apa Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I have a plan to make another J Deluxe only this time with added piezo. The complicating factor is it will have something along the lines of a J Retro. What Ive got in my head at the mo is the J Retro plus piezo with preamp. In other words 2 outputs. This then gets blended which means one extra pot control. Keeping it relitivly simple. Ill be happy for the piezo to be set with trim pots internally to get the balance and tone right. The question is what do I need and how? Im sure just a centre indent pot before the output jack is way to simple and would probably negate all the good work the J Retro would do. Ive had a search and a few people have done passive but not the active route. Your thought and pointers please. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I'm thinking you'll be needing some sort of blend control between the two pickup sets - if you don't then you'll only get the 'right' blend when the overall volume control is at a certain position (making it pretty much useless as a volume control). A more 'elegant' solution would be to fit a blend control prior to the volume control so you don't lose it's functionality - so to keep it simple, a dual gang pot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBod Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 It has to be a good quality active circuit to do the job well. Look up John East's site - he makes a good little blender circuit for exactly that..and he can advise you on combining it with his other gizmos. There is also a simpler circuit offered by Cafe Walter to blend a mag/piezo....and Bartolini used to sell one but I've no idea what it was called. The option to roll off the treble from just the piezo (independantly of the magnetics) is a good thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apa Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 Hmmm John Easts mixers look ok but I will have one output from the Jretro and one from the piezo so not sure it will do. His mixers are then meant to send the signal to a preamp are they not? Anyway Ill have a chat with him. I want to blend the two. Thank for that guys. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikay Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I'm sure the John East piezo preamp will work in some configuration to achieve what you need. I considered this for my setup (single humbucker + piezo bridge) but in the end opted for a Shadow PMS piezo pre as this has a 3-band eq for the piezo which you can set and forget. I particularly wanted to be able to tweak the eq of the piezo. It also allows for mixing of magnetic pickups. Great liitle preamp. Details from Shadow Electronics can be found here http://www2.shadow-electronics.com/viewpro.html?id=164&search=1. Pic of mine installed attached. If you want any more details drop me a pm [attachment=98248:Shadow PMS piezo preamp.jpg] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 The solution really depends how sophisticated you want to get and how much money you want to spend. If you take this right back to basics, a really basic 'no frills' piezo preamp is just changing the impedance of the piezo to make it sufficient to drive an amp in the same way that a magnetic pickup would. As a starting off point I would treat the preamped piezo signal as being no different to the output of a magnetic pickup and go for something like this: Obviously, it's just a base level starting off point. You would (probably) want to add switchable jack socket to conserve the preamp battery, there may be a need to 'tweak' the piezo preamp and maybe even add an extra layer of control by having a seperate tone control for the piezo, but it's probably a good place to start. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apa Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 Thanks iKay Thats what I want for the piezo. Set the eq and close the lid. What I dont want is 2 volume knobs. One for the mags and one for the piezo. Although I suppose I could live with the vol on the jretro and then bring the piezo in with its own volume but that would mean an increase in volume. Just like the traditional VVT of a jazz which I hate. Just thinking out loud here. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apa Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 Hmmmm Going to have to go for a pint and think about this. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apa Posted January 27, 2012 Author Share Posted January 27, 2012 I've had a think. Is it the done thing to have a piezo go through the eq stage along with the mags or as I perceive it, as a seperate channel running in parallel and then coming together at the volume/blend stage? A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikay Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Either works. My piezo goes through a buffer/pre and then into an active eq alongside a mag pup. The eq allows for mixing two inputs.so this works well for a bass with one pickup and piezo. Alternatively the piezo buffer also allows for a mag pup to be connected at the output stage. This might be more practical for a two pickup bass which will use up both inputs on the eq. Just connect the output of the eq to the mixer input on the piezo board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apa Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 If in doubt get a man who knows to do it for you A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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