the Fly Clone Project

So, I’ve been a fly player for 30 years now. Always thought it kinda cool they have piezos, but never used them for more than a short novelty at home due to the music I play and owning an acoustic. as a result most of my flies are all modded so the piezo circuit is normally bypassed, then it doesn’t need a battery, it works with vintage germanium fuzzes (that don’t like buffers in front of them) and I gain a kill switch from the piezo selector (normally I’m more likely to use that than the piezos)! But they’re always wired so I can pull up the push-pull pot I replaced piezo volume with, and it’s back to standard wiring with smart switching.

Anyway, recently I was building a new pedal board. The input jack I was using gave me an idea because it was stereo. Wire the ring (piezo) out to acoustic things. Then I can just plug a regular mono lead in for my usual 99%, but I have the option of get a high quality TRS cable and can have acoustic DI out from the board. So, board’s built for all the other stuff (and already gigged). I’ve got a behringer DI box. I’ve just ordered a decent TRS cable. So once that’s sorted I should be good to go. But I have questions since I’ve never done this before…

Since it’s a passive DI box will the Parker piezo signal happily drive all my guitar lead, the passive DI box, then all the way back to the mixing desk? Or do use some kind of DI box.

Since my amp is grounded is it a safe bet I’ll need the DI box set to ground lift? I can switch it on the day if necessary but if it’s buried under a shelf on the board I’ll just switch it to ground lift if your experience says that’ll need to be on 99% of the time.

I was watching an interview with John Pettrucci’s guitar tech. He uses piezos in his music man guitar. In the interview he said he used a TC electronic bodyrez pedal to give the piezo a more natural sound. Do any of you use anything similar? I did ponder if you do this it would also add a buffer on the pedalboard between the guitar and DI to FOH. So might kill 2 birds with one stone as such. Have you tried any of these acoustic piezo improving contraptions? Or do they just sound fine without and can happily drive many feet of cable all the way with no issues. Not much space on this board so don’t want to put acoustic related things on it for no reason, especially since I currently don’t even know how much I’ll use them.

Any other useful Parker piezo tips for a piezo noob? (Other than don’t forget a battery if you never normally need one!)

Piplodocus wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 11:39 am Have you tried any of these acoustic piezo improving contraptions?

I gig out with a Fishman Aura Sixteen and my Fly Concert—here’s a demo:



In my studio, I like to track the piezo with my Flys on a separate channel and dial it in with a clean sound to add a little clarity to the notes—not enough that you’d notice that the piezo is there, but just to add some articulation that can sometimes get lost comparatively with magnetic pickups.

I use the AxeFxIII and I get excellent results with that. I use the tone match function or sometimes I have just downloaded some impulse responses from the net and use that. I’m not able to post a demo right now, but the results are fantastic.

Honestly, 99.9% of the time I use the piezo mixed with the mags (piezo EQ set fully counter-clockwise so minimum treble), it gives the sound a little boost and more body.

A week ago I received a Y cable for my Flys. I don't gig but I will start recording in a week or so. When I want to use the mag+piezo I will be recording (FM9) two separate tracks just to be able to balance mag/piezo during the mix.

I don't gig so I am not sure what I would do in this scenario. I've tried the piezo several times on a tube amp and it sounds fantastic when both clean and crancked so chances are I wouldn't go on different amps for mag and piezo unless I really wanted a very clean and as realistic as possible acoustic guitar sound. But I am not an acoustic guitar sound lover, so...

Somewhere that I couldn't find is a rig rundown of Pete Townshend's gear. I think it's his guitar tech they interview, but it might be Pete, and he gives a very clear demonstration of how he blends piezo into his sound and when he uses it and why. Its worth your time.

It was a print interview where he explains that which aimed me at the fly.

Well, that and the damned Outside tour.

https://guitar.com/features/exclusive-u ... -live-rig/



I stand corrected.

Thanks for the thoughts.