CalineCP-40 DI-Box for Acoustic Guitar

So far so good. No complaints. I use this to compensate for my donner piezo pickups inside a cheap classical guitar. I use this pre amp to turn down bass and treble, because the piezos are a little noisy. Works great. I'm glad this worked out because everyone was recommending a pre amp that cost 3x the amount of the Caline. I couldn't swing it on my first project. I would recommend this for anyone doing a simple acoustic guitar pickup project, that just needs a good sound for practice, open mics and garage banding.

It does seem to work as advertised for taming piezo pickups on acoustic guitars. But two major annoyances:First, no bypass. Never saw a pedal with no bypass. Not talking about true bypass vs buffered bypass, there is NO BYPASS! Note some other acoustic preamps at least have a mute switch.Second, the input jack is on the left, output on the right. Totally backwards and very annoying if you want to use it with other pedals. Especially since this should be the first pedal on the board.Third, no phase invert switch. IME, a phase invert switch is very desirable and effective for acoustic guitars. It can eliminate feedback, and also makes the sound of the amp blend better with the sound from the sound hole, from the player's perspective.Performance: there is noticeable hiss, even with no input. Granted you're probably not going to drive a high gain pedal with this, but IMO they should have used lower noise design and/or anti-hiss LPF.. Bass and treble controls seem to be at good frequency cutoffs, but I found I was turning them both to minimum to control the simultaneous boomy and tinny tone from the particular guitar I need it for, a 70's Guild dreadnaught with 3 parallel disks under the bridge plate. In the end, I found that putting my amp's bass and treble knobs at minimum and adjusting mid and presence I could get equally good tone. The anti-feedback feature does work. I can't imagine anyone needing the treble boost.Verdict: returning it. If the jacks weren't backwards I might keep it. If it had a phase reverse I'd definitely keep it.

No difference at all with my setup:Alvarez acoustic >> Martin piezo pickup >> Cadine CP-40 (this item) >> Orange Crush MiniThe hum from the ~$30 piezo pickup was not attenuated. YouTube videos indicate it works with an installed pickup on a better acoustic guitar. Videos also indicate it works better with the XLR output than the amp output. It is well built and easy to use. The 9V battery adapter is very handy for all my pedals and the Orange Crush Mini amp. I'll keep it for further troubleshooting. If I get it to work better with new additions to my setup or a friend's guitar, I will update this review. It's a good start if you have an inexpensive guitar and amp combo and you need to get more bass and treble adjustments. Anti feedback does work very well.

Upon seeing this item, Caline preamp,I figured it would AT LEAST be worth a $40 risk....when I tried it through my Evolve 30m p a. system, I was blown away!!! The EQ controls are true- no harsh,droning bass tones, treble adds significant cut and clarity, notch control diminishes feedback! Plus, the DI out gives you everything you need for gigging. Ya, the "input" and " output" controls are on the wrong sides, but for this amazing value and sound, it's no issue at all.....well worth the price of admission!!!....

Good acoustic pedal, does what it is designed to do! I was recommended this pedal over much more expensive ones. I have used it now on about 30 shows, some inside some outside and 2 arenas. It works! Flawless in every detail, warm and rich tone, no feedback, and as a DI box it’s perfect!

I bought this and boy it just didn’t do a thing. I had to turn the knobs all the way up to get ANYTHING in the house. And the tone was muddy and terrible. This was with a D-18 with a K&K pure mini installed. So quality kit was there. This product just isn’t good.

I had been using an LRBaggs para-acoustic but the lack of an easy 9 volt adapter and difficult to read settings at any distance over 2 feet away led me to alternatives. The price of this one is only a bit more than a Behringer and it has more functional capacity. After using it a few times it's clear I don't need the para-acoustic. Great value. Highly recommend.

I am new to acoustic pedals so a manual would have been nice. That is why the three stars so far. I just got it today. I will mess with it later and change my review if it is any good.