Acoustic Piezo RUMBLE!!!!! with prizes!

mshilarious

mshilarious

Banned
OK, we've done it again! An argument got out of hand on the Guitar board, the gauntlet was thrown down, so LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!

(I made that last sentence red for the BLOOD THAT IS GOING TO BE SPILLED!!!)

Here's the sitch: A frequent poster who shall go unnamed {cough}LAWLER! doesn't feel that an acoustic instrument with a piezo pickup DI'ed can capture the tonality of the instrument, stating that it gives a generic tone. While I concede that piezo elements do not convey the full sound of the instrument, and will nearly always be inferior to a well-miced instrument, still, the tonality of the instrument is conveyed through the piezo element--just not the full voice of the instrument and its interaction with its acoustic environment!

SHUT FREAKIN' UP, you say? Yes, you are right. Enough of that.


Here's the rules:

You must post a SOLO performance on ANY ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENT, be it guitar, upright bass, lute, harp, whatever, using ONLY a PIEZO pickup. If you use a microphone in any way, shape, or form, dude . . . that's some major bad karma :mad:

The performance with the best tone wins. Technique or technical merit is not strictly a component of the judging, but of course a player's technique has a major influence on tone, and thus may be considered.



I offer a pair of small instruments as my prize: a 2' rainstick, and a kalimba. I expect Mr. Lawler will sweeten the pot as well.


Both of your hosts will be entering the RUMBLE, so we are in need of judges. Please volunteer if you don't intend to enter!


Deadline will be Sunday, Nov. 13, whatever is local midnight for you (we aren't real strict with deadlines, but please don't push into the week. Much.)
 
OK mshilarious, I'll gO aLOng wIth yoUr duMb coNTeSt!!!1!!

Sorry, channeling again.

Got to channel that passion into my generic sounding piezo pickup guitar entry.

I'll put up an MXL 990 mic with shockmount and case as a prize.

But what if everybody agrees at the end that we all sound generically the same? Never mind that... we never agree on anything.

And I still think an imposter piezo will win, probably a Schoeps piezo or a Neumann piezo.

Tim
 
Timothy Lawler said:
And I still think an imposter piezo will win, probably a Schoeps piezo or a Neumann piezo.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. Maybe if you put a Neumann piezo up as a prize, a Shure piezo might win ;)
 
"Acoustic instrument with a Piezo Pick-up" rumble??? Not only is that the longest name for a contest I've ever seen...but that's pretty mother-ass specific. It's going to be hard to choose the winner between all 3.5 of you....:)
 
Ill judge this one.

Also, any restrictions on using efx or reverb?

Thigs like that can greatly alter the tonal character of a di'd tone.

-Finster
 
Ok, stupid question...Piezo??? Is that the built in mic in some acoustics? If so, I can probably borrow one. If not....I better leave.... :confused:
 
What about a situation where someone uses a piezo but amps it and mic's the speaker? Should that be allowed? Should it have to be direct?

Tim
 
xfinsterx said:
Ill judge this one.

Also, any restrictions on using efx or reverb?

Thigs like that can greatly alter the tonal character of a di'd tone.

-Finster
Click to expand...

Nope. It's a free-for-all, so long as NO MICS ARE
USED! In fact I think that's a major use of piezo, you start with a clean signal, no room involved, and it's more conducive to efx.
 
Timothy Lawler said:
What about a situation where someone uses a piezo but amps it and mic's the speaker? Should that be allowed? Should it have to be direct?

Tim
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Gray area, eh? OK, as long as the mic is 3 times closer to the amp than the guitar :cool: Honor system here :o

Also let's make your prize first prize and mine second :o
 
mshilarious said:
I'm supposed to know what kind of pickup you have :confused: Remove the strings and look under the saddle!
Click to expand...

no, but maybe you knew that, that certin guitar used a so and so pickup ?

its kind of hard to see, and what should i be looking for ?
 
Not sure about your guitar's built-in electronics? If the gtr has an output jack but no magnetic pickup or internal mic then it's gonna be using a contact transducer (piezo) to take the vibration directly from the surface of the instrument. Check the manufacturer's website. Also, when you play it amplified, if it makes a sound like, "quack-piiiinnnng, quack-piiinnnnnnng" or similar, it's probably a contact transducer. :D :D (sorry :o lost it there for a second).

IDEA:
Might be better if we kept the rumble to DI only, as mic'ing amps could get things pretty morphed with distant mic'ing in a nice room, baffles, etc. kind of turning it into an acoustic sound. What do you guys think?

As far as effects... I don't see how effects would sway a savvy judge.

I have to admit though I've been bad-mouthing piezo's in recent threads I've spent many hours using them when playing live and they're very good for that. IME getting a good sound is all in how the signal is handled at the input.

Tim
 
My God, that's a challenge. I know my Taylor won't do. The piezo in it is only meant to augment the onboard mic. Alone, the piezo sucks big time. I've got a friend, though, with a Zager that has a state of the art Fishman piezo. I might take a shot with that.-Richie
 
Track Rat said:
OK. I pulled this out of my ass only to prove the point. It's done on a Takamine EC132C nylon string guitar. Mood For A Day.
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=1331/singles.shtml
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Hey, it would have been good enough for Trevor Rabin on Big Generator :D

I used to play that, I wonder how much I remember. Maybe the first 16 bars. Hey, I hear you've done Howe's live version mods, nice.

If you read (and listen) to the thread that started this argument, you'll note that your tone is much, much better than the Ovation the OP used.
 
I thank you sirs for your kind words. Steve Howe is my hero :D . But just the same the sound of recorded peizos makes me cringe.
 
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