Anyone familiar with Hex pickups.

[Neon Soul]

Got a quick question about Hex pickups.

Am I right in saying that if I installed a set of piezo Hex pickups like this...



...I could conceivably wire them to an internal preamp, by summing the six cables to one input, and run them as a mono, low impedance signal?

Not that that's what I'm going to do, just need to understand them a bit for an idea that is brewing.

[jimmy bookout]

If you are talking about a Baggs Hex pickup, they are summed to a mono signal. I suppose you could split them into a stereo signal (bass/treble for instance). I'm not sure Baggs still makes the Hex.

Jimmy

[Paultergeist]

Originally Posted by Neon Soul

Got a quick question about Hex pickups.

Am I right in saying that if I installed a set of piezo Hex pickups like this...

...I could conceivably wire them to an internal preamp, by summing the six cables to one input, and run them as a mono, low impedance signal?

I have a Baggs hexaphonic set-up in one of my guitars. They are summed to a single mono 1/4 jack output just as you describe, except my preamp is external. I am not certain as to the impedance of the output signal.

[Neon Soul]

Originally Posted by Paultergeist

I have a Baggs hexaphonic set-up in one of my guitars. They are summed to a single mono 1/4 jack output just as you describe, except my preamp is external. I am not certain as to the impedance of the output signal.

Cheers.

Passive they'll be high impedance, active they'll be low impedance.

Planning on running HEX on the ring terminal with a Mic/SBT combo on the tip terminal. Need to output the HEX at a low impedance to match the Mic/SBT output, from internal preamp, to avoid crosstalk in the stereo cable.

[lkingston]

I have a Line6 Variax Acoustic 700 which uses these pickups. On that guitar, the audio from every string is processed separately.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by Neon Soul

Got a quick question about Hex pickups.

Am I right in saying that if I installed a set of piezo Hex pickups like this...



...I could conceivably wire them to an internal preamp, by summing the six cables to one input, and run them as a mono, low impedance signal?

Not that that's what I'm going to do, just need to understand them a bit for an idea that is brewing.

Yes, the Baggs pickups (which appear to be pictured there) are all summed to mono. Baggs quit making their hex pickup, but if you can find a set of Baggs Hex pickups, be advised that they have a very strong output. Your onboard preamp will need a relatively low gain (so get a preamp with adjustable gain) and a fairly high input impedance. (10 Mohms is sufficiently high {the same as the Baggs PADI}, and 5 Mohms would likely work decently well.)

I love the Baggs Hex in my classical, but it can be pretty quacky with a steel-stringer. (I've tried that too.) If you plan to go mono out anyway, you might want to look into the Rich Barbera Soloist pickup.

http://www.barberatransducers.com/guitar_pickups.html

[Neon Soul]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

Yes, the Baggs pickups (which appear to be pictured there) are all summed to mono. Baggs quit making their hex pickup, but if you can find a set of Baggs Hex pickups, be advised that they have a very strong output. Your onboard preamp will need a relatively low gain (so get a preamp with adjustable gain) and a fairly high input impedance. (10 Mohms is sufficiently high {the same as the Baggs PADI}, and 5 Mohms would likely work decently well.)

I love the Baggs Hex in my classical, but it can be pretty quacky with a steel-stringer. (I've tried that too.) If you plan to go mono out anyway, you might want to look into the Rich Barbera Soloist pickup.

http://www.barberatransducers.com/guitar_pickups.html

I'm actually going to go with the RMC Acoustic Gold pickups and preamp. Just used the Baggs pic cause it was a better pic.

I know Ian Stephenson uses them in his Forster Model C and highly recommends them.

[dberkowitz]

Those look like RMC's and you should have someone familiar with their installation do the job. They're not a simple drop in. The saddles have to go at the intonation points because they cannot be adjusted. They are also only installed for a specific string gauging, so you're stuck with whatever preference you have at the time of installation.

[Neon Soul]

Originally Posted by dberkowitz

Those look like RMC's and you should have someone familiar with their installation do the job. They're not a simple drop in. The saddles have to go at the intonation points because they cannot be adjusted. They are also only installed for a specific string gauging, so you're stuck with whatever preference you have at the time of installation.

Will be getting them installed into a bone nut and fitted on a custom guitar.

String gauge isn't an issue, always use 13's with a heavy low D.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by dberkowitz

Those look like RMC's and you should have someone familiar with their installation do the job. They're not a simple drop in. The saddles have to go at the intonation points because they cannot be adjusted. They are also only installed for a specific string gauging, so you're stuck with whatever preference you have at the time of installation.

FWIW, this is the appearance of the RMC mini-saddles as they appeared on the Godin Multiac which I once owned.

[Neon Soul]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

FWIW, this is the appearance of the RMC mini-saddles as they appeared on the Godin Multiac which I once owned.

Yep, these are the actual pickups i'll be going with.

Another view:



How'd you like them on the Godin?

[guitaniac]

The RMC-equipped Godin Multiac is intentionally designed to be strong on fundamental tones and weak on overtones, in order to better facilitate synth triggering. I liked my RMC-equipped Multiac a lot for fingerstyle playing, but not so much for strumming. It was a very dry sounding guitar.

In retrospect, I think some digital modeling might have provided a more resonant sound for strumming.

[dberkowitz]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

FWIW, this is the appearance of the RMC mini-saddles as they appeared on the Godin Multiac which I once owned.

Yep. But remember, that's on a classical and with the exception of the B string, everything else is in a straight line. Not the same as a steel string.

[Neon Soul]

Originally Posted by dberkowitz

Yep. But remember, that's on a classical and with the exception of the B string, everything else is in a straight line. Not the same as a steel string.

I'll be getting them inserted into an bone insert, like this:



Means they can be intonated and still have a good solid contact point with the bridge, through the bone.