I have an acoustic guitar equipped with a four pickup system. Two of which are passive Hi-Z outputs, and two of which are active Low-Z outputs, all of which are unbalanced.
Here is my planned signal flow:
Four pickups > (Input 1-4) CQ-12T > (Output 1-2) Effects Send > (Input 5-6) Effects Return > (Main LR) Venue’s PA system
I saw that only CQ-20B accept Hi-Z inputs, does this mean I must connect DI Boxes/Preamp for my two passive Hi-Z pickups before going into CQ-12T?
CQ-12T only accepts balanced TRS inputs, can I plug a unbalanced TS connection directly from my guitar if I make the connections from the source as short as possible?
As references, I’ve included an acoustic guitarists pedalboard (Mike Dawes) to demonstrate what I want to achieve.
It sounds like you value high sound quality.
In this case, you should definitely connect these 2 pickups to “something” that has Hi-Z inputs.
This could be a corresponding DI box.
But perhaps one (or more) of your many devices (similar to the photo) also has Hi-Z inputs and it would be possible from your “sound management” to patch it before the mixer inputs.?
The only limitation would then be that this one FX would no longer be available for the other two pickups.
Using your TS cable should be possible without any problems.
You can use unbalanced TS connections with the TRS input (or output) sockets, but using DI boxes is definitely the best option for any high impedance source.
As well as allowing longer cable runs, which it doesn’t sounds like you’re worried about, you can end up with wacky frequency response and signal degradation.
Also, with the CQ series, the TRS line level inputs are padded by 20dB, so you may not get enough level.
It’s the CQ-20B as you say, where you can switch the last two combi inputs to Hi-Z which then uses a different circuit for the TRS/TS input.
I do have some effects that accept Hi-Z inputs and convert it into Low-Z, but your concern is exactly mine, which some of the pickup cannot go through some effects.
Thanks for the suggestion anyway, let me think of some ways route the pedals and effects.
