Fishman Piezo for Telecaster.

D

domvac

New member
I just ordered a new bridge for my Telecaster that will give me an acoustic feature for live performance. My old bridge has three saddles and the new one will have six. I did some online research and decided on the Fishman passive piezo rather than a battery/preamp from Fishman or LR Baggs. Mostly because of cost, ease of installation and the fact that I mainly use this guitar for church and I don't want to lug in two guitars just to have an acoustic for the very few times I want the acoustic sound rather than electric.

The reason for this post is to see if anyone here has any experience with this type of modification and your thoughts on the passive vs. pre-amp options. I know the pre-amp will give more boost and fuller sound, but I don't know if the difference will be that important in my situation, plus, I would have to make room for a battery compartment and that would require cutting holes in the back of the guitar.

Crank up the volume and give me some feedback.
 
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I don't think you are going to get much of an acoustic sounds from mounting a piezo on the surface of a Tele, but let us know how it works for you.
 
I thought the same thing but this system is designed for this purpose. The pickup a multiple arrangement and is incorporated into the saddles and from what I've heard, sounds pretty good. I thought maybe someone here had done this or had some experience with this. I'm going to have some fun with it. I'll let you know.
 
Yeah, this^
I have a piezo in my Martin acoustic, and although the guitar sounds great, the pup sounds bad. More quack than a dozen strats, very un-acoustic sound. IMHO, you gotta process the living hell out of a piezo to make it sound good, so I'd say go with a pre-amp. I've tried a Boss 505II, a Behringer acoustic amp, and my Fender Super Champ XD's Acoustosonic patch, and none of them really sounded great. You may have good results with one of those uber-expensive pre's from Fishman or such, but $200 or more is a lot to spend just to see.

I'd give up on the whole piezo experiment and lug around two guitars.
 
stevieb said:
I'd give up on the whole piezo experiment and lug around two guitars.
Click to expand...

2 guitars isn't that bad at all. I was ready to bring 6 for my Beatles tribute band gigs (until we broke up): two 6 string acoustics (one tuned down to D for Yesterday), 12 string acoustic, Telecaster, Epi Dot semi-hollow and ESP LP-style.
 
I have a pre-amped pickup in my "81 Ovation and it sounds really good. That pickup is mounted under the bridge in the same fashion as this set up. If I have to add a pre-amp later, I can do that. I will try this and knowing my stubborn personality, and my skills at making things work (everyone calls me "Macgyver"), I feel confident at getting what I'm after. I just thought that you guys with your wealth of information, experience and talent would have some opinions and advice, which you have shared so far. Basically, I'm lazy and only want to lug one guitar in and out of church. I'm gonna have some fun with this. To be sure, the guitar is going to remain un-altered and I will get the benefit of a six saddle bridge instead of the three. I will have to add a volume pot for the piezo, but that's basically it as far as alterations.
PLAY ON!
 
Alex Lifeson gets great acoustic sounds out of his Axxess LP (or whatever they call it). No one else I've ever heard and you can imagine what his stage rig is - we can't afford it.

*I would like to try one of those guits though. They've got some cool stuff on 'em.
 
What got me started on this journey is that I tried the new Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III and didn't want to leave it in the store but the $750.00 price tag is out of my range and if I bought another guitar, wifey would have a fit. I know this rig will not be the same thing but I may be able to squeeze some satisfaction out of the whole experience. I did this once with my '73 Strat using my own parts and experimenting with "Hot Dots" and it worked reasonably well but I eventually replaced the bridge with a Floyd Rose bridge and lock nut and the experiment was with the original bridge. Call me crazy but I'm determined to succeed.
 
I got the bridge, and installed it. I am going to have to install a pre-amp, though. It sounds good the way it is but it is "thin". I used the guitar at church and afterward, people were coming up and asking me where the acoustic was because they could hear it but couldn't see it. One of the problems is that with the piezo, I can't use the magnetic pickups at the same time. The guitar now has a stereo output jack and I would need a splitter cable with two separate inputs on the amp, or two amps. The pre amp will allow me to mix the signals without all that mess. I'm actually pretty happy so far. I expected to have to play with it before it will be what I'm looking for. I eventually want to be able to use both pickups at the same time and mix the signals.

I'm doing this with my Fender Squier CV Tele. I've had to drill a few holes and alter the "through body" string holes a bit so the bridge will mount properly and intonation will be accurate. I wouldn't try this with an American made Tele. This CV is really a nice guitar and I value it as a playing instrument but I didn't pay much ($350.00) and it's safe enough to experiment with.

I'm not done yet.

PLAY ON!
 
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