Piezo and Magnetic Pickups Together: Wiring

[CactusArm]

I'm trying to wire a piezo and magnetic pickup to the same mono out, but when I have them both wired together the tone of the magnetic really suffers. I know this is a wiring issue of some kind... I don't want to use an internal pre or EQ... I'm doing this real lo fi and just need a hand getting the wiring in order. any ideas?

[seven7]

those are 2 different kinds of pickups so don't be surprised if the signal of one overpowers the other. unless you have a way to control the volume of each one individually then you're just stuck with whatever sound they make mixed together.

the way i see to do it is:

wire both pickups to the 'hot' on the jack and send their ground wires to the ground on the jack.

 

maybe that's what you've already done. unless you've wired the pickups together THEN went to the jack rather than wiring them to the jack seperated.

 

[Pig Suit]

[JacoMon]

Unless I am mistaken. The Peizo will need a pre-amp to boost the signal, and the magnetic will not. Hence major difference in signal level. Even if they were close, you would still need to tweak the levels for the best sound. I have had this setup in a couple guitars. The way I did it was to use a stereo end-pin jack. Wire the grounds common (to the same ground post- SLEEVE). Then hook your magnetic to the TIP (so it will work mono in case a pre is not around). Then hook up the Peizo to the SLEEVE (to sent to a pre-amp). Plug in an insert cable which has a stereo plug on one end and two 1/4" mono plugs on the other. There you go. I currently have this set-up in my 1969 Gibson 12-string. A Rare-Earth magnetic, and some long forgotten stick on transducer underneath the bridge. The transducer give bite and air (treble) while the magnetic gives lower mids and No-FEEDBACK BASS. This is using each pup for what it does best. Good luck on your rendition. Let me know how it works. Add an SM-57 near the hole for even more Mojo.