Acoustic electric with no volume or tone controls; What can I do?

[Ralph124C41]

As I posted in another thread on Saturday I traded my Alvarez AJ-80 jumbo acoustic (no pickup) for a Guild Memoir DS-240 and $100 in my wallet. The Guild also began life as a non-electric but the seller installed two passive pickups. One is the common soundhole type and the other is some sort of piezo pickup. For the latter he drilled a hole in the bottom of the guitar but he seems to have done a good job.

The piezo I think sounds OK and the other ... makes noise. The thing is there are no volume and tone controls and I would like to use the guitar at an open mic I started attending. One good thing is that with the two pickups I think I could send one line to the P.A. system and the other to maybe a monitor or small amp (I'm thinking my Fender G-Dec 3 Thirty because it has about 8 acoustic simulation presets).

What can I add to adjust the volume and tone, especially the volume? Years ago there was a cheap device that you could plug into your guitar and then the cable is inserted into it. You could adjust the volume and I think the tone that way. I found one device that sells for about $50 that I think just regulates the volume. I did find some product on eBay for under $20 that promises to let you regulate the volume and tone. It's made in China and has ABS construction. The only review I've found so far said it didn't work essentially.

Then In thought about using some kind of pedal to regulate the volume and tone ... maybe a clean boost, maybe just an EQ pedal ... but that would be hard to do on the fly I think.

One other possible solution is that the G-Dec 3 Thirty has a stereo line out that is made to work with a P.A. or similar system. The manual recommends using a TSR cable (I will buy one or two). I remember using it with a standard guitar cable years ago when I had a small Kuston P.A. system and it seems to work OK. However I want to test it so I don't damage the house P.A. system. If that works then all I have to is connect my guitar to the G-Dec and then connect the G-Dec to the P.A. and I can control the tone and volume through the amp. I will have to maybe buy an amp stand (or borrow a chair) so I can easily adjust the volume and tone.

So any ideas if the G-Dec arrangement doesn't work out?

 

[dbrian66]

Does the guitar now have two output jacks? One for each pickup?

All of the piezo systems I have installed for people always had a small control unit that is installed inside the guitar on the edge of the sound hole. Normally just two small thumb wheels. One for volume and the other tone/voice. If yours doesn’t have that, your EQ pedal idea is probably the best.

 

[Ralph124C41]

Does the guitar now have two output jacks? One for each pickup?

All of the piezo systems I have installed for people always had a small control unit that is installed inside the guitar on the edge of the sound hole. Normally just two small thumb wheels. One for volume and the other tone/voice. If yours doesn’t have that, your EQ pedal idea is probably the best.

Yes it has two output jacks. No controls.

Even my $10 soundhole pickup I got from Donner has a volume and tone control. But I made a mess out of installing it so maybe I loosened a wire or something because it works but you need a powerful amp to hear it.

Here is the soundhole pickup

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/2251832638838510.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

Btw, I now see there are two other models in this series, the "06" has a volume control and the "09" has both volume and tone controls. Mine is the "02" and has neither. It does look nice, though.



I don't know anything about the piezo pickup but I will see the seller this week at the open mic and I will ask him.

Yes I do think the EQ pedal would work. It's an Ammoon EQ-7, seven-band EQ with 15 db adjustment per band and volume. I rarely use it. I would buy one of those 9-volt battery converter things so I won't have to lug the pedal and a wall wart to the open mic. I just wanted something more easily accessible. I will try it out at home.

 

[dkwallis]

a volume pedal and an eq pedal.

 

[Ralph124C41]

a volume pedal and an eq pedal.

That's my thought too, except I may be able to get away with just the EQ pedal and use the dB cut and plus lever to control the volume.

I also thought of something else to declutter stuff. I can attach (somehow) the small mini-EQ pedal to a guitar strap and then connect a short cable to the guitar input. I found a 9 volt battery adapter so I could rig that up with a battery and attach (somehow) to the pedal.

I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like it should work. That 7-band EQ should also really let me shape the sound.

 

[vintageguitarz]

a volume pedal and an eq pedal.

BRAVO .... the RIGHT answer!!

In the OLD DAYS, when fine Acoustic first had a pickup, whether a Peizo Electric or Electro Magnetic, there WERE NO CONTROLS!!

Reason was:
1) the sound from the guitar WAS THE SOUND of the guitar and the control board operator or Recording Operator was to control how much volume (and maybe tone) was to be HEARD or Recorded to the other instruments.

2) If you have a fine instrument, you should HEAR the original tone the instrument makes but amplified. A volume pot, if you MUST have one, no matter how good, or Expensive, WILL add some noise to the output signal.

So make the volume adjustments AT the Amp or "Board" instead.

If that is inconvenient, that use the best volume pedal you can afford.