text: Tokai Forum - a subsidiary of TokaiRegistry.com :: View topic - A slightly embarrassing question...
  A slightly embarrassing question...
  Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 1:46 pm Post subject: A slightly embarrassing question...
  I feel that after more than a decade of playing guitar and trawling related internet forums I should know this, but here goes...
  I know someone who owns and electro-acoustic guitar with a piezo pickup and wants to play it in a live setting through a PA.
  I have been asked if they could plug it straight into the PA mixer or if it would need some kind of preamp setup... and I have absolutely no idea! My googling skills seem to have failed me on this one so I need some help! How can this guy amplify his guitar?
  Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 1:48 pm Post subject:
  Ideally you would need a DI box to convert to a low impedance signal as a piezo output is very low, but it would work just going strainght to the desk if you whack the gain up
  Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 3:01 pm Post subject:
  Thanks john, I have relayed the information and done some additional research around it, hopefully they'll be able to sort something out. Cheers!
  Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:34 pm Post subject:
  If the guitar has a battery in it then it has a preamp on board which should do enough to give a level for the desk, but as John says it will need a lot more gain than something like a synth.
  Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 6:36 am Post subject:
  I have a Hamer DuoTone. 2 humbuckers and a piezo. But it has 2 jacks. One for the humbuckers and one for the piezo. With a 3 postion mini toggle. I have always sent the piezo direct thru the board and the humbuckers thru the amp. Works great. But it is pretty simple with the 2 output jacks...
  Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:15 pm Post subject:
  if you have short cable and mixer on stage, then you can go straight into desk. Not the best solution but it's ok for let's say max 10 meters.
  If you have multicore cable and mixer in FOH (large stage), then you need D.I. box. Why? D.I. box balance signal, has proper impedance for mixer (usually around 600 OHM) ant attenuates signal for 6 dB. If you don't use D.I. on long cables, you get also noise because guitar signal is not balanced.