Why do only certain acoustic-electric guitars play through my mixer?

I have an L1 system that I am running with a T1 tonematch audio engine mixer. When I plug in my acoustic-electric, it works great. No problems whatsoever. But when we try to use other acoustic-electric guitars, we get nothing to come through the speakers. We can see the lights on the audio engine, indicating that there is activity from the guitars, but nothing comes through the system. 

Is this an issue with the pickups in these particular guitars? We're not running phantom power, so I'm not sure what is happening. 

Any ideas?

Hi Casey,

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Casey posted:

I have an L1 system that I am running with a T1 tonematch audio engine mixer. When I plug in my acoustic-electric, it works great. No problems whatsoever. But when we try to use other acoustic-electric guitars, we get nothing to come through the speakers. We can see the lights on the audio engine, indicating that there is activity from the guitars, but nothing comes through the system. 

That's an interesting problem. I don't recall anyone reporting anything like this.

Are the other guitarists using the same cable plugged into the same channel as you are?

I can see how there might be a problem if you connect a guitar with a bare piezo pickup into T1 channel 4/5. If there's no preamp in the signal chain, the output from the piezo pickup would be very low, perhaps too low for channel 4/5. 

If you use 1/4 inch Tip-Ring-Sleeve jack cable connected to T1 channel 4/5 you can have an issue if the signal is stereo instead of balanced mono.



Is this an issue with the pickups in these particular guitars?

We'd need to know the make and model of the guitar, as well as the type of cable (Tip-Ring-Sleeve  or Tip-Sleeve) and the T1 channel you are using.

We're not running phantom power, so I'm not sure what is happening. 

Any ideas?

Please fill in the blanks above and we'll keep talking.

Thanks,

ST

Yes, the guitarists are all using the same chord. We've also plugged the guitars directly into the Bose L1 system, and each work just fine plugged directly. Its only when we add the audio engine that the other 2 guitars don't come through. 

The ones that aren't working properly are a Taylor branded ES-2 pickup/preamp. One is a Fishman sonitone. 

The one that works is a Fishman ProBlend.

We've used both TS and TRS cables. 

Oddly enough, I ran into this issue over the summer.

Acoustic guitar w/Dean Markley (cheap, simple) pickup in-the-soundhole.

Guitarist says it works "at home".

Plugged into T1 channel 4/5, gain full up, no green light.

(MIcs ate up the XLR channels)

I have plugged many acoustics into 4/5 with success (although not full on loud, as XLR channels are).

Our pastor at church uses a similar style pick up with T1, and it works fine.

But, as you stated ST, must not be enough gain in that particular pickup, or the wrong cable.

I always used unbalanced 1/4 TO 1/4 for all channels with acoustics.