezo!

I reckon I'm gonna get in contact with those guys from yonder web site and see how they feel about sending the kit for modding an existing Floyd. Call me skeptical but I'm not sure about their own brand of Floyd especially since I've never heard of them..

It's a long road ahead but it'll be well worth it in the end.

If anyone finds anything else out about it I'd be much obliged!

Dord

munkydanny wrote: »

Thanks for all your help guys within the space of a day..! I dunno about you guys but I know talking guitar in my house is a no-no at this stage so it's great to actually go somewhere to get great and varied advice!

I know it'd be a more efficient idea to buy a guitar with one already installed, but this is kind of a project to turn an Ibanez Prestige RG from 'that guitar' I wanted to sell into my own Frankenstein. Trust me, it's bigger than a lick of paint and a piezo!

I reckon I'm gonna get in contact with those guys from yonder web site and see how they feel about sending the kit for modding an existing Floyd. Call me skeptical but I'm not sure about their own brand of Floyd especially since I've never heard of them..

It's a long road ahead but it'll be well worth it in the end.

If anyone finds anything else out about it I'd be much obliged!

Check this out...

graphtech.com wrote:

Do you make piezo saddles for a Floyd Rose?

We used to make Ghost saddles to retrofit Floyd Rose bridges, but the installation proved too complicated for some of our customers, as they had to drill holes through their base plate to run the wires from the pickups to the control cavity.

Now we make a drop-in replacement for Floyd Rose Original and Licensed bridges called the LB63. Its metal saddles come loaded with Ghost piezo crystals encased in our own String Saver material. You can install the Ghost system very easily on your Floyd Rose style guitar by simply replacing your Original or Licensed bridge with the LB63.

The old style, composite Floyd Rose style piezo saddles are still available in limited quantities by special order. While they are more challenging to install, they are currently the only way to get piezo pickups in a 7-string or left-handed Floyd Rose bridge.

Link to original page http://www.graphtech.com/kbase.html?ArticleID=14

munkydanny

Dord wrote: »

Check this out...



Link to original page http://www.graphtech.com/kbase.html?ArticleID=14

Yeah I seen that alright, I just don't know if at the end of the day it's worth the hassle. I certainly see now why feck all people do it!

maybe I'll just take the chance with the Ghost LB63 Floyd.. it seems to be usable for just about anything..!

Doctor J

If you're doing it to your RG see if you can buy a "Double Edge" bridge - ie, what Ibanez calls their piezo equipped bridge. You're still going to have to install a preamp, battery, EQ for the piezo (they are utter ****e without it), 3 way switch to route magnetic and piezo to a mono output plus a second output jack because you really won't want to send the piezo to what you send the magnetic output to. You've also got to get a wiring schematic that will work and then do it right. As much as I love dicking about with guitars, that's just going to be a royal pain in the hole, seriously.

For what your guitar is worth, the blue one, yeah? For what that is worth, add another €300 and you'll be able to pick up an XAV model with all the heartbreaking stuff done for you. You're going to struggle to get parts alone for that amount, and then you've got the pain in the arse work to do. I think you'd be nuts to do it when you can get it all already done and ready to go.

Voodu Child

munkydanny wrote: »

maybe I'll just take the chance with the Ghost LB63 Floyd.. it seems to be usable for just about anything..!

You would want to check that'll fit in your Ibanez. It probably won't, its a drop in replacement for an OFR (or equivalent); Ibanez don't use Floyd Rose, they use their own bridges. Sometimes they can be swapped, usually not, depending on the route.

If you've got an EdgePro I doubt it'll fit (without extra work), they have a pretty tight route, specifically for that bridge.

munkydanny

Ah yeah, obviously everything will be measured right down to the nitty gritty when I get to it. Right now I'm just fishing for ideas.

I will say it certainly does seem like an awful amount of work. Even just doing the research over the last two days has been a lot of work. I find myself thinking 'All I wanted was a piezo..'

I was thinking about just buying the parts and shipping them to caparison.. but wheres the challenge in that?

munkydanny

Doctor J wrote: »

If you're doing it to your RG see if you can buy a "Double Edge" bridge - ie, what Ibanez calls their piezo equipped bridge. You're still going to have to install a preamp, battery, EQ for the piezo (they are utter ****e without it), 3 way switch to route magnetic and piezo to a mono output plus a second output jack because you really won't want to send the piezo to what you send the magnetic output to. You've also got to get a wiring schematic that will work and then do it right. As much as I love dicking about with guitars, that's just going to be a royal pain in the hole, seriously.

For what your guitar is worth, the blue one, yeah? For what that is worth, add another €300 and you'll be able to pick up an XAV model with all the heartbreaking stuff done for you. You're going to struggle to get parts alone for that amount, and then you've got the pain in the arse work to do. I think you'd be nuts to do it when you can get it all already done and ready to go.

Yeah, thing of it is those things seem to be rare enough. Happy days if I get my hands on one but the odds aren't in my favour. It's the blue one alright. Honestly speaking I'm going headlong into something that takes people prob years of training with no experience. Hence why I'm leaving the refinishing till the end...! :pac: