Anyone who tries to play acoustic guitar live onstage knows that feedback is an issue when you're turned up loud. For years, Weir used both an undersaddle pickup and a small microphone in his Alvarez guitars, running them into (I think Pendulum) separate preamps, then using high pass/low pass filters to mix the two signals to get it sounding like he wanted without having feedback issues. It worked, apparently, judging by his use of acoustic guitars onstage with the Dead in the 90s, as well as Ratdog, etc.
He got together with the folks at Pigtronix to put this idea into a stomp box, with two sweepable filters. You can use it either with two inputs -- undersaddle and mic -- or just a single input -- like an undersaddle -- and then adjust the levels and sweeps of the two filters to get the guitar loud and eliminate feedback.
Or, at least, that's the idea.
I got one and, as far as I can tell, it does nothing at all. I tried it with a Martin OMCPA-1, a Blackbird Lucky 13 and a Gibson L-00, all with undersaddle pickups, and was rewarded with howls of feedback when the guitar was turned up, and lackluster sound when it was turned down low enough where it wouldn't feed back. It didn't matter how much I played with the levels, sweeps, phase, etc. ... the guitar was unplayable. I was running it into a full-range floor wedge like you would encounter at a gig. Running the same guitars into an LR Baggs Venue preamp, the notch filter was easily able to dial out the feedback and the guitars were perfectly usable. And yes, I was setting the controls as recommended, and also set them as not recommended, no dice.
Pretty disappointing ... perhaps it works better with a two-source setup, but I have my doubts. I was doing a rare solo acoustic gig, and really wanted to use the Martin with this preamp. Luckily, Sweetwater screwed up the shipping and it came the day after the gig, because had I tried to use it on the fly, it would have been a disaster.
I wound up playing a Rick Turner Renaissance RS-6 guitar direct, and it was fine, that guitar will not feedback no matter how loud the monitors are, preamp or no preamp. That, I can recommend. The Real Deal ... not such a great deal. Curious to hear if anyone else tried it out, couple of other bad reviews online.
As always, YMMV -- your mileage may vary.
He got together with the folks at Pigtronix to put this idea into a stomp box, with two sweepable filters. You can use it either with two inputs -- undersaddle and mic -- or just a single input -- like an undersaddle -- and then adjust the levels and sweeps of the two filters to get the guitar loud and eliminate feedback.
Or, at least, that's the idea.
I got one and, as far as I can tell, it does nothing at all. I tried it with a Martin OMCPA-1, a Blackbird Lucky 13 and a Gibson L-00, all with undersaddle pickups, and was rewarded with howls of feedback when the guitar was turned up, and lackluster sound when it was turned down low enough where it wouldn't feed back. It didn't matter how much I played with the levels, sweeps, phase, etc. ... the guitar was unplayable. I was running it into a full-range floor wedge like you would encounter at a gig. Running the same guitars into an LR Baggs Venue preamp, the notch filter was easily able to dial out the feedback and the guitars were perfectly usable. And yes, I was setting the controls as recommended, and also set them as not recommended, no dice.
Pretty disappointing ... perhaps it works better with a two-source setup, but I have my doubts. I was doing a rare solo acoustic gig, and really wanted to use the Martin with this preamp. Luckily, Sweetwater screwed up the shipping and it came the day after the gig, because had I tried to use it on the fly, it would have been a disaster.
I wound up playing a Rick Turner Renaissance RS-6 guitar direct, and it was fine, that guitar will not feedback no matter how loud the monitors are, preamp or no preamp. That, I can recommend. The Real Deal ... not such a great deal. Curious to hear if anyone else tried it out, couple of other bad reviews online.
As always, YMMV -- your mileage may vary.
*****
Check out my original record at http://vicderobertis.com
or https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/crook ... d978388845
http://leftyguitarsonly.com
http://www.playingdead.net
Check out my original record at http://vicderobertis.com
or https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/crook ... d978388845
http://leftyguitarsonly.com
http://www.playingdead.net