can you have both magnetic and contact piezo

[Greg Martin]

can you have both magnetic and contact piezo pickups on an archtop? I have an armstrong floating pickup waiting to be installed ,but know nothing about piezo contact pickups their setup and maintenance etc . anyone know and use this setup and would share how to info? thanks

[Mark Swanson]

There is no reason why you can't do it, but it can complicate things for sure. Until you say what you want to use and how you want to use it, we can't help too much...first things I would ask is if you have a preamp with the piezo, (you should) and if you want to use two separate outputs (you will have to) and what you will plug them into.

[Stephen Neal Saqui]

I agree with Mark. The thing is the Armstrong is a good pickup for archtops. Piezo pickups are still in the dark ages and you'd be messing with pre-amps, batteries, and the noise that they pickup besides music. And, as Mark said, you need two jacks.

[Rodger Knox]

You don't have to run separate lines, you could use a preamp that blends the mag and the piezo.
There's a schematic in the archive that does exactly that, and it works with a Fishman UST or similar and any passive mag pickup.
I have no personal experience with it, but the K&K pure mini has been getting excellent reviews. It has a lower impedance than the Fishman, so the circuit would need some modification.
Is there anyone around with the ability to make that modification? I can build the circuit from the schematic, but I have little understanding of how it works.
Here's the initial tutorial:
http://www.mimf.com/old-lib/mimforum_preamp_part2.htm
And here's a compilation of all the designs, scroll all the way to the bottom and there's a link to the .pdf file.
http://www.mimf.com/library/MIMF_preamp-05-22-2011.html

[David King]

The problem with blending is that the two signals are invariably 90º or so out of phase due to the locations of the two pickups, one at the bridge and one at the end of the fingerboard.

[Mike Conner]

Newly rediscovered the MIMF and hope this helps you!

I've been building archtops using Vintage Vibe neck mounted minihumbucker combined with JJB Prestige 220 piezo elements. The JJB has two transducers pre-wired to the tip connection of a stereo endpin jack. I move the connection to the ring, and use the tip for the humbucker.

I use a stereo 1/4" cable to a Radial Tonebone preamp which provides for either combining the signals, or to switch between them. This works really well for me. No obvious phase problems, and a great jazz tones available this way.