Hollowbody II With Piezo or Without

[eliosvanpizza]

That's exactly why i bought the SE HBII piezzo version not so long ago!
I didn't really want the "acoustic" option... but those paua MOP birds and flamed mapple bindings got me...

The flamed maple binding was really a nice touch. You wouldn't think that such a small thing would pop out so much but it does!

 

[Hotspur]

For what it's worth, jumping back into this old thread, I've definitely found myself blending the piezo into the mags when playing clean a fair bit recently. It gives the tone a nice bit of almost single-coil-like brightness. Usually I only have it on like 3 or 4 but feel like it's a significant plus to the guitar that I wasn't really taking advantage of whenI wrote my last post.

 

[Gurdybloke]

I really enjoy using my SE HBIIP and agree the electric sounds are great. The piezo sound is decent enough when using the acoustic patches on the HX Stomp through a PA, though it sounded a bit "urghh" through the acoustic option on the Blackstar ID Core that I use for private practice.

Incidentally, some of the larger retailers over here in the UK (Peach, Andertons, PMT Music etc) seem to have some very good deals on SE hollowbodies at the moment - some are going at up to 40% off - does this mean something's going on if they're all having these offers at once???

 

[Simon Says]

I go without at any given day. I think the piezo concept is broken and not working without heavy processing

 

[Danielle Muscato]

I wonder how much (if at all), the different scale length between the two also affects the tone? I understand that scale length is more about the feel, but under the idea that "everything affects the tone", I have to think it contributes at least in a small degree. Then again, I've never been accused of having the most discerning ear, so what do I know?...

Feel is a big part of tone. The way you pull on the strings when you strum, the spread of your vibrato, the way thinner strings go sharp on chords when you press too hard... it all affects the way the guitar sounds, not just the way it feels. Longer scales give a more focused and tight bass response, and a snappier high end. Shorter scales have an almost mushier quality to the tone, fatter and thicker until you get down to Santana 24.5" scale where you're getting an almost sloshy tone unless you bump up your string gauge to compensate. The strings get floppy and that affects so many things, from the appropriate pickup height and action to the way the strings go sharp when you fret a note, due to the height of the fret... The way your hands fit around the neck and the way your fingers manipulate the strings changes drastically with string tension and scale length, which is about so much more than feel. You get a sweeter sound, the shorter the scale.

 

[Danielle Muscato]

I have the SE hollowbody ii with the piezo. There is no question for me that the piezo is worth the difference. The piezo is the reason I bought this thing. The blended tone gives so much more articulation to complex chords, while staying fat and thick and full in the bass and lower mids from the magnetics. I almost use the piezo volume as a second tone knob, rather than thinking of it as an acoustic-electric tone. It honestly never even occurred to me to use the piezo by itself, without the magnetics. When I want an acoustic tone, I reach for my carved archtop. But I'm also a jazz player, so my needs are very different from someone who's going back and forth between an electric guitar and flattop acoustic tones. The biggest thing to me is articulate comping while still having a fat enough tone on leads to sound the way I want it to.

I almost see no purpose in having this guitar WITHOUT the piezo. I have a Gibson Les Paul Standard for that sound already. The piezo is the biggest selling point for me, to have the ability to blend that clear, bright, articulate attack into my thick, fat, full, warm electric sound... Best of both worlds.

It kind of reminds me of running an electric into two amps at once, to get the best of both worlds tonally. Say for example if you run a Marshall JCM800 + a Fender Deluxe at the same time: You get the oomph and thickness of the Marshall but also the airiness and clarity in the upper mids of the Fender, without having to choose one over the other. Same idea.