New owner of SE HBII Piezo

simonyahn

New Member
Joined
May 15, 2023
Messages
9
Hello everyone, new to the forum and really new to PRS guitars. 2022-2023 has been a resurgence for me and guitars. I started the year buying a used SE Silver Sky after watching so many videos and reviews and thinking, "man that sounds good on video, wonder how it is in person". Did not disappoint. I just traded an old Taylor T5 for a used SE HBII Piezo in Peacock Blue (hybrid for hybrid) and holy cow I am just as impressed with that guitar as the Silver Sky. PRS is truly special. A bit more of how I'm running the SE HBII Piezo as I've historically played acoustic and electric in church modern p&w:

I've been running the HBII through a Line 6 PodGo having the mag output into the input of the unit. The Piezo side is actually going into the return of the FX loop as an auxiliary input into the signal chain (more on that in a bit). My patches are pretty standard signal flow for the most part. Comp and drives going into Amp block, IR block (this is key), Preset EQ block, and wet effects Delay and Reverb. I used the jailbreak to remove the wah only. I'll duplicate this preset for two different scenarios:

Scenario A: FX loop set at 100% mix and placed between amp and IR block. I use 3SigmaAudio Acoustic IR and set one footswitch as the "Acoustic" switch where it engages the FX Loop essentially ignoring everything before it (mag input, comp, drives, amp) and gives me the piezo signal going through the 3SA IR. The IR block switches the IRs between the electric speaker cab and the acoustic IR and changes the DB output of the block to compensate for both. The footswitch will also change parameters of the EQ block to fit the acoustic as well and my wet effects work pretty good on both electirc and acoustic. This is great for simple switching of acoustic and electric sounds in one patch without fiddling with either knobs on the guitar.

Scenario B: FX loop set either right betore wet effects or very last with the Mix paramater mapped to the Expression Pedal 1 in reverse (100% at bottom and 0% at top) and the toe footswitch set to engage the FX loop. This is to effectively blend the piezo with the electric sounds similar to turning the piezo knob while using the mag/piezo output only. The idea is once I engage the toe switch, the pedal is already at the max setting and so setting the mix to be at 0% means no piezo is mixed in. As I rock the pedal lower, more of the piezo gets mixed in until at the bottom it's at 100% mixed with the electric signal. This is a cleaner mix because it allows my electric signal to be processed however through the chain and if I want the acoustic blended in at any point in the signal chain I can just move the FX block giving me a lot more flexibility.

I've been absolutely inspired playing and messing around with the signal chains in the PodGo but the 58/15 S pickups have been a blast to play and the acoustic piezo is incredible in it's own right. Reviewing this forum I've seen a lot of people talk about the changes to the guitar so I'm very interested in the future for me and this guitar. I think the biggest thing I'll need to do is lower the gain on the PCB for the Piezo a bit cause it is a bit harsh. The Lambertone Cremas have always had my attention so that could be down the line but I'm curious if anyone has considered/tried the Grinders instead. Lastly, I might just consider swapping Piezo volume knob with the Master Tone knob. I don't have any plans for coil splitting but the position of the tone knob in it's default seems a bit odd to me because of the location of the Piezo knob. I know the non Piezo Hollowbody models have the tone knob in the same place and so in that model the tone knob makes sense. Here when I look down I find myself reaching for the piezo to adjust the tone.

Thanks for listening and reading. Hope everyone is having fun with their gear.
 
Congratulations and welcome! The SEHBII Piezo was my first PRS, and is still a favorite. Although I just play for my own enjoyment in my basement, so my rig is nowhere near the stuff you're running. Glad to hear you're getting so much out of it!
 
Hello everyone, new to the forum and really new to PRS guitars. 2022-2023 has been a resurgence for me and guitars. I started the year buying a used SE Silver Sky after watching so many videos and reviews and thinking, "man that sounds good on video, wonder how it is in person". Did not disappoint. I just traded an old Taylor T5 for a used SE HBII Piezo in Peacock Blue (hybrid for hybrid) and holy cow I am just as impressed with that guitar as the Silver Sky. PRS is truly special. A bit more of how I'm running the SE HBII Piezo as I've historically played acoustic and electric in church modern p&w:

I've been running the HBII through a Line 6 PodGo having the mag output into the input of the unit. The Piezo side is actually going into the return of the FX loop as an auxiliary input into the signal chain (more on that in a bit). My patches are pretty standard signal flow for the most part. Comp and drives going into Amp block, IR block (this is key), Preset EQ block, and wet effects Delay and Reverb. I used the jailbreak to remove the wah only. I'll duplicate this preset for two different scenarios:

Scenario A: FX loop set at 100% mix and placed between amp and IR block. I use 3SigmaAudio Acoustic IR and set one footswitch as the "Acoustic" switch where it engages the FX Loop essentially ignoring everything before it (mag input, comp, drives, amp) and gives me the piezo signal going through the 3SA IR. The IR block switches the IRs between the electric speaker cab and the acoustic IR and changes the DB output of the block to compensate for both. The footswitch will also change parameters of the EQ block to fit the acoustic as well and my wet effects work pretty good on both electirc and acoustic. This is great for simple switching of acoustic and electric sounds in one patch without fiddling with either knobs on the guitar.

