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The preamp will always be just that.. a preamp, for the signal that is fed into it. When you have an undersaddle strip, you're left with almost none of the guitar's natural sound, that's why even great guitars will sound like crap if plugged directly with no mic.
Using a piezo on the top near the bridge is not a new thing and it surely gives a much more natural sound. It takes the sound of the soundboard instead of the sound of the strings (undersaddle piezzo).
Try the LR BAGGS Anthem SL, or Lyric pickups. Anthem is a mic stuck under the bridge on the soundboard, the Anthem SL is a combination of the same mic, with an under-saddle pickup. Good luck!
I have the Anthem, it's piezo and mic and you can mix how much of which you want to come through. Some people love them, I've never got it to make a sound that I love. In a loud party though it's the best alternative I've found. I'll do an actual mic whenever possible.
Piezo and transducer is basically the same idea, which is to bypass the air molecules to avoid feedback problems mics often have. At high volumes you can't beat a well balanced piezo set up. You can do some clever signal processing to mask the situation, but the trade off of volume to quality of sound has to be decided. Took me some years to adapt my playing technique to get a sound I can tolerate using a very loud piezo set up. I have learned to embrace it while I would of course prefer studio quality sound on stage. As mentioned the blend systems that mix mic and piezo are truly the best way to deal with this see-saw problem.
Anyone tried the Tonedexter ? I know Jason was raving about it on FB. Would be interested if anyone has heard it. It has some clever processing to model a mic sound over the piezo.
Ah yeah, I was trying to think of the name of that one. Jason was raving about it when I saw him down here in LA. This was more than a year ago and I think he was beta testing it for them.
I think we already answered you that. Those preamps are not about any kind of clipping/high gain. Think of it as a simple level matcher to make the signal travel through the cable.
So back to my original question, Is that awful sound due to high gain or the under saddle location of the pickup?
It's due to the person not knowing how to use they're equipment properly. Btw steel string acoustics are much easier to get a satisfactory amplified sound than nylons in my experience.
Passive systems are perfectly capable of pushing the signal through the cable ,as you put it. The pre amp is probably fitted ,as much to provide the player with on board control over EQ and volume as anything. I am just curious,as to reasons why under saddle pickups sound so crap. Do you have any ideas in that respect??
Yeah man, it's the preamp's fault. Just yank them off of your guitars and plug the undersaddle piezo straight to the PA. Don't spread the secret.
Passive systems are perfectly capable of pushing the signal through the cable ,as you put it. The pre amp is probably fitted ,as much to provide the player with on board control over EQ and volume as anything. I am just curious,as to reasons why under saddle pickups sound so crap. Do you have any ideas in that respect??
Jeez dude....IT IS BECAUSE YOUR EARS ARE USED TO COMPRESSION SOUND WAVES IN THE AIR COMING FROM GUITAR SOUNDBOARD VIA A COMPLEX STRING/WOOD/FINGER SYSTEM OF TONE PRODUCTION, PIEZO AND TRANSDUCER USE PHYSICAL VIBRATION OF THE STRING/WOOD ONLY THROUGH SOME WIRES.
External mics capture the sound best. Internal mics second best. The reason steel strings sound the same (MORE OR LESS, cuz I disagree with you that this is true)via string vibration vs nylon is a much more complex physics issue. DEAL WITH IT DUDE.
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