What is the best piezo preamp?

[sargentpilcher]

I am using a ghost pickup system, which has a piezo mic underneath every string of the guitar. I didn't want to pay an extra few hundred dollars for their proprietary preamp for it, which also comes with extra features I don't need, such as a midi output.
So I ended up getting some random fishman preamp, which I am really not happy with, especially the bass frequencies. SHould I shell out the extra few hundred for their preamp? Or can you guys suggest something that you were happy with?

[rogerbrain]

Originally Posted by sargentpilcher

I am using a ghost pickup system, which has a piezo mic underneath every string of the guitar. I didn't want to pay an extra few hundred dollars for their proprietary preamp for it, which also comes with extra features I don't need, such as a midi output.
So I ended up getting some random fishman preamp, which I am really not happy with, especially the bass frequencies. SHould I shell out the extra few hundred for their preamp? Or can you guys suggest something that you were happy with?

biggest problem you have is starting with a piezo pickup

not familiar with Ghost...but, typically, Piezo's (even one for each shtring) need something to take the sting out of the top and the rubber out of the bottom...sounds like you need their pre.. have you used it enough to know it sounds like what you want?

this may sound wierd but I had a seagull with piezo bridge PU only .. the boss acoustic simulator really made it sound pretty good ..a bit zingy but it worked fine to craft a sound.. then to an AcoustaQ to shape it up a little and give me a lo z out.

now I have a baggs blender in the guitar.. being able to blend in a mic with the split piezo with phase reverse offers a lot of sounds.. .. I am very happy with it.. I can plug it into almost anything and get a good sound. but it is an onboard system.

[sargentpilcher]

It's actually not an acoustic. It's an electric bass guitar, and I thought the acoustic forum would be the right place to ask.

The only reason I chose the ghost pickup system, is because they are the only company that offers an individual piezo for every string, which is what I needed.

I was hoping I could get a better preamp and it would fix the problem, but I suppose without a proper piezo that would effect the sound just as much. But to my understanding, people make piezo's out of crystals bought at radioshack that cost like 5$ that sound amazing. I don't think they're like microphones where they are very complicated and different for each mic.

Although I could be wrong.

[teleharmonium]

Those radio shack piezo elements are not all that great, and mounting is a critical area to performance. Without good mounting, you tend to get physical noise and rumbling, or low output. Good piezos also often have a coating or a damping material between elements to fight noise issues and make them more resilient.

As for preamps, you need something designed for piezos, which means a preamp with much higher input impedance than you get in a typical mic pre. The impedance correction is critical, otherwise you're amplifying a squirrely signal with a weird, unnatural EQ curve. Also a piezo output cannot survive a long cable run without a pre. I believe having the right input impedance is more important for low frequencies than it is for highs.

I use piezos for my upright bass, and because of that I have a couple of piezo pres, a Dtar Solstice which sounds OK but is kind of annoyingly confusing to use and is a non standard form factor (as many piezo pres are), and a Rane AP13 rack unit which is more flexible and sounds a little better but is long discontinued.

You might want to check out the Radial PZ-Pre. I don't know what your budget is, but they're about $300.

[sargentpilcher]

The PZ-pre is not out of my price range, however it is a bit too large, therefore inconvenient. I will be needing 2 of them, and I need them both to fit inside an electronics cavity inside of my bass guitar. Otherwise it would be far too impractical.