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  #1  
Old 05-09-2017, 01:44 PM
Scootch Scootch is offline
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Default Piezo under saddle questions

I've a couple questions about generic under saddle piezo pickups.

1. Are they all about the same specs electrically? Same voltage, etc? Basically a commodity or standard?

2. How do the hard ones differ from the soft types? Are the soft woven looking pups less bright sounding?

I'm asking as I recently acquired an old guitar with an EMG APA-2 preamp and under saddle piezo. It's really really bright and very quackity. I'm going to look at it in a day or two and see of maybe the base of the saddle is uneven, but was thinking of trying a replacement.

The APA-2 is kinda old, 2000's vintage, even though there's still some NOS out there. I am able to tone things down with a heavy hand on the tone knobs on the amp, but the simple PA system I most play thru has very rudumentary tone control. Basically a voice or music mode and music mode is very husky on the voice mic. I was wondering if this was the norm back then and perhaps makes added better response curves to Preamps in the meantime. ???

Or maybe I should just pull it all out and start over? It's 25 years old and the new roaring twenties are around the corner.
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Old 05-09-2017, 07:15 PM
mirwa mirwa is offline
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All systems use a different piezo ribbon.

Each ribbon is unique to its manufacturer, you may be lucky and be able to swap out the strip and achieve the response you are after, likely however it will be too bright or too dull as its mis-matched.

I have swapped piezo ribbons between manufacturers, sometimes with success mainly failure.

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Old 05-09-2017, 08:19 PM
Scootch Scootch is offline
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Thanks, Steve,

That what i needed to know.

I think I'll pull it and go with a modern system.
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Old 05-09-2017, 09:37 PM
Scootch Scootch is offline
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Well, FWIW, after a few hours of putzing around, I found that trimming the gain down a bit AND plugging into a Behringer ADI21 DI cools it down a but, removes the screaming icepicks and sounds pretty sweet.

I may leave it this way.
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Old 05-10-2017, 07:18 AM
redir redir is offline
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I had a Fishman Matrix from about that time period too but honestly they don't sound much different then the new ones to me, I mean straight out of the box. That strip got damaged and I replaced it with a $12 dollar Artec strip and it sounds just as good still going through the old Matrix onboard preamp.

But no matter what, you need some EQ with these systems. A cheap Boss EQ pedal or something like that does wonders for cleaning up that ugly native UST sound.
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