What Is a Piezo Guitar?
Acoustic guitars have beautiful tones, but are often not loud enough to be heard in a large venue or as part of a larger musical ensemble. A number of techniques have been developed over the years, from the mechanical resonator guitar and 12-string guitars to the development of the electric guitar, to overcome this shortcoming. Recently, many acoustic guitars have started to use piezo pickups to amplify the sound while maintaining an acoustic quality.
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The Pickup
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A piezo electric pickup starts with a crystal that generates a current as it vibrates. This signal mimics the vibrations in an acoustic guitar body.
The Preamp
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The signal created by the crystal is too small for most amplifiers to use. Because of this, guitars with piezo electric pickups have a built-in battery powered pre-amp.
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Tone Controls
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Most pre-amplifiers on piezo electric pickup equipped acoustic guitars have a built-in graphic equalizer to help both shape the sound to be more natural and to remove certain frequencies that could cause amplifier feedback.
Other Controls
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The pre-amp will usually have an output volume control and may also have a button to cut off output between songs. This button is to prevent feedback.
Using Piezo Guitars in High Volume Situations
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Piezo equipped acoustic guitars tend to have feedback problems at higher volumes. Many people will stuff a guitar with cloth or cotton or cover the sound hole to minimize this feedback.
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References
- Photo Credit Photo: Leslie Watts, stock.xchng
