What amp are you running your SE HB through ... and why?

Hotspur

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Dec 26, 2017
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I'm definitely gassing for something (if it's an amp, does that mean I'm aassing?). Was playing the new SE HB2 Piezo through a Marshal DSL40 at the shop, and, uh ... that's tempting, but I don't know if I want something that heavy. That's a lot of amp, even if it does step down to 20w. (The DSL20 doesn't seem to eb as well-reviewed online). Considering a Bassbreaker 30.

But I'd love to hear people talk about what they play their through and how/why they chose it?
 
My HB is core, but I think my answer would be the same.

Playing just the piezo, either the clean channel of my Boogie Mark V or my Fishman SoloPA. Which of the two is based mostly on where I am.

Through the Boogie, it’s a nice well balanced chimey sound. It doesn’t really sound like an acoustic, but it’s in a similar tonal space.

It’s closer to an acoustic through the Fishman, but still not really there. Relative to the Boogie, it’s a more accurate reflection of what the guitar sounds like unplugged.
 
I have an HB, but not with the piezo pickup... But in my researching for an SE HB, I ran across a "Premier Guitar " review of the Piezo ... using a Boss Katana... through its "Acoustic " Amp channel.

The review of course , sounds great, but considering its done with a Katana (I believe the 2x12 version) it is surprising that it would sound that cool. As a "Hi-Fi" guy, I'm thinking in that acoustic overtones are generally higher in frequency, I'm thinking that a 2-Way design, something with a dedicated high frequency driver (not a wizzer cone?) may be in order.

But check out the Premier Guitar's review to see how it sounds with a Katana of all things ...--
 
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I play my hbii piezo thru a katana 100. I love it. I also have a full qsc pa in my jam room. The The piezo thru the katana is more than adequate for a pub gig or small club. But larger club I'd go direct. The piezo thru a full pa is impressive. Not flamenco or classical impressive, but country, rock, jamband, etc, impressive.

This guitar and amp with my ditto pedal will keep me entertained for years if not decades.
 
I'm playing my SE HB II through a Bose F1 top and sub.

Why? One knob on the amp (volume) and 2k watts power :D is simplicity.

The transparency of this rig lets the guitar do all the tone work. The piezo sounds so sweet!
 
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As for amp, I've just got one of Thomas Blug's amp 1. Really enjoying it at the moment. 4 different channels going from clean through to plexi, to JCM800 to modded Marshall. 3 of the 4 channels have a small blend control to go between two different tone stacks for refining how they sound (they generally go from warm and round to open and brighter, so you can dial in where you want to be on that spectrum). 100 watts so gets really loud, but can be dialed in easily for any volume level unlike a traditional amp and the whole thing is small, light and robust
 
I’ve been playing my core HB II with piezo through a two channel SWR California Blond amp. It’s a nice amp I’ve had since about 2003. It has worked well with a verity of instruments with piezo, magnetic pickups and microphones. You can usually find a used one pretty cheep for a Made in USA amp. (I’m not referring to the ones made after Fender bought them out and moved the brand to Mexico).
 
I know I'm not qualified to answer this as I don't currently have a hollowbody, but you may want to look into a modeler. Many have 2 inputs. You can route the piezo directly with maybe an EQ or compression, and route the magnetics through an amp and effects
 
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