ToneDexter II Support
Pickup Guidance

ToneDexter works well with most commonly available piezo pickups. These come in two basic types: under saddle transducers (USTs) and sound board transducers (SBTs). Both types can be either passive or active with an on-board preamp. The piezo material can be either crystal or film; both work well. Electret film types also work.

Another common configuration is a dual source blended system which adds an on-board microphone that gets mixed into the piezo signal to get a more natural tone. While ToneDexter will train with the on-board mic signal, better results are usually obtained by turning off the mic signal completely, or as much as possible.

Passive pickups tend to be SBTs and work very directly plugged into ToneDexter’s built in high quality preamp circuitry. It has a 1MΩ input impedance. Most USTs are active, and will work without issue. Make sure the battery is not depleted, and it is advisable to set any volume control to a nominal (mid-way) position. If there is a tone control, set it to flat or wide open during training. You can always use it during playback to shape the tone to your liking.

Magnetic soundhole pickups, such as the L.R Baggs M1 or M80, the Fishman Rare Earth series, Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio Virtual Acoustic or Black Angel and similar WILL NOT work properly with ToneDexter, and are not recommended. You may or may not get usable results. Even if you do, they will surely be less natural sounding than if you use a piezo pickup.

• James May Engineering
  • Ultra Tonic Pickup – SBT discs, passive
• K&K Sound
  • Pure (or Pure Mini or Pure Western) – SBT discs, passive

• Fishman
  • Matrix Infinity – UST, active, with volume and tone controls
  • Powertap Infinity – UST with SBT blend, active. Not tested, but expected to work without issue.
  • AG Series – UST, passive
  • Thinline – UST, passive
  • Sonicore – UST coaxial, also used in Presys on-board active system
  • SBT – SBT disc, passive
  • PRO-ARC-TOP – UST, passive
• LR Baggs
  • HiFi – SBT, active
  • Element Active System (EAS) – UST film, active
  • Anthem – UST film (Element), plus on-board mic, with volume and tone controls. Note the Anthem SL is different and has issues, see below.
  • iBeam – SBT film sensors, active, with volume control
• Taylor
  • ES2 – UST, piezo, active
• Highlander
  • iP1 – UST, active
• Seymour Duncan
  • Wavelength – UST film, active
• Pick Up The World
  • #27, #54 – SBT film
  • I/O UST – UST film
• Dazzo Pickups
  • Single or Double – SBT, passive
• Trance Audio
  • Amulet – SBT, active
• McIntire
  • Feather – SBT film, passive
• B-Band
  • AST – SBT, electret film
  • UST – UST, electret film
• Schatten
  • HFN – SBT with integrated rosewood arch, passive and active versions
• Headway
  • HE4/G.FEQ – UST, coaxial, active
• Dupont
  • Bigtone – UST, passive, with bridge for Gypsy guitars

• LR Baggs
• • LB6 – UST piezo, passive. G and B strings are out of phase with the other 4. During training, the G and B must not be played. It’s recommended to slacken them.
  • Lyric – sound-board mic, active, with volume control. Has some non-linear compression that hampers the ability to train optimally. Some users have reported success, some have had problems. Not recommended.
    
• Barbera
  • Soloist – UST piezo, passive. Every other element is out of phase. Training only works if playing on E, D, B or A, G, E strings. The former is recommended.

• LR Baggs
  • Anthem SL – UST film (Element), plus on-board mic, with volume controls. Has crossover that can’t be defeated, and interferes with training to some degree. The mic level above the crossover point can be adjusted, but there is no UST above it. Below the crossover it’s just UST no mic. Some users have reported success, others not.
  • Session VTC – UST film (Element) and sound-board mic, active, with volume and tone controls. Due to internal compressor and crossover that can’t be disabled, does not train properly.
  • M1 or M80 – soundhole, magnetic
• Taylor
  • ES1 – SBT, magnetic, active
• Fishman
  • Rare Earth series – soundhole, magnetic
  • Neo-D– soundhole, magnetic
• Seymour Duncan
  • SA series – soundhole, magnetic
• DiMarzio
  • Virtual Acoustic– soundhole, magnetic
  • Angel series – soundhole, magnetic
  • Super Natural Plus – soundhole, magnetic