Hello, i want to add some piezo and a preamp on an ABG. It's a Resonator bass (Regal RG-05E) that come with passive Lipstick Pickups (no infos). I dont want to drill any holes on the body, it has 2 knobs (Tone/Volume). I figured out that stacked knob could do the trick, but still not sure on what kind of configuration. (Volume/Volume + Bass/Treble or Volume/Blend + Bass/Treble) I was thinking putting the EMG BTC Control cause im familiar with it on my Electric. And adding this Schatten RG-03 piezo for Resonator Guitar and keeping the stock lipstick pickup (didn't found any better reference for now) Im confortable with soldering i've done some repairs on an passive bass in the past and fixed some Handheld Consoles, but's thats about it with my history with bass electronics. So my questions might seem a bit dumb. How should a wire this ? what kind of stacked pots i should use (250/500) ? and is there anything to check before connecting the two pickups together on the BTC Control ? Am i suppose to ground an ABG resonator ? Thanks.
Combining a piezo with magnetic pickups will require some sort of buffer circuit to match the impedances. The BTC won’t work well with the piezo by itself, as its input impedance is too low. I have used a PZP-1 Piezo Buffer | Cafe Walter Audio to do this in the past. There are other options as well.
Thanks @ctmullins let me see if i get this right. The piezo is wired to that buffer, then wired to the EMG CT Preamp with the magnetic pickup. The magnetic pickup doesn't need to be wired to the buffer. But it seems wrong. There's two versions of the buffer one with one 9V battery and another with two 9v for active electronics. So im kinda confused.
The Cafe Walter can run on 9v or 18v, no problem. But you’ll want some way of switching or blending between the piezo and the lipstick. I’ll work up a diagram for you a little later today!
@ctmullins that's very nice thank you, i could use a diagram. Since i have only 2 holes available (sounds dirty said like that) Do you think that blending the pickups with a double volume stacked pot could work ? I mean like a Volume for the magnetic and Volume for the piezo. Or just a Master Volume + Blend would be better ?
Actually if blend is an option then you might be able to use one of these buffered blends designed to mix magnetic and piezo, instead of the Cafe Walter: Noll Mixpot - Best Bass Gear Richter MX2 Active Piezo and Magnetic Mixer - Best Bass Gear But that wouldn’t leave a hole for the BTC...
When i said blend i was thinking with stacked pot with a Master-Volume but maybe im getting it wrong. I would rather avoid going to a luther just to drill a hole in my ABG, and im not confident with doing wood work on an acoustic by myself. (Plus if i can avoid altering it too much, its always cool)
Here's a conceptual diagram for how I have one of my basses wired. This will still require three knobs - one for either a passive blend or a pickup selector switch, one for the EMG BTC, and one for volume. You could do this with two holes if you omitted the selector switch/blend, which would mean running both pickups together all the time, which may or may not sound good to you.
Thanks i get it better now. Could a Stacked pot with Push/Pull and Volume/Volume could exit the switch/blend ?
Stacked pots with push/pull are rare and expensive. But a normal push/pull volume pot could be used to switch from piezo to lipstick, or maybe from lipstick to piezo+lipstick. That would only require two holes.
Well i guess if i want the BTC i have to go to a luther. My local luther is a drunken butcher, so i might need to go farther from my home :') But it seems i can't avoid the drilling part... I thought i could do the blending manually with a double volume stacked pot. My first bass was an Ibanez GSR200 that got two separate volume knobs for the precision pups and the jazz bridge i guessed wrong that it would work the same if they where stacked. Thanks for your help.
A stacked volume might work. The main thing is making sure the piezo is properly buffered before the volume control.
I guess i can always try in that configuration, and then if it doesn't work like i want. I could go to the luther for the three hole configuration.