Matching Piezo And Humbuckers Together.

[shad peters]

hey everybody, i was talking to a fella today who was interested in a wiring scheme similar to the prs hollow body 2. i have never used piezo pickups before, but from what i understand they are similar to magnetics to work with (at least the passive ones). the dual outputs are what have me a little bit confused. from what i have seen from a demo clip

it seems logical to me that both the magnetic and the peizo would run through the mini 3-way toggle where you can select magnetic/both/piezo, it would then go to your volume and tone and then to the output. so that leave me wondering how the second output works. i am not very familure with dual outputs so i know i must be missing something here. it seems like once you combine the peizo and the magnetic into one signal theres would be no way to separate them again. is it maybe some type of stereo wiring? any help would be appreciated.

[shad peters]

scratch that, i didnt realize that the piezo was running through a completely separte volume control.

[KeithHowell]

Piezos have a much higher impedance than magnetic pickups and it is usually advisable to preamp the piezo signal as close to the pickup as possible ie on board the guitar even if it has its own totally separate output.

If you want to mix the signals an on board mixer is probably best. This will both match the pickups (piezo and magnetic) impedances and levels and be able to match the output to whatever amplifier is being used.

Have a look on the MIMF for their Piezo/Magnetic preamp/buffer. It's in the archived library so you will have to register if you haven't already.

I have recently built a MIMF mixer which I will be installing in a acoustic bass in the next few days.

Keith