Hi All, MT in Brisbane Au :) Acoustic Amplification

[Martin Timothy]

I practice best when playing thru headphones and use Korg Pandora PX3 and PX5D Multi Effects Processors.

With an electric guitar both provide only a barely adequate level of volume to the headphones, unless heavily distorted preset programs are selected. With an electric acoustic guitar and an acoustic with a sound hole pickup, the level of volume is entirely inadequate, similarly unless heavily distorted presets are selected.

Thus playing an acoustic twelve string with a Seymour Duncan sound hole pickup thru the PX5D, with Preset 33 Acoustic there is absolutely no amplification, despite both volume controls are set to maximum .. the PX3 is exactly the same!

I would appreciate any advice .. MT

[Martin Timothy]

I was gonna say thanx for the replies .. but we didn't get any

Studying more, a kind dude at an amplifier outlet explained the high yield humbucker pickups on the electric guitar, provided enough power to overcome the resistance built into the Pandora, while the lower yield acoustic sound hole pickups never did.

That the amplification provided when highly distorted presets are selected, is because of compression and other effects added by the unit.

We got around the problem firstly by installing the Peterman acoustic pickup as shown above, then by turning volume up full bore on the PX5D and using the TAP - BYPASS switch to put the unit into tuner mode.

And using the attenuator switch on the Peterman to provide a tad of ambiance .. ticketty boo we are in business, with a clean clear acoustic tone coming thru the headphones!

[barry murphy]

Martin .It does happen. Don't be alarmed. We seem to be a curious breed because we don't buy much korg in oz. I'm in Urunga NSW by the way.
Theres also karmathan ever(pete) rikkibears(rikki) and someone in VIC with pa3x that I know of. Good luck.
baz

[Martin Timothy]

Good luck..

Thanks for the reply BM

Korg Pandoras have a setting for either low output pickups as per an acoustic or electric acoustic guitar, or high output pickups on an electric guitar .. their manuals are quite explicit about it all and explain how to adjust for tone and ambiance, when I carried out those same instructions the problem disappeared.. maybe if I had read the manual first we could have saved a lot of trouble!

The blue Pandora PX3 I used for a long time, was drowned when torrential rain went thru the window of my miners cabin in Gove in Northern Australia, it never dried out properly and was completely unusable, I obtained the metallic tone Pandora PX5D as a replacement.

When the probs with the acoustic pickup arose, I checked the PX3 which had dried out by then to see it it would work, when it did not I started sending messages across the i'net declaiming both models .. there could be a lesson in it all, I dunno about that either!

The guitar pictured above looks, sounds and plays like a dream it cost 75$ on EBay