Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp - Product Review

I'm a professional musician, singer and songwriter. It's how I make my living. On a gig, I do about 60 songs. On about forty of them, I use my 6 string acoustic/electric guitar. On the other twenty or so, I may use my acoustic/electric 12 string guitar or my 6 string classical nylon string acoustic/electric guitar. That's three separate instruments. Two of them (the 6 string and the 12 string) have identical mixes with the same EQ. The nylon string classical has a bit of a different mix. I was always going into three separate channels on my mixer. One for each instrument. I had the room but I just felt that it would be easier if I could just plug those two guitars into just ONE foot switch. I read some reviews on the Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp and decided to pick one up. Taking it out on a gig, and having used it for the last year, here's what I've found.

The Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic DI Box Preamp allows me to plug both my 6 string and 12 string guitars into the unit. I can EQ them each identical. The Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic DI Box Preamp is equipped with piezo acoustic input signal boosters. This allows both my 6 string and 12 string's pickups and their built-in, active preamps to be combined for a more natural rendering. Most of the time, when you amplify an acoustic guitar, the sound coming out of the PA or amp may sound better or it may sound worse. With the Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp, your amplified sound sounds like your guitar. That's what you want isn't it? It's certainly what I want.

There is a toggle switch for input A (which I have my 6 string guitar plugged into) and input B (that I have my 12 string guitar plugged into) to switch from one instrument to the other. This makes for very smooth operation when changing instruments. If you want to use two pickups on a single guitar, the Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp's mix function converts the two channels from "either-or" to both pickups. There are separate level controls for both inputs as well.

The Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic Direct Box Preamp has a decent EQ combined with a feedback eliminating notch filter that has a frequency sweep control and your choice of normal and extra deep notch filtering. To help eliminate troublesome resonance, a dual slope low cut (high pass filter) is also available. An internal polarity reverse can also be engaged to help eliminate run-away feedback. This all gives you excellent control. It's like having your own sound man.

The Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Direct Box Preamp is equipped with a power booster and effects loop bus. This allows you to introduce an effect such as a chorus, or boost the signal for soloing with a simple foot stomp. The Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Direct Box Preamp also features a separate tuner out jack along with a mute foot switch for on stage tuning. The Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Direct Box Preamp just doesn't have one output to send it to either an amp or mixer. A standard instrument amp output sends the instrument signal to your personal amplifier and a pre-EQ balanced lo-Z output is used to route the flat, pre-equalized signal to the front of house mix position, while a second XLR out is post-EQ for onstage monitoring and in-ear systems so that I can get the sound I want. XLR outputs are equipped with polarity reverse and ground lift to eliminate any hum that me be present when you plug your guitar in.

The Pros:

Accurate sound of YOUR guitar transferred from your guitar to the mixer or amp via the Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Direct Box Preamp.

A great asset when you have to switch between two instruments.
Very rugged construction. Built like a tank.

It comes with a 3 year warranty that you can transfer to someone if you end up giving it away or selling the unit.

The Cons:

It comes with a power adapter but that's the only power option you have. The The Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Direct Box Preamp does NOT take batteries.

No built in tuner. I feel that for the money, Radial could have included a tuner with their PZ-Pre Direct Box Preamp.

That's about it. The street price of the Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Direct Box Preamp is $299.99 USD. A bit on the expensive side but with it's construction, there's no reason why the the Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre Direct Box Preamp should not last you the rest of your life.