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Permalink Reply by Bob Lumpkin on February 23, 2012 at 10:44am

More info needed. Do you want to buy or build some effect pedals? Been working on some on & off for a few weeks & it ain't easy. All depends on the quality of your PC boards or kits. ( I recommend kits to start) I have some extra alumn. boxes for most effects if you need one. Beware of some of the Chineese PC boards. E-mail me & I'll turn you on to some sites to get kits & stuff.

If you just want to buy some cheap pedals try Rouge. I have a comp & a chorus that are good as any. Find them on sale. Some Danelectro are good but watch out for the plastic cases. MXR & Boss are great but not real cheap.

Good luck, hope that helped.

Bob 

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Dubman on February 23, 2012 at 5:53pm

Used, in working or fixable shape.  I've built from schematics, but I usually spend 2 weeks obsessing over how to cram everything into the least amount of space.  That's in addition to time spent chasing after parts.  Kits would be ideal. I still get the chance to do a pretty soldering job.

For ready to go, Danelectro looks hard to beat for variety and price.  Plastic case?  It breaks, it's easy to fix, and battle scars add mojo. 

What are the most useful effects for a cigar box played Delta blues style, i.e. Jimmy Page / When the Levee Breaks?  Something that gives a healthy bit of extra presence to an otherwise thin-sounding piezo disc.  Distortion?  Bass boost?  Reverb?

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Permalink Reply by Mark Bliss on February 24, 2012 at 12:52am

I think that sharing some experience on what works (or doesnt) with piezos could be a useful side discussion.

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Dubman on February 24, 2012 at 8:21pm

Which is, of course, the first consideration.  I assume whatever acoustic guitar effects are available would work best?

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Permalink Reply by Tres Seaver on February 25, 2012 at 3:48pm

I've fooled a bit with software effects on a "raw" piezo signal for slide blues:  I find that compressing the signal a bit before adding drive / overdrive seems to make for a "warmer" / "thicker" sound (more like a straight mag pup).

YMMV, of course.  A lot depends on the rest of the chain (i.e., getting the "high-Z" tolerance needed to get the clearest signal from the piezo).

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Permalink Reply by Mark Bliss on February 26, 2012 at 2:54am

Thanks tres,

I was messing around with a straight piezo set up yesterday, found that going into my interface the signal was slightly on the weak side, proving the theory that a little preamp is a good idea, but it works.

I went with a chain that was:

1. Virtual tube preamp on a "warm" wetting
2. Moderate software compression to even out the dynamic range and fatten things up a touch.
3. A virtual amp set on a warm bluesy tone.

Sounded pretty good, acceptable and fun! But I can see where a real preamp might really be a good idea as I had to turn up the interface input higher than ideal, and was getting some funny noises as a result.

That said, I really was asking for the benefit of those who use standard stomp box effects. I have heard and imagine that some of them just dont work well at all with piezos.

I would love to experiment with some acoustic guitar outboard gear though, there is some interesting stuff. One I was particularly intrigued by is a Korg box designed for piezos that was not only a pre, but had some simulation settings, stuff like clean acoustic, chorus, and so on would be easy enough, but then I saw stuff like resonator guitar and similar variations and became very interested. Wouldnt that be cool?

 

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Permalink Reply by Seaman Jay on February 24, 2012 at 2:26am

If you don't know -- take a multieffect box (Behringer FX600 for "cheap", Korg Toneworks AX3G for own effect combinations) and explore the possibilities...

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on February 26, 2012 at 6:04am

Cheap pedals are used pedals. I just got a used Dano BLT (echo) for $10, I think thats cheap. I'll let you know how it does with the piezo later. 

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on February 26, 2012 at 12:38pm

Multi fx are a pain in the butt unless u got the time to learn to program them I think individual pedals are a lot more fun
Cheap fx are great I love em. But cheap over drives and distortions are generally shote, stik with the modulation and time based stuff and get a decent overdrive. Just my opinion. If you don't have a preamp for your piezo the very best pedal you can get for it in my experience is the little green boss enhancer pedal. And an eq pedal to cut the highs and boost the mids
And if u wanna plug it to your computer or digital recorder you really need a compressor / limiter. Otherwise by the time you tame the spikes so ur not clipping the ad converters you got no headroom left

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