True to the Music
Radial Engineering Ltd. PZ-Pre
™
User Guide
1
INTRODUCTION
The Radial PZ-Pre is a very unique pedal. Although the PZ-Pre
is likely to be the best sounding acoustic guitar preamp you have
ever experienced, it is not dedicated to just guitars. We designed
the PZ-Pre from the ground up to work with all types of instruments
including violin, cello, contrabass, mandolin, Dobro, bouzouki, harp,
sitar and banjo! This is because the two inputs have been designed
to accept all types of pickups and the on-board equalizer is both
very powerful and musical. You can even combine the two inputs
should you wish to use two pickups at the same time!
Our quest for exibility did not stop there; we also equipped the
PZ-Pre with four outputs so that it could drive four separate signal
paths at the same time! And each output is managed differently to
address different needs.
The instrument amplier output is designed for the on-stage musi-
cian. An electric ddle player may have numerous effects pedals
and an over-driven guitar amp on stage to create various sonic
textures while a bouzouki player may have his vintage Fender®
Twin™. Their is an output for your electronic tuner and the mute
footswitch lets you tune in silent or change instruments.
There are also two built-in Radial direct boxes with balanced XLR
outputs to connect you to the PA or recording system. Output-1 is
a pre-EQ, pre-effects output designed to send a clean signal to the
PA system while output-2 is post-EQ and post effects to feed stage
monitors and in-ear systems with a completely different mix. For
instance, when playing in a typical arena, there is so much echo
that the last thing you would want would be to send a ‘wet instru-
ment’ (sound with lots of echo and reverb) into the PA system. On
the other hand, adding reverb to your in-ear monitor system will
often give you a better sense of space and a more natural feel to
the performance.
The built-in exibility is further expanded with an effects loop,
power booster and probably the best sounding preamp you have
ever encountered for your instrument. Best of all, it is all housed
in a super compact pedal that can t in any gig bag and travel with
you wherever you go.