Radial Engineering
Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Instrument Preamp
Specifications
- $299.99
- Preamps
- Acoustic Preamp
- Radial Engineering
- New
It all starts with great tone!
As with all Radial products, all efforts have been made to ensure the very best and natural transfer of the instrument’s tone is maintained. The PZ-Pre features 100% discreet class-A piezo boost circuitry (PZB) to provide the most musical transfer plus a high efficiency preamp designed reduce distortion and noise while maximizing headroom.
Inputs:
There are two inputs on the PZ-Pre. Each of these may be used independently for two instruments or combined using the blend (mix) function. These can be used with instruments equipped with a built-in preamp such as an acoustic-electric guitar or using an external buffer from a piezo type source.
Input select:
The instrument select footswitch lets you chose which instrument is active by selecting the input channel. Adjusting the level controls lets you control the level for each instrument or pickup and balance the tone as needed.
PZB boosters:
Each input is also equipped with a piezo booster (PZB) that allows a low output pickup such as a piezo electric element to be connected without the use of an external preamp. The ultra-high fidelity of the class-A piezo booster coupled with the high 10 meg ohm input impedance assures you get the best signal transfer without distortion or degradation.
Blend:
The blend allows you to accept two sources and mix the two channels together. This is a welcome addition for instruments that may have two pickups built-in or when combining two sound sources. You can even have two guitarists connected at the same time for a jam!
High-pass filter:
Acoustic instruments are notorious for on-stage feedback and runaway resonance. A three position high-pass filter (which means that it reduces the low frequencies) is extremely effective at getting rid of runaway resonance which often causes harmonics to feedback. This also serves to get rid of low end rumble that can cause a mix to sound muddy.
Notch filter:
The size of the instrument determines its tone and resonance, which in turn can cause feedback. This is addressed by providing a variable notch filter with two different Q’s or notch depths that lets you dial in the offending frequency and eliminate run-away feedback.
Semi-parametric EQ:
Once again, since all instruments are different, the PZ-Pre’s tone shaping has been designed to address the various characters with a 3-nand EQ and semi-parametric mid range control. This simple yet highly effective EQ is lets you dial in the sweet-spot for the most natural and dynamic tone.
180º Phase reverse:
Technically speaking, this is actually a polarity reverse switch that lets you control the internal polarity of the signal path before it reaches your on-stage amp. It is used to help reduce feedback on stage when the physical location of the performer, the monitors and the stage amp coincide to cause a feedback hot-spot.
Power Booster:
This foot switch lets you activate the power booster for soloing or add-in effects using the inserts send & receive jacks. For instance, you could add a chorus and slight boost for a passage. The power booster assign switch lets you assign the boost footswitch to activate the power booster, the effects loop or both. Adjust the power boost level to suit!
Mute and tuner out:
A mute switch lets you easily silence all of the outputs except the tuner out for quiet tuning on stage. The tuner output is separately buffered so that it does not load the pickup or allow tuner clocking circuit to cause noise.
Instrument out:
This is a buffered output that is designed to drive an on-stage amplifier.
Balanced DI outputs:
The PZ-Pre is equipped with two direct boxes: one is pre-effect, pre-EQ that sends the unprocessed instrument signal to the PA system to allow the house engineer to set the tone for the room. The second is post-effect, post-EQ for on-stage wedge monitors or in-ears. This is used when you want to send ‘your’ sound to the PA system.
