Dupont Bigtone pickup too loud ?!

DragonPL

I recently installed the https://www.djangobooks.com/Item/dupont-bigtone on my Dupont and it seems really hot.

Compared to other pickups, magnetic or microphone, at about volume 2 on the amp, it's already really loud. Every tiny fret squeak, pick scrape is also picked up loud.

Is that how it should sound, or did I solder something wrong?

MichaelHorowitz

@DragonPL The bigtone uses a special high gain piezo sensor which delivers a very hot signal. That's generally considered beneficial as it allows you to run it completely passive and get a strong signal. Nearly every other piezo pickup requires a preamp to boost the signal which requires cumbersome and heavy internal or external battery powered preamps.

Obviously, you can always adjust the gain with your amp. It sounds like your issue is more tone related and that's going to be largely dependent on the quality of the amp. Generally, an AER amp or a Schertler amp (with the "warm" button on) works best with bigtones (or any piezo really) as they soften the sound nicely (i.e. boot mids, cut highs, etc.) Other amps can sometime be more difficult work with but you usually can get at least a servicable sound via EQ.

Thanks!

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