Riaan C wrote:
Upon plugging it in, I noticed that there was power to the unit, but no signal from it to my guitar - hence this query.
You have probably cracked the circuit-board. The plastic casing on the ME-5 doesn't offer much in the way of protection.
I use a Cort GVT that I bought from Alan
I'm familiar with it. ? Graph Tech saddles and Acoustaphonic preamp, same as all my piezo-equipped guitars. It's an active (battery operated) preamp and has a low-Z output, so you don't need a DI box between guitar and desk. But - as you have discovered - it's a pretty full frequency range sound, so you'll usually have to carve out some mids and extreme lows to make space in your mix for the vox and electric guitar.
Which brings me to the point of the post: is there an accepted mid-range in which acoustic guitars (more specifically electric guitars with piezzo pickups) sound best at?
It's dependant on the mix. You'll find it's similar to any piezo acoustic tone, so you approach it the same. As always with EQ, it's more about what you cut than what you boost, and moderation is usually the key:
1. Use your high-pass filter to get rid of the very low frequency "mud" (unless you are doing percussive stuff as I do and need major "thump" to fake kick drums), and leave space for the kick drum and bass guitar. The high-pass basically cuts everything below a particular frequency, only letting the higher frequencies past (hence "high-pass"). On your Yammy mixer the high pass is the button just below the gain (with "80" under the symbol for a high pass filter). Not applicable here, as your High-pass filter frequency is fixed, but often in a full band mix (you're still playing with backing tracks, right?), up to 120 Hz will work even better (sometimes even up to 150 Hz).
2. Your mid range is semi-parametric - basically a tunable midrange control. With just a single parametric mid, the best application is to cut some frequency spectrum to make space in the mix for other instruments. This will take some experimentation, but it's going to be in the lower mids, right down at the bottom of the range- 250 - 350Hz. Usually a 3dB cut is enough (each line on the dial will usually be 3dB), up to 6dB on a very fat/boomy guitar. More than that is a sign that something else is wrong... (TIP: parametrics are great for finding the trouble frequencies you want to cut or the "magic" you want to boost - set the
3. To get the guitar's acoustic qualities to cut through, another 3dB or so of boost with the high shelving EQ will make it stand out without taking much more power.
4. After the above, theguitar might sound a little thin by itself - don't worry, it'll sit right in the mix.
Something else - In a full band mix (real or backing tracks) a little compression can work wonders to get your acoustic guitar to sit better in the mix - especially when you have electric guitars in there too (which are naturally compressed by the amp). I haven't used the Yammy one-knob compressors, but I would guess somewhere between 9 and 12 o' clock will be enough. Key to compression is enough to make the instrument/voice to sit nicely in the mix, but not enough to hear or feel an obvious "squash" to the sound. Takes a little practice to learn exactly what to listen for, but if you always err on the side of caution, you'll be OK.
Add some reverb to taste and you should be golden...
Last question: I've though of using one of those XLR-1/4" jack adapter goodies to try and boost the guitar's piezzo signal until I can get the ME-5 fixed.
A DI box? Nope - Mic inputs are very low impedance and tons of gain that you shouldn't need unless the acoustic lacks a preamp. As long as you have enough gain on the line input, you don't resort to using the mic input. Pro level desks have a wider gain range on the XLR inputs, able to take anything from mic to line level, but on prosumer desks like yours, the XLR are usually made for mics and the jacks for line level only.