Scenario B: FX loop set either right betore wet effects or very last with the Mix paramater mapped to the Expression Pedal 1 in reverse (100% at bottom and 0% at top) and the toe footswitch set to engage the FX loop. This is to effectively blend the piezo with the electric sounds similar to turning the piezo knob while using the mag/piezo output only. The idea is once I engage the toe switch, the pedal is already at the max setting and so setting the mix to be at 0% means no piezo is mixed in. As I rock the pedal lower, more of the piezo gets mixed in until at the bottom it's at 100% mixed with the electric signal. This is a cleaner mix because it allows my electric signal to be processed however through the chain and if I want the acoustic blended in at any point in the signal chain I can just move the FX block giving me a lot more flexibility.

I've been absolutely inspired playing and messing around with the signal chains in the PodGo but the 58/15 S pickups have been a blast to play and the acoustic piezo is incredible in it's own right. Reviewing this forum I've seen a lot of people talk about the changes to the guitar so I'm very interested in the future for me and this guitar. I think the biggest thing I'll need to do is lower the gain on the PCB for the Piezo a bit cause it is a bit harsh. The Lambertone Cremas have always had my attention so that could be down the line but I'm curious if anyone has considered/tried the Grinders instead. Lastly, I might just consider swapping Piezo volume knob with the Master Tone knob. I don't have any plans for coil splitting but the position of the tone knob in it's default seems a bit odd to me because of the location of the Piezo knob. I know the non Piezo Hollowbody models have the tone knob in the same place and so in that model the tone knob makes sense. Here when I look down I find myself reaching for the piezo to adjust the tone.

Thanks for listening and reading. Hope everyone is having fun with their gear.
Glad you are on board the PRS addiction train! I purchased my first in Jan 2021 and by June of '21, I had 3 of them!! If work had not slowed so much, I would have more!!! Welcome to the forum Simonyahn and best wishes on the rig/upgrades (as well as finding your next PRSi) ;~))
 
Glad you are on board the PRS addiction train! I purchased my first in Jan 2021 and by June of '21, I had 3 of them!! If work had not slowed so much, I would have more!!! Welcome to the forum Simonyahn and best wishes on the rig/upgrades (as well as finding your next PRSi) ;~))
I told myself this would be the last new guitar for the year but already looking at the next one.
 
I got my HBII SE Piezo at the end of last year and it’s become my go to. I wasn’t sure of the magnetics at first, but love the sound now. I also had to reduce the volume of the piezo to get the balance right. I also lowered the pick ups as they were a bit nasal and congested initially.

I run the piezo through a Fishman Platinum Pro to mixer and the magnetic through my pedal board > Fender HRD miced up via SM57 > mixer. I can switch between the two by activation the tuner/mute in the Fishman or the tuner on my pedal board, so I don’t need to play with the knobs on the guitar.

I do use both individually in a number of tracks (She Sells Sanctuary, You do Something to me, Wicked Games, Creep come to mind) so having that set up allows me to switch. Having an easy acoustic option playing live has transformed a number of tracks we play.

Just got to remember not to tread on the twin cables!
 
I am not very knowledgeable about guitar equipment and still class myself as a beginner. I am also a new SE HBII owner and I was looking for an amp to go with it but I might look at a Line 6 Pod Go instead. Very Intresting.
 
I use a Fishman Aura or Fly Rig Acoustic for running my piezo side to the board. They both work well and offer something different from one another. I like the sound of the Aura better but the options on the Fly Rig work for me. I probably need to change my micro pedal board and put the pedals on it that I need and run that through the effects loop on the Aura. That would be the best of both.
 
If you are new to guitar equipment I think it best to keep it simple to start with but buy gear that you can build on.

If you only want to run with one amp for both piezo and magnetic pickups consider a two channel amp so you can have one set to clean for your piezo and the channel set however you want it for the magnetic pick ups. However an electric guitar amplifier will never get the best sound out of the piezo.

The other option is to run your piezo through an acoustic guitar amplifier (or PA type active speaker) and the magnetic pick ups through an electric guitar amp.

From there you might want to consider a dedicated acoustic pre-amp (I use the Fishman Platinum Pro) at some time in the future, but a decent acoustic amp will still sound great with a bit of tweaking. Even my ropey old Marshall AS50R (Acoustic Soloist) sounds ok.

I would keep it simple (and inexpensive) to start with. Part of the fun is working out how to get better tones / versatility as you become more experienced.

Enjoy your ‘Piezo’ I love mine far more that I expected. It plays well and sounds good. I use it for half the tracks we play at every gig (about 20 since I got it) and having an acoustic option makes a world of difference.
 
Thank you for Oscarguitar for your advice.

I am really going to be using my amp for playing at home because I am nowhere near a standard to play infront of people. Also due to the lack of space a single unit would probably be the better option even if the sound quality wasn't quite there it would be good enough for my ears.

At the moment I am using a NUX mighty pro headphone amp which I plug into the magnetic socket but that's obviously cutting out the piezo.
 
If you plug into the other socket by using the volume controls you can have piezo, magnetic or a blend of the two. I would expect the piezo to sound pretty good through your headphone amp if you pick a clean or acoustic amp model.
 
If you plug into the other socket by using the volume controls you can have piezo, magnetic or a blend of the two. I would expect the piezo to sound pretty good through your headphone amp if you pick a clean or acoustic amp model.
Thank you. I will give this a try when I next use the Nux.

I know I shouldn't really but find the hollowbody has enough volume without being plugged in saving me using headphones just to practice when I only have a few minutes saving me finding out my headphones. I don't find this is possible when I use any of my other electric guitars.
 
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