Ideas for an L.R. Baggs X-Bridge

[Zaman]

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, but I bought an L.R. Baggs American Standard Strat X-Bridge piezo tremolo system. Does anyone have any good ideas for how to wire this baby up? Should I use one output jack or two? Should I ditch the middle tone knob and make it the piezo volume? Etc, etc, etc.

Put on your thinking caps and fire away

 

[JaySwear]

i had a power telecaster that had a piezo system as well as 3 passive pickups. was a really cool design! obviously the thing ran off of battery power, so i couldn't leave the chord plugged in when the guitar wasn't in use.

anyway, i think i'd make the middle tone a master tone and make the second tone into a piezo volume. as for how to wire it up... i'm not completely sure :-\ i believe piezo systems need specialized pots to work correctly since they're an active pickup. you should be able to use the same output though i would think. my power telecaster only had one output and i could use the piezo, passive pickups, or both if i wanted to

 

[Zaman]

Thanks, Jay. It actually comes with the pots and jack. I've seen some guys on YouTube have it set up where they have just one output jack and  switch from magnetic to piezo with the flip of a switch and I'm very interested in something like that.

i had a power telecaster that had a piezo system as well as 3 passive pickups. was a really cool design! obviously the thing ran off of battery power, so i couldn't leave the chord plugged in when the guitar wasn't in use.

anyway, i think i'd make the middle tone a master tone and make the second tone into a piezo volume. as for how to wire it up... i'm not completely sure :-\ i believe piezo systems need specialized pots to work correctly since they're an active pickup. you should be able to use the same output though i would think. my power telecaster only had one output and i could use the piezo, passive pickups, or both if i wanted to

 

[BigBeard]

I can chime in on this a bit.  I have the T-bridge in my WGD.  I originally wired it up mono with no preamp and honestly it didn't work out very well.  I think you want to use their control-x preamp in the guitar and wire it up to their specs.  It really works great with their setup.  You get a blended signal that doesn't lose any fidelity in any settings, and also you get the active signal.  When it is blended I am pretty sure you are getting an active signal with your passive pickups too.  I find myself using the control-x in it's blended position all the time, even with the t-bridge blended out of the signal completely.  I don't know exactly how their pre works techincally, but I know I get the best tone out of my DiMarzio's when I run them through the pre.  I didn't get a good blended signal before I put in the pre, and the master volume acted funny, sometimes I would get no t-bridge sometimes no mags, depending on which was on first....  Again I don't know why that happened technically, but it didn't work the way I envisioned it when I built.  After the pre install, everything worked the way I had intended.  I would really recommend you lay down the $90 for the contro-X preamp and you will get alll the versitility you desire, with none of the quirks of not using one.  With their setup, you can decide between a mono output of blended signals, or a stereo output with the mags and piezo split, two amps

 

[Zaman]

Thanks, BigBeard. I'm actually looking for the versatility of being able to output to two amps: One for the magnetic pickups and the other for the Piezo. I'm not too keen on the videos I've seen of people just turning the volume knobs up and down on each to get either an electric or piezo signal. What if I'm plugged into a Mesa Rectifier? That won't be a pretty acoustic sound lol.

I think you're right about the Control-X. Its just that I don't want to drop $90! I'll have to lurk on eBay for that I guess. Thanks for your input!

 

[BigBeard]

Thanks, BigBeard. I'm actually looking for the versatility of being able to output to two amps: One for the magnetic pickups and the other for the Piezo. I'm not too keen on the videos I've seen of people just turning the volume knobs up and down on each to get either an electric or piezo signal. What if I'm plugged into a Mesa Rectifier? That won't be a pretty acoustic sound lol.

I think you're right about the Control-X. Its just that I don't want to drop $90! I'll have to lurk on eBay for that I guess. Thanks for your input!

I think you are on the right path.  With the control-X, you will have that versitility!!  I don't know why LR Baggs doesn't just include the pre in a package.  Even though you don't 'need' the pre, their system is designed to use with one.

You can use the mags in an amp and run the piezo directly into a mixer or PA, as the signal for the piezo is designed to do that.  You could pan the signal to one side of the PA and your guitar amp to the other side if you are using a stereo board!!