I have had Taylor and Martins that are Acoustic-Electric models. Usually they have an "active" pickup that must be turned ON, and can be used for tuning also. Their pre-amp controls allow setting the volume and tone sent to the guitar amplifier. But most of these have those "
control panels" located on the top side of the guitar....and most look awful in my opinion.
The Eastman I recently bought has a
Fishman Matrix VT pickup...it has a pre-amp, with nearly invisible volume and tone controls inside the "sound hole". It has no tuning ability or ON OFF switch - the later function is controlled by simply plugging/unplugging the cable into the amp.
My question: I don't expect much from AE guitars as I play them unplugged 98% of the time...I just rarely need the amplification when playing with others. So I really like the looks of that Fishman. I have NO experience with how it sounds amplified...I just brought the Eastman home and only verified the pickup "worked" at the dealer. I'd like to install something like the Fishman into other guitars, like my GS Mini and/or the Taylor 320.
What do you think? Is the Fishman at least as good as what's in my Martin and Takamine (see below)?