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Old 07-17-2017, 02:57 PM
MrErikJ MrErikJ is offline
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Location: Kansas City
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I think that the advantages provided by a modeler depends on the pickup in your guitar, the unaltered tone it produces,how that tone compares to your original guitar, and whether the modeler brings those two closer together. I use a dread w/a Baggs LB6 and run it into a Body Rez and then into a Tonebone PZ Deluxe. Personally, I think it sounds swell and I have received compliments on it. That said, there are some caveats to this that clarify my recommendation of the Body Rez.

1. I think the Body Rez works best w/a passive piezo: The Body Rez employs some compression, EQ, and reverb (and more, I'm sure) to your pickup sound. The compression is great at reducing quack, which is really the sound of a piezo clipping. This will only help if your pickup has no endpin preamp. You can't undistort a signal that's distorted, especially one with a preamp that early in the chain. However, if it's passive, the Body Rez can clean that up.

2. The EQ is "one-size fits all": The Body Rez cuts some mids on your pickup, which is usually needed. However, the amount of mids it cuts is more than my guitar's natural EQ. It's a Cedar/Mahogany dread, which means it has a full and warm midrange. The Body Rez wants to make it sound more like a D-28.

3. I only use it a little bit and even then, it needs a good preamp: I only use my Body Rez between 9 and Noon as that keeps the signal clean and helps get the EQ right more easily. More than that and it gets squishy in tone. However, it then goes to a PZ Deluxe which has 15 volts of headroom, so I don't have to worry about quack. It's still possible to overdrive a 9 volt preamp with the Body Rez.

Ultimately, it doesn't sound exactly like my guitar, but I frequently receive compliments because the sound is clean and realistic. There isn't the electric feel of a mag nor the ice pick high-end and distorted quack of some undersaddles. It isn't as warm as a SBT but it's also more clear. As LJ said, the fine nuances of my guitar that I appreciate will be lost upon the audience. As soon as you need volume for a live performance, the intricacies available in studio recording are lost. I don't try to recreate or capture those tones, I just want a sound that's good and is clean, free of any distortion or excessive tonal artifacts. My LB6 doesn't sound like a condensor mic in front of my guitar, but with the right tools it sounds clean and acoustic, which is all I need. I won't obsess over a "perfect" tone as much as a good tone that everyone can enjoy and recognize as an acoustic guitar.

People I play with are always surprised by the quality of my tone and I say that you don't need the fanciest pickup to sound good, you just need a quality pickup and the right signal path. Passive pickups like the Sunrise, LB6, and K&K with good preamps will never sound bad. The Body Rez (or something comparable) may help you get closer. Maybe.
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