Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David McQueen on March 30, 2013 at 5:13am

It is not an amp that you need. You need a pre-amp to take ultra high impedance Piezo pickups down to normal high impedance standard pickup standards. You are not even looking for any gain, just an impedance change so the signal is not being clipped.

HTH

Dave

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Permalink Reply by Michael Recchione on March 30, 2013 at 1:54pm

Thanks, I already have a pretty clean keyboard amp that I use with a pre-amp and a small EQ.  Except for some hiss, my CBGs sound really good through that rig,  BUT - it weighs about 60 lbs, and is way overpowered for most of what I do.  And - I need to use a preamp, which means patch chords, a power adaptor, yada-yada.  And I've got an early CBS Fender Deluxe Reverb that's about the power level that I want, but, even though it's pretty clean when you don't push it, it definitely has an "electric" sound...

I'm looking for a self-contained solution that's sort of in-between a practice amp and my keyboard amp, lightweight, and that works well with piezos even without a preamp.  I have a couple of small practice amps with clean and "tube emulator" modes, one of them can run on batteries - but they don't have reverb.

I've read really good reviews on the Kustom Sienna 30 ... I'm leaning towards that.  Also read good things about the Roland Cube, but the one that is about this power costs a lot more than the Kustom...

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Permalink Reply by David McQueen on March 30, 2013 at 3:00pm

Build one of these

http://personalpages.tds.net/~fdeck/bass/quickand.pdf

It is a 9 volt 0 gain preamp for piezos - designed by a bass player / engineer.

I built,one up on perf board. It only has avout 6 componemts. Then use it with your Fender amp.mine somfar has been durable. I ecen have one fuitar with ampiezo belt composed of three different sized piezos in parallel. It has very little noise.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Recchione on March 31, 2013 at 4:22am

Hmmm.  I already have a preamp (2 of them, actually...) , but I have to admit I've never tried it with the Deluxe Reverb...  It's definitely worth a shot.  Then again, that old tube amp isn't a pleasure to schlepp around, either.  I'm not as young as I was back in the 1960s...

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on March 30, 2013 at 7:29am

Roland Stereo Mobile Cube. Separate mic and git channels, 6 AA batts or wall wart, strap knobs for busking, tone and vol controls, reverb / delay, clean / crunch / overdrive, aux in for MP3 player. I have personally used mine without sound reinforcement ( no PA!) in front of 1000 people. $178 at GC. My piezo CBGs work fine through it wbith no pre amp, although a pre will give you a better signal. This is my main practice amp. The clean is clean, no hiss on batts.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on March 31, 2013 at 1:42am

If you are looking at Crate and Kustom, then presumably you are looking to not spend much? Unfortunately, this isn't a good scenario with acoustic amps - with only 30W you've got very little 'headroom' before the amp and speaker will start distorting. I've not used many acoustic amps..I have used the Marshall 50W acoustic combo..they are relatively cheap (around $400 I think) but I'm not really sold on them...compared to something something decent like a Trace Elliot ($1000 plus). Instead of a cheap acoustic amp you'd probably be better with a cheap PA.

I bought a couple of Behringer B210B active speakers and use a 2nd hand $30 4-channel Behringer minidesk..plenty of punch and a decent clean sound. You can actually buy just one speaker ($200) and plug direct into the unit with no desk..it's got built in volume, treble and bass..and 200 watts. PA amps and speakers are designed to give much flatter cleaner response than guitar amps.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Recchione on March 31, 2013 at 5:43am

Yes, you're right about not wanting to spend much.  This started off as wanting basically a small practice amp that would sound better with my CBGs and my violin than the ones I have, then evolved to wanting something smaller and lighter than my keyboard amp (which is clean and has plenty of power - 100W RMS, but heavy - and needs the pre-amp when I use it with piezos, so it means carrying extra stuff around), that I could also take to smaller sorts of things. 

I looked at the Crate and Kustom 15 Watt acoustic practice amps, just to use in my living room, and was going to get one of those, but then I realized that I could get a 30 Watt amp for just a little more, and that it would give me more headroom, and that might be ok to take out to jam sometimes.  As a data point, nowadays I usually play with a couple of drummers - usually two doumbeks or a doumbek and a riq (which is a kind of middle-eastern tambourine), usually in a relatively small space.  Sometimes there's somebody playing guitar or oud or clarinet in addition to the percussion.  When I play larger venues (not much nowadays, I'm sorry to say), I have a lot of other amplification options.  I really just wanted something in between unplugged and one of my bigger amps or a PA.

I want to thank everyone who replied to my question - I pulled the trigger on the Kustom Sienna 30 last night from Guitar Center.  They have a 30-day return policy with no questions asked, as long as the item isn't damaged.  I should have it in a few days, and I'll try it out.  I'll post a review here, in case anyone's interested.

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on March 31, 2013 at 2:04am

The Ibanez Troubadour T35 or T80 has a great setup. @ channel, mic inputs (2) w/ phantom power, chorus, reverb, phase inverter (for feedback control), aux-in for MP3, and under $300.

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Permalink Reply by bemuzic on March 31, 2013 at 2:08am

I recently got one of these and I think it's great value for money. It's 60 watt, light and has chorus and reverb and an XLR mic input. I'm really pleased with it http://www.soundsliveshop.com/p/Fishman_Loudbox_Mini_Acoustic_Guita...

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on March 31, 2013 at 6:13am

I have this same deluxe reverb michael & I have to turn the volume on my guitar down quite a bit to get it clean,so I know where yer comin' from. Search Fender Acoustasonic Amps. they come from 15W-200Watts w/ built in FX & dual channels. You'll be able to find a nice one for under $300 used. I've got this Acoustasonic 30: 30W per channel-80W RMS-spring reverb plus FX, great for coffee shops n small clubs & it's shaped like a slant back monitor so it has great sound projection.XLR inputs to boot.I've seen em' go for about$199 used. hope this helps! Happy Strummin'

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Permalink Reply by Muddy Creek Guitars on April 12, 2014 at 3:52am

I love my Roland Micro Cube amp!
Is battery powered or plug in, great for playing outside. Sounds great with my piezo disc pickups. Has on board effects. Got mine on eBay for $65.00 including shipping. I have seen them new for about $140.00
good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on April 12, 2014 at 5:05am

You should look at a Marshall ASD50D - it is plenty loud for live and has a built in feedback reducer control for piezos, they aren't cheap but second hand ones often come up on eBay (-:

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