Graph Tech Acousti-Phonic Kit - Advanced

Excelente

The media could not be loaded. Ordered advanced kit and thought I had recieved basic because there was only the one box. Mid/dark pot and three-way were inside the box instead of their own as pictured. Instructions were desiged to accomodate every type of installation with every modular componant possible so it was mildly annoying having to flip around to figure out the setup I wanted. I’ve rewired several guitars in my life and this project wasn’t super difficult but it was time consuming because I was being super careful. I Installed into an SG, I removed the wood between the pickups and installed a rear facing battery box so I wouldn’t have to fiddle with removing the pickgaurd or control plate to access battery. There wouldn’t have been enough room in either place without removing wood anyways. Because I installed the chip between the pups, i had to splice length into all of the prewired accessories and coil up the extra length from the piezo bridge pickups and stuff it under the magnetic bridge pickup.This thing is super convincing. Installed this mod to play at church. Even though the mod was a pain, it’s absolutly worth it to not have to carry a second guitar to church. It’s a covert install with only the threeway switch being extra. My next upgrade will be going to the Helix floor processor so I can go directly into the PA instead of lugging around an amp and pedalboard.

The output is a bit high for the acoustic saddles. I can't have the volume set any higher than 8 or it will overdrive any amp I have it going into, even my acoustic guitar amp. It has a lovely chime that is quite convincing. I'm told it is one of the best sounding from a number of techs and unfortunately I have nothing to compare it to. My acoustic electrics will typically feed back on a loud stage but give a better acoustic sound as they are acoustic guitars. This system will handle a lot more stage volume than a hollow acoustic guitar and has the added bonus of being able to run 2 outputs at the same time from 1 guitar (a dry acoustic to board or acoustic amp and a "wet" post effects magnetic output to guitar amps) meaning a more interesting and complex sound and potentially reducing the number of guitars I'd have to bring to a gig. The response is excellent and very tactile. One thing I didn't realize is that it converts the magnetics to active so if your 9v battery dies, you have no output from the guitar and there is no way to adjust the balance between the mags and the piezo, just a universal preamp gain adjustment. I will have to tweak the preamp to get the output balanced to my other guitars so the system needs some test and tune time. a bit pricey with the piezo saddles and installation, but this is a very versatile and nice sounding setup.

Missing Parts

I had a pro install this with the bridge on my fretless Les Paul. He recommended it and the install wasPerfect.

Amazing

I hate to write this review but I feel compelled to do so. I have a lot of time dealing with this so I wanted to share. I had a Godin with piezos and just didn't enjoy playing it so I thought I would find the best piezo system out there and put it on a Tele. This unit does appear to have a lot of bells and whistles so I laid down the cash. I installed it successfully my first try but the output signal was not working with my HX Stomp or PodGo. I thought I had installed it wrong and kept going back to my wiring. I realized it was the output and not the system of the wiring. Then It just stopped working. I was pulling my hair out and finally tried a new 1/4 jack and the jack was the issue. I pulled it out of the Tele and built another Tele with just the Ghost preamp and piezos to keep things simple. The connectors to the board come off very easy. The piezo connector are pretty fragile. I would preplan everything before you mount anything in the guitar. In the end the sound is good but getting everything working is pretty tricky. I have built multiple guitars, pedals and amps. I also do a lot of soldering on RC aircraft. This thing should not have been this hard.