Floor pre amp

[Luke W]

Originally Posted by philjs

Luke, I put my tuner (a Pitchblack+) before the Venue (and now the Venue's "tuner" switch acts as an entire board "mute" switch). No problem at all with my passive Schatten HFN pickups...

Phil

Did the same with a Polytune, great minds and all that

Next modification is a bit of good old gaffer tape to hide the Venues tuner.

[philjs]

Originally Posted by Luke W

Next modification is a bit of good old gaffer tape to hide the Venues tuner.

Doesn't bother me at all...I just ignore it (after all, it ignores me...)

Phil

[fotofantom]

Another preamp you may want to consider is the BBE Acoustimax. I get really good results using mine with both my K&K mini-equiped guitars. It is a very sturdy stomp box that features three band EQ with sweepable mids, adjustable notch filter, 1/4 inch and XLR out, effects loop, tuner out, ground lift, phase reversal (for the XLR out), mute button, and BBE's "Sonic Maximizer". http://www.bbesound.com/products/ins...coustimax.aspx

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by dgraf54

I use a K & K western (mini) pickup. In the past I have been using their preamp. Is there a floor based preamp/effects unit that will work with this pickup? I'd like to have a muting tuner as well as other effects that I could call upon. . .

Hi dgraf...

Preamps can sit where ever you want. If you mean a separate preamp with mute function, there are many.

I use a little 'tray' which attaches to my mic stand and the preamp sits on the stand right in front of me. I can reach out and hit the mute (and do when I'm tuning).

About any decent preamp will work with a K&K, and it does seem to improve the sound of them pretty dramatically.

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by philjs

I've never really gotten the point of the switched effects loop thing. I only use two effects, a reverb and a chorus, and the reverb is always on. When I want the chorus it has it's own switch. The loop on the Venue is unswitched so anything on in the loop is in the circuit.

I also prefer that the boost is post-loop so that my sound doesn't change! I play in a trio where I frequently go from fingerstyle (boost on) to chording (boost off) in most pieces. It's a subtle change, only 4 or so dB but it works and I don't sound like two different guitarists while doing it!

Phil

The configuration of the loop/boost switch on the Radial definitely fits some purposes better than others, but it's still pretty flexible. I use the reverb on my board or in my combo amp for the "always on" basic effect on guitar, and I put a delay pedal in the loop of the PZ-Pre. This lets me use the loop/boost switch to add delay along with the boost for playing leads. For a few tunes, where I don't play leads but use the delay as an effect for my rhythm part, I just bend down and set the switch to loop only and then engage it. Occasionally I use only the boost so, with the switch set to loop and boost, which is the way it is most of the time, I just turn off the delay pedal and I get just boost.

The same things can be accomplished if you use a pedal for reverb by just putting the reverb pedal in line before the input of the PZ-Pre.

Louis

[janmulder]

Originally Posted by philjs

I've never really gotten the point of the switched effects loop thing. I only use two effects, a reverb and a chorus, and the reverb is always on. When I want the chorus it has it's own switch.

For those always on effects I use the effects loop in my amp.

Unfortunately, neither preamp is perfect ... there are a few things I prefer on the Venue but more things I prefer on the Tonebone. At the end of the day my choice was a compromise ... but the best one for my purposes.

I think none of the preamps is 'better'. Different yes ... but not better. That would depend on the user requirments because they are all good.