School me on piezos

[Tidal Rhythm]

Although I've never owned one, I've played some guitars with a piezo pickup and while I thought they had a cool sound, I would not say that it was a sound I would have mistaken for an actual acoustic guitar. As with other pickups (humbuckers, P90s, single-coils) I assume there is some variability in their tonal characteristics. What are some decent piezos? Are some piezos more "acoustic-sounding" than others?

[Wyatt]

For electric bridge or for feeding an acoustic into a PA.

In general.

I like LR Baggs. I think they are warmer, bigger and more natural sounding than Fishman. They are my go-to for under the saddle transducers.

Fishman, on the other hand, has that quintessential signature piezo "buzz" that is dominant in fusion jazz and a lot of pop/rock. It's a tone unto itself.

Both have their fans.

I think all the electric bridge options are compromises...be it Fishman, Baggs, Shadow, GHOST, etc. With everything else going on.,..bridge material, solid body, trem, light strings, etc. None give a convincing acoustic sound, but all do a good job live....compromise, you get a fair acoustic tone without the extra equipment.

But on the note of extra equipment, a piezo bridge wants a full-range sound system...an acoustic amp or PA. If you planning on running it into your normal guitar amp...well...once again, it's a tone unto itself, at this point, you've left compromise behind, and are stepping noticeably away from convincing acoustic tone.

[WRGKMC]

Its all in the preamp you're using. Piezos need a preamp that gets mixed with the passive. If the preamp is good the piezos sound good, if the preamp is cheap crap then they'll sound like cheap crap.

[Elias Graves]

Yup. It's all in the preamp. A piezo is a piezo but what you run it through affects it. You can put one on a Les Paul, a Martin or a piece of plywood and it's all the same.

I'm not a big fan of any of them so I use a minibucker on an archtop. Sounds better.

 

EG

[Tidal Rhythm]

Thanks to all for the replies.

[honeyiscool]

Of course they don't sound like acoustic. But have you ever thought that a plugged in acoustic actually sounded like an acoustic guitar?

 

I think the piezos, when combined with the neck pickup a bit for a bit of that warm body, has a wonderful sound that is as good as or better than a plugged in acoustic.

[Stackabones]

If you like the sound of an Ovation acoustic/electric, you'll like the sound of a piezo. If it quacks like a duck ...

 

No matter what you get, be sure to run it through an LR Baggs PARA DI. It'll help kill the duck.

[cephus]

I have an lr bragg one x-bridge. I've had it a while. I run it through a fishman platinum stompbox pre. It sounds just ok. I played a couple solo "acoustic" gigs with it before. It sounded way worse with 10s. 11s are better. I play flatpick fast pick strum stuff mostly and it's not very good for that. Maybe if I played some ballads or something it would be more appropriate. Although its not how you're supposed to use it, it sounds really gnarly direct into a tube amp. Like barbed wire stretched across a garbage can. And I like that.

[Arr0wHead]

 

Its all in the preamp you're using. Piezos need a preamp that gets mixed with the passive. If the preamp is good the piezos sound good, if the preamp is cheap crap then they'll sound like cheap crap.

 

 

 

This. Piezo is the simplest device in the world, they're not going to sound different. A piezo is that little sensor that tells your doorbell to ring. Also commonly used in drum triggers.