Has anyone actually used one of these devices? I ordered it from Amazon not realizing that when something is "not fulfilled by Amazon" that is code for "Shipped via slow boat from China".
It arrived about a month after ordering and I quickly plugged in a spare 9 volt battery. The red LED came on, which was a positive sign based on my prior experience with Chinese small electronic ordered on line.
I plugged in an audio cord and turned on my amp, ready for some simple testing of the attached Rod Piezo.
The first thing I noticed when I lightly tapped the Piezo was that there was no sound coming from the amp. Turned up the volume a tad and then I heard it. The dreaded hum.
Turned up the bass knob and the noise coming from the amp got much worse. Tried the treble knob, more hiss.
In the end, I could find no setting on this device that would allow one to use it for playing a guitar. It goes to hum then nasty deep base hiss if any of the signal controls are raised to any degree.
I tried every knob individually, then in combination but never found a setting that I could use while playing. This is not even close to what I had expected. I even went so far as to cut off the Piezo rod and attach a 27 mm Piezo disc. No change......
Actually, with no Piezo attached at all, the thing makes nasty noises.
I contacted the seller and we did the 24 hr delayed communication dance. They offered be a refund equal to about half of my expense and said I could keep the unit as a "back up". I responded that, while I didn't want to incur the expense for mailing the unit back to China, I thought that half-refund was a bit light. I also noted that should I retain the unit it would go directly into the trash can as it was totally unusable. Eventually, I got a refund for about 3/4 of my expense.
So, who has one of these? Can you tell me if it can be made to actually work?
Tags:
I read and marked the review as helpful.
I didn't get the "can't be returned" line, but they wanted to negotiate the refund. Funny.
In the end it costs me a few bucks which I chalked up to experience. The most valuable being that I should not order things not fulfilled by Amazon since they quickly wash there hands if there is a problem.
I'll keep looking for a decent preamp/equalizer that will help tame piezo output.
Thanks for the response.
Thanks. I got an email from Amazon telling me about this "if I could not resolve with seller".
I think I could have badgered the seller for a full refund, but I just wanted to be done with it. If it cost me $4.00, that's just the price of experience. I'll check our your suggested preamp.
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