PRS Se Hollowbody ll Piezo Amp help pls

[John VanBuren]

I'm an old guy who saved learning guitar for retirement, glad I did as l'll never
live long enough to get where I'd like to be but I am enjoying the process.
I am in now about 18 months and work at it 2 -6 hours a day.
I have tried Strat.s, Tele's, Gibson 335, and decided I ike archtops.
I have a loar LH 309 and a Godin Fith Ave King Pin ll with P-90's
Both archtop's sound great thru either amp I own, a Supro Blues king 8,
or a Blues Jr NOS tweed with a Jensen speaker.
I recently bought a PRS SEll Piezo that sounds very good with the magnetic
pick ups thru either amp but cannot seem to get even a passable decent sound
when using the Piezo, or even blending it i.I also play a Gibson J45 so even as a newbie,
I think I know what an acoustic sounds like.
I would rather not buy two more amps to go down the road of splitting the
pick ups, is there a suggestion for one amp where blending the pick ups
has a decent result. Not accomplished enough at this point for Jazz
just playing easier blues and John Prine, Dylan, Stones, Eagles ect.
Townes Van Zandt.
thanks
J

 

[shimmilou]

Have you tried adjusting the output level on the Piezo?

 

[John VanBuren]

Assuming your talking about the volume control for the Piezo, yes.
I demoed the guitar in the shop with one of the new Quilter Aviator Cub's and liked the sound
very much or would not have bought it . Just can't get over the difference with my amps,
the BLsjr sounds horribly chimey and the Supro dark. both those amps sound great with
the archtops I have. I am not against adding another amp and selling the Blsjr, but I have no desire
to buy a collection to find one I like.

 

[Lacire]

Have you tried adjusting the output level on the Piezo?

I believe what shimmilou is referring to is not the guitar volume control, there is a piezo level control that adjusts the piezo preamp gain on the PC board. The only way to access it is by removing the six screws that hold the battery compartment and the two output jacks on the end of the guitar. Lowering the gain on the PC board may cleanup the piezo signal a little if it’s set to hot.

 

[John VanBuren]

Thanks for clearing that up, I just read a thread about how to do that seems that
It’s a fairly common issue.
Interesting that it sounded good with the
Quilter Cub in the shop and not good at
home with either the Supro or Fender, I know all amps / guitar combinations are different but wow.

 

[Roving_Drummer]

Where is your gain set when using the piezo? I run almost zero gain when using the piezo. When I feather in some piezo with the mags and higher gain, i set the piezo volume very low, just to add a little to end.

 

[ViperDoc]

In my experience, the only way to get great piezo/"acoustic" tone out of the PRS hollowbody guitars is to run the piezo to a dedicated amp. Look at the Fishman Loudbox series. Good amps for relatively little money.

 

[John VanBuren]

In my experience, the only way to get great piezo/"acoustic" tone out of the PRS hollowbody guitars is to run the piezo to a dedicated amp. Look at the Fishman Loudbox series. Good amps for relatively little money.

 

[John VanBuren]

Thanks ViperDoc and Roving Drummer,
Gain with both these amps is a function of
Master Volume and Volume controls with both amps I use what r supposed to be clean settings. They certainly sound clean on both arch top guitars. Those guitars have P 90’s . Both arch tops have 12 ga strings with much bigger bodies than the PRS. Both guitars sound great. My next step is to try adjusting the gain on the preamp in the guitar. I would be thrilled if that did the trick.
If not it’s probably off to the shop for a Katana 100 that John Bolinger used in his premier guitar demo. Everything sounds great on you tube, at least I’m supporting my local shop….

 

[Alessandro]

Thanks ViperDoc and Roving Drummer,
Gain with both these amps is a function of
Master Volume and Volume controls with both amps I use what r supposed to be clean settings. They certainly sound clean on both arch top guitars. Those guitars have P 90’s . Both arch tops have 12 ga strings with much bigger bodies than the PRS. Both guitars sound great. My next step is to try adjusting the gain on the preamp in the guitar. I would be thrilled if that did the trick.
If not it’s probably off to the shop for a Katana 100 that John Bolinger used in his premier guitar demo. Everything sounds great on you tube, at least I’m supporting my local shop….

I have a katana 100 and use it as my acoustic amp and I also dial in an acoustic sim pedal into the programable effects and it sounds really amazing whereas I’ve really only ever heard a “passable” sound before trying this. I recommend giving that a shot see if your local store can dial in that effect on the acoustic channel for the amp.

 

[Alessandro]

And I always recommend a 2 amp setup over one loud amp. Always gives a more full tone IMO and a katana is so versatile. Wouldn’t stop using tube amps but it’s a great tool

 

[RC Mike]

Two amps has me thinking… My Helix has the ability to run two separate signal chains, and I’ve got a Yamaha that has both magnetic and piezo outputs. Something new to play with, thanks!

 

[John VanBuren]

Well after all the input I decided the amp was the issue.
Bought a Hughes & Kettner ERA-1 and the result is wow, it sounds great and I love the effects.
IMO this amp can be tweaked to make this guitar sound like a really nice acoustic, excepting one that
is much easier to play than my acoustics with 12's or 13's on them. So now I love the guitar, could just
about sell all the other ones. Really just playing thru the ERA-1 from the piezo out on the guitar.
If I use the ERA-1 with a Fender Blues Jr from the mag pickup it almost sounds like two guitars, love it.
I guess a final thought would be that the amp is unique as the guitar, and without it, its a no go,
at least for me.