The signal strength of an acoustic guitar is pretty small, so something needs to be there to give it a boost, shape the tone a little (EQ out any whistley, howling frequencies) and send this louder, stronger, better signal out to the amp or PA system it's plugged into. That something would be, of course, a preamp!

A preamp is responsible for giving your guitar amplifier its core “sound”. In essence, it is the section that enables you to shape your amp's overall voice and character, as it encompasses the EQ controls that you'd usually find on your amp's front panel, such as 'treble', 'middle' and 'bass'.

Piezoelectric (or piezo) are the most common type of pickup for acoustic instruments. These pickups convert the physical movement of a solid object, such as the vibrations of a guitars top wood, into an electrical signal.

Over decades, Shadow Electronics have built a name with their pickup systems. Now Shadow founder Joe Marinic has built a state-of-the-art guitar factory in China.