Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp 

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

I run a square neck dobro with a Fishman spider bridge pickup and an acoustic with an L. R. Baggs M1 through this thing. I bought the Fishman Jerry Douglas imaging pedal (for a ridiculous price mind you) for the dobro and hated it. There was very little control. The Tonebone is the complete opposite. The thing is awesome. I dont need an A/B switch anymore, the boost gives the extra punch when soloing, I have complete control of my EQ and the effect loop works perfect. Not to mention the added bonus of the mute button. Gigged with it the same day it arrived left for the weekend and played 4 shows in 3 days and havent looked back. LOVE this thing. Boom.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

I play acoustic guitar, mandolin and upright bass on stage and was looking for a professional-quality pre that I could easily plug them all into. Although there are only two inputs, most of the time that's enough. What really amazed me, though, is how little tweaking I have to do when switching between instruments. When I'm going from acoustic guitar to mandolin, all I really have to do is cut out most of the "Low." Otherwise, the tone is excellent for both instruments.

I did notice, however, that making sure you've matched the Tonebone to the correct pickup type (magnetic or piezo), makes a HUGE difference. If they aren't matched, the sound is thin and noisy.

Still, I mostly use the Tonebone through a Roland AC60 (except with the bass) and could not be more pleased. The "Boost" switch is very handy for solos. My only wish is that it also had compression, reverb, and chorus thrown in. If it did, I'd never need another acoustic box.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

I have a bunch of acoustic instruments that I want to play through an amp. I started with a classical guitar. I added a D-tar Soundspot which I played with externallly and eventually wired in permanently. The ToneBone is great because it has two input channels both of which are switchable to active or inactive pickups. Thus my steel string guitar with active pickup can be played through one channel and the classical guitar with the inactive Soundspot can go through the other. The two channels are switchable with a foot switch when you want to change instruments or they can both be active at the same time. The tone controls are easy to understand and offer great flexibility. There is a "boost" pot which is activated by another foot switch. Lastly there is a mute foot switch for tuning etc. Lots of other great features. I can't find anything to criticize.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

I play viola in a rock band. I have tried other pre amps and eventually just bought a Roland AC 90 to use as a preamp/monitor. Though at most gigs I will still use the AC 90 as a monitor the Tonebone has added IMMENSELY to the sound. I can't believe it has taken me this long to buy it. In many cases I don't even need the amp anymore to hear myself. The boost feature is a great bonus and works perfectly as you can adjust the volume of the boost or run loops through that feature.

I've only owned it for a few weeks however. I'll be interested to know how long the electronics hold up. I'd also like to have reverb and effects features in one box (I use other pedals now for that). However for the price I'd say this is 100% worth it and necessary if you want to play an acoustic stringed instrument (violin, viola, cello, bazuki etc.) in a rock band.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

Okay so I customized my Epi Dot and installed a Graph Tech Ghost system to give me a belnd of acoustic and electric tones. Problem is none of my other acoustic preamps sounded right. Some were too dark and some were too bright, Baggs to Tech 21 I wasn't finding the right sound. So I bought this seeing how I had already bought just about everything else.

At first I wasn't sure if I liked it. I mean I loved all it's features, the fx loop, the pre and post outs, dedicated tuner out, what's not to love? Accept I thought it sounded a bit sterile. But that was just me sitting around strumming chords all by myself.

Then I did what I should have done in the first place, I played it in a band situation and viola. My acoustic sound was sitting better in the mix and was not getting washed out by the bass. I was suddenly able to hear why I spent all that money on a ghost system in the first place.

I don't know what this preamp sounds like with actual acoustic guitar. I didn't buy it for that. I bought it for my piezo equipped Dot, and for that particular purpose it excells.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

The Tonebone PZ-Pre is a great piece of gear that allows me to use my Fiddle & Mandolin and one tuner and it does everything in one box. The only thing that would make it better was if it had a bright built in tuner.I used LR Baggs, Para Acoustic DI and Gigpro preamps in the past. They sounded great but to duplicate what the PZ-Pre accomplishes I had two pre-amps, a boost pedal and a A/B switch,Now the bad; You cannot use a common power source with the PZ-Pre and any other pedal. The power source to the PZ-Pre has to be "transformer Isolated". I connected the PZ-Pre with my tuner and I got sparks when connecting the 1/4 TR cable between the two boxes, also no power. There is 16v between the power shield and the 1/4 TR shield on the PZ-Pre. So, you have to use individual wall warts. It looks like VooDoo Lab has a Pedal Power with isolated outputs.... I have not tried it. I called Radial Engineering and spoke with one of their Engineers. He claimed that all Tonebone products are built this way to reduce the possibility of noise.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

I play my guitar and mandolin through this pedal they both sound awesome on any stage through virtually any PA. My only complaint is it needs AC power, and cannot run on batteries.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

I have only had my Tonebone PZ-pre for about two weeks but I think these are perhaps some of the best weeks of the 'musical' part of my life. I'm a mandolin, violin, guitarist/bassist of more then 35 years experience playing . I have never stopped trying to get the best tone available for on-stage playing AND recording. The problem has been I've wanted it all and had to settle for less, till now. The PZ is what I've been waiting for. I use a MI-SI pickup for my Mandolin and a Shadow NFX for the fiddle. For pure tone it's hard to beat active pickups. Most important to me is the the duel channel capabilities. But this is WAY more then an A/B box. With three stomp buttons I can easily go from my mandolin to my fiddle with eaze without sacrificing tone or worrying about volume differences. The middle boost button with it's variable volume is the perfect thing for solos, and let's face it, who 'doesn't' need a by pass switch?. The EQ is top quality the tonal options seem endless. It's got a notch filter that truly kills all feedback problems. and much more. I've already used it in live diverse stage situations and I've been able to easily and quickly get what I need in all of them. The option of the input for a tuner is really handy but a built in one might be nicer for some. I don't find this to be any sort of inconvenience though. It works beautifully with my Carvin AG model acoustic amp and I'm certain would do as well with most amp brands . Or, You can skip the stage amp and run it strait to the board and/or monitors. This is a quality box built to last . Glad I found out about it . It's the answer for anyone using more then one instrument and does not want to settle for anything less then the best. To me it's worth three times the price.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

I can't think of anything bad to say about this pedal. It's built like a tank (and could probably survive a bombing raid), has everything I could want in a preamp, excellent eq's, phase reversal, etc. The Radial PZ-pre Acoustic Direct Box/Preamp is awesome. I've never had a problem with reliability either. It works very well for blending mandolin and acoustic guitar together. I would highly recommend this preamp. and on a sidenote, I chose overnight shipping on December 23 and received the pedal on December 24! This pedal has made my experience with MF and Radial very pleasing.

Comments about Radial Engineering Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp:

Let me begin by stating that I am an acoustic lover, and I am also very finicky about tone. I had high expectation when I ordered this pedal and I was not let down! The first thing I noticed was the all metal construction - durability to the max. Then I read the manual(yes I do those kinds of things). Next I plugged it in, running an Alvarez acoustic with electronics into a tube amp - this is where it blew me away. The Radial Pz-Pre is completely silent! The transperency of the signal is amazing and the tone shaping tools are responsive and very musical. If you are looking for a quality preamp that has pure musical integrity - your search is at an end. Highly recommend.