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Baggs LB-6, passive piezo pickup question.


Pepperland

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I've been thinking about buying a used J-200, circa 1990. It has an Baggs LB-6 pickup, (passive piezo, no controls).

I have no experience with acoustic pickups. I was strictly an electric player up until about 4 years ago.

 

My question is, can I plug this into an amp without any other device in the chain, and obtain an acceptable result?

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I've been thinking about buying a used J-200, circa 1990. It has an Baggs LB-6 pickup, (passive piezo, no controls).

I have no experience with acoustic pickups. I was strictly an electric player up until about 4 years ago.

 

My question is, can I plug this into an amp without any other device in the chain, and obtain an acceptable result?

 

The answer is a definite NO... ummm... YES.... well... Maybe!

 

It all depends. Yes, you can plug a passive LB-6 into an amplifier and crank the volume up. You'll get a rather thin and noisy sound. Piezo's sound thin to start with!

 

If you want it to sound even halfway decent, you'll want to put the signal through a pre-amp first. Even a little Acoustic pedal like the Zoom A2 acoustic will do. It will jack up the signal so you'll have a fuller, richer, more resonant sound with better sustain regardless of what amp you are running it through. You can get some acoustic amps with built in preamps as well. Or you can purchase a really good preamp that is already matched for the LB-6; the LRBaggs GigPro.

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The answer is a definite NO... ummm... YES.... well... Maybe!

 

It all depends. Yes, you can plug a passive LB-6 into an amplifier and crank the volume up. You'll get a rather thin and noisy sound. Piezo's sound thin to start with!

 

If you want it to sound even halfway decent, you'll want to put the signal through a pre-amp first. Even a little Acoustic pedal like the Zoom A2 acoustic will do. It will jack up the signal so you'll have a fuller, richer, more resonant sound with better sustain regardless of what amp you are running it through. You can get some acoustic amps with built in preamps as well. Or you can purchase a really good preamp that is already matched for the LB-6; the LRBaggs GigPro.

 

Thank you. I figured it would need a preamp of some sort, appreciate your help.

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