Best Amp for Core Hollowbody 2 Piezo

[Jock68]

I have a DSL head and a JVM 210 Combo and feel that neither is providing the smooth clean power sound that I am looking for. Do I need to get another Amp or persevere with the two I have? I have a AS50D as well. Trying to describe the sound that I am looking for, just rhythm no effects just clean warm wide sound, I am sure this guitar can deliver it.

Any suggestions

Cheers

 

[xjbebop]

Honestly, whatever amp makes your ears happy.... there are hundreds available to choose from, and you'll get hundreds of recommendations...
Spend some time watching youtube reviews to narrow it down...

 

[django49]

My experience. Some years ago, I played in a band, using a piezo-equipped guitar (it also had coil splits). Seems like every time we came off the stage the other guitarist complained that he could not get the crisp clean sound I did. (That is, when I did not have drive engaged for overdrive). FWIW, I was using primarily a Mesa multi-channel, with one channel set for a "Fender-ish" type clean, meaning scooping the mids a bit. I had to remind him that he was playing a Les Paul through a Marshall half stack, all set up for big THICK sounds. He never quite seemed to sort that out.
I would try rolling back gain and mids and experiment with the master, if applicable, to avoid overdriving that channel, to see if you can get where you want to go with your current amps. If not, try to test drive some sort of classic Fender style.

Also, since you have an acoustic amp, you will almost certainly get a nicer blend if you separate the outputs and run the piezo to it.

FWIW, the last gig I actually did, I used a similarly set up guitar with the magnetic and piezo going into separate channels of the same amp.....solid state Quilter Aviator combo if you can believe that. With an ABY pedal, was able to blend the two on the fly and the results were great.

 

[veinbuster]

I'm not sure if you want one amp for the blended output, or an amp specifically for the piezo, as noted by django49.

When I'm ambitious enough to set up two amps, I run the piezo into a Fishman (I have the SoloPA) and the magnetics into a Boogie Mark V. I really like the sound, but it does have a fairly large physical footprint. If I'm lazy, I run the blended output to Channel I of the Mark V, which I have set super clean. I can footswitch to Channel 2 to get more grit from the magnetics.

 

[Jo-]

My fav amp is a Fender Deluxe Reverb for that lovely warm clean sound. (I usually live on the neck pickup). And I like to run the piezo either straight out to the PA, or I also use an LR Baggs Para DI which gives you a little more eq of the overall sound.

 

[Mozzi]

I don't really know if you are referring to the Magnetic pickups alone or the Piezo - either mixed in or on its own. The Piezo requires a full range speaker system to get the 'best' sound from it whilst a general electric guitar amp and speakers are not full range. A good keyboard amp or PA is ideal and obviously a good Acoustic guitar amp is great too as these have a Full Range speaker too.

I don't know why those amps shouldn't give you what you want with the Magnetics. I have a Core Hollowbody ii with Piezo as well as a 594 Hollowbody ii - both with the 58/15 LT pickups - as does my Solid body 594. I don't find the Pickups to be vastly different across the 3 instruments - the differences are expected and somewhat predictable due to the hollowbody vs solid guitar.

If you are using the mix output and using the Piezo, I would think the AS50D would be the best option to give the widest sound scape as it also has a tweeter too. You could even use that to run your Piezo output to it and send the Magnetics to one of your other Amps. The JVM210 has 3 different type of cleans (if its like my JVM410) and you could try each with the magnetics to get the 'clean' you are looking for, tweaking the settings to suit - even use the 'tone' control on your guitar, roll that down to see if that gets closer to what you are looking for. You could even go up to the 'crunch' channel, find the point where the gain is just enough to cause the amp to break up when you dig in and then turn the volume down on the guitar to clean up - that may give you the tone you are looking for too. I tend to like 'cleans' this way more than a crystal clean channel. I tend to set my volume on my guitar at about 7-8, turn the gain up so that its just breaking up, breaks up if I dig in or clean when I play softly and then can use the Volume on the guitar to go full crunch (turn up to max) or go clean regardless of how hard I hit the strings (roll down the volume a bit) and that gives me a great Clean tone and a very dynamic sound - I think the Cleans are better this way too but your mileage may vary...

I can't really help you on sound because what you hear can be different to what I hear and what I may consider to be a warm wide clean sound, you may not. I certainly think those amps and this guitar can do that without needing to invest in another amp

 

[Jock68]

Many thanks, good to read the opinions of experienced users, I will try and persevere to find that tone out of my amps but if all else fails it looks like a Fender amp may be the answer. Thanks for taking the time to feedback.

 

[Callan]

If you want to use the piezo, you will want to split it out to another amp.

Your guitar has 2 outputs and it's well worth using them both, if you want to use both magnetic and piezo pickups.

Otherwise just run one cable into either amp, turn off the piezo, and it should sound great that way too.

I run both ways live with my HBii
Mostly just one cable (wireless) for magnetic only, but will sometimes then plug in the second cable for some songs as needed.