What Is Piezo and How Does It Work?
27 Jan 2026
When you think of a guitar pickup the first thing that usually comes to mind is your typical magnetic pickup wrapped in copper wire that senses the vibrations of strings above the magnet, turning it into an electrical signal that gets transmitted to your amplifier, transforming it into sound! Though similar, piezo pickups work a bit differently. Let's jump into what piezoelectricity is, and get a glimpse at how it works!
What is Piezoelectricity?
Simply, piezoelectricity is a characteristic of certain materials that can create an electrical charge when exposed to physical pressure, in this case the vibration of guitar strings affecting quartz crystals housed within the bridge of a Piezo equipped guitar.
How does a PRS/LR Baggs Piezo System work?
Situated in the saddles of the guitar, a piezo pickup is a contact pickup, meaning it is activated by the vibration of the strings physically attached to the bridge saddle. The PRS/LR Baggs piezo bridge setup is hexaphonic: 6 piezo quartz transducers connected to 6 individual circuits, one for each string. As a string vibrates, the crystal senses the pressure change and produces positive and negative currents that are used to reproduce the acoustic sound of the string.
Why would I want a Piezo System equipped electric guitar?
Our piezo equipped guitars have two output jacks, allowing guitarists to plug into their favorite electric guitar or acoustic guitar amp or DI into a soundboard. A separate blend control also means pickups can be combined with acoustic sounds through a single output so you can fully customize your tone.
What Piezo models does PRS offer?
We introduced our first piezo model in 1998 and have continued to refine it since, even customizing the piezo system so we can offer it on an array of SE models! Today you can find the PRS/LR Baggs Piezo system on the following models: