Sound Man Piezo Frustration....

[BrianC]

I have a beautiful P24 Trem Smokeburst Obsidian that can sound fantastic when dialed in, my issue is when playing out I often times have a difficult time getting the sound guy to get it right.

I use it to play "Wanted" for the first half of the song then kick it to the electric side for the back half. It needs mids and some reverb or delay. I want it to sound big and fat not thin and anorexic. It should not be that hard.

I find a similar thing going on with the whole mix in general. Last Saturday's gig had a pro sound guy provided by the club and a nice system. The over all sound level had my ears bleeding and waaaaay to much keys in the monitors. Did the sound check song three times .......very frustrating!

 

[dmatthews]

Brian, are you using a DI for the piezo? I found that using something like the LR Baggs Acoustic DI helped a lot.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Yeah, you should think about a separate processor for the DI.

 

[Mark Ray]

I use an LR Baggs Para, and it really makes a huge difference.

 

[dmatthews]

I use an LR Baggs Para, and it really makes a huge difference.

That's what I have as well.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Ooh! Why don’t you load some IR’s into that baby Helix you got?

 

[shinksma]

I try to exert as much "control" as I can via my pedalboard, leaving little for the sound guy to have to deal with (mess up). Maybe look into using a loop switcher a la Boss LS-2, one loop for piezo/acoustic, the other loop for electric mag/dirt using an amp emulator. Each loop can have dedicated or global delays, boosts for leads, etc depending on what you need and configure.

 

[Jazzedout]

If you don't have a lot of space in your pedalboard, try the TC Bodyrez. One knob, cheap, easy. Made mainly for acoustics, but used it with my old Ibanez piezo which had an L.R.Baggs piezo similar to the PRS, with great success. Made it sound fuller...

 

[Egads]

That's what I have as well.

I use one, as well. Lots of control, easy to use, small for the amount of control.

 

[goat-n-gitter]

If you have any of the Helix family (as Sergio mentioned) you MUST load an acoustic IR and a compressor and use that as your acoustic processor.

 

[jak3af3r]

+1 for the helix +IR.

My HB with piezo sounds not super great without running through something to up the volume and a little compression.

 

[BrianC]

Lots of great advice - thanks!!

Yes, the most recent show mentioned was a basic DI to FOH. For a number of shows I brought my Yamaha small mixer which has onboard effects. So basically as a pre-amp and effect. So far that is the best thing short of buying something new.

The Helix Stomp I'm sure will give me the most flexability but since I cannot make it work as a stand alone rig for practice it is up for sale. Maybe I should give it a try as you guys suggest and that way I will always have a back up rig if my main one blows something.

Again THANKS!

 

[RickP]

On the processing, I’ve also had great performance from the Radial/Tonebone PZ-Pre on piezo pickups. You can also route your electric side through it at the same time for boosting, etc. Solid product.

 

[gush]

I've owned a ton of sound gear for a long freakin time and I've been hired to do shows for other bands. It absolutely drives me nuts when somebody botches live sound.

My wife gets to listen to me ***** about it more times than not.

I did sound with my system for a band a number of years ago and one of the guitar players had a line 6 head that sounded horrible. I couldn't do anything with it except bring it down in the mix.

I actually patched my Rane RTA on his channel just to get a visual of that guitar EQ. It was a train wreck!

 

[goat-n-gitter]

Lots of great advice - thanks!!

The Helix Stomp I'm sure will give me the most flexability but since I cannot make it work as a stand alone rig for practice it is up for sale. Maybe I should give it a try as you guys suggest and that way I will always have a back up rig if my main one blows something.

Again THANKS!

I would at least try out the Helix stomp for processing just the piezo out. The 3 Sigma acoustic IR's work great for me, and they're just $10 each, I like the Martin D-45 IR. I don't think the HX stomp has enough processing power to process both mag and piezo signals independently and simultaneously. A full blown Helix is perfect for doing it all at once, though.