Amplified tone ramblings and iSolo Mic Review

[Fret-O'File]

OK, so over the last 9 months I've been after the best amplified tone possible.
If you've followed any of my threads you will surely think I am the boy that cried wolf as each and every time I try something new I seem to like it better than the last and proclaim it to be the greatest thing ever. The truth is all the pick-ups and preamps I've tried so far have been great. They have all sounded really good and I think I could have been happy with each one. I guess I just wanted to try a bunch of different stuff out and see what worked best for me in comparison to other options and not just by itself. Had I stopped at the first thing that sounded good I would have never gotten to the iSolo which I think is the end of the line for me as far as searching goes.

The iSolo is an amazing product, expensive but amazing. It is truly the first thing I've tried that sounds like whatever guitar I am playing only louder. I know that's a cliche but it's true. I can really hear my guitar coming through my amp and it feels like I'm playing my guitar even when I'm only hearing the amped sound. That's the thing I noticed with other pick-ups, even if it sounded good, it just didn't sound enough like my guitar to make me feel like I was playing my guitar. It sounded like something else coming out of the speakers. I hope that make sense because it's hard to explain.
Anyway, I bought the combo package, live and recording and it ran me $349 shipping included and arrived within 3 days of ordering. It comes in a beautiful packaging, really impressive and just seeing it gave me confidence that it was going to be good.
I've had the iSolo for just about a month. Other than trying it out with Reaper just to make sure it worked I haven't had much time to do any recording with it but it seems very easy to use. The real reason I got it was for live solo acoustic playing and I have not been disappointed. It comes with a transmitter and receiver (it's wireless) and the receiver mounts on my pedal board. It comes with what they call a magic carpet which sticks to the back of the transmitter and that sticks to the top of your guitar. It holds in place very well and so far I'm still using the first magic carpet. They sent me 3 in the package. It removes very easily and hasn't had any ill effects on the finish. I found I can leave it on the guitar when I put it in the case and it's small enough to not be in the way when closing the case. I think if I removed it every night when I finish playing it may cause the magic carpet to loose it's stick a little faster and I like not having to reposition the mic every time I take my guitar out and plug in. The battery lasts just about 3 hours but you can plug in the micro USB wire and charge it while playing if you want to play longer. You can get different sounds by moving the mic around but I quickly found what worked best for me and it's easy enough to put it back into the same position if you do remove the transmitter from your guitar. I don't hear any latency but I haven't been very far from the receiver. I tried running this through my D-TAR Solstice but it wasn't adding anything so no need for it. I do run it through my Empress PARA EQ and dial out some of the mids but other than that not much else is needed to achieve really good sound. I haven't found feedback to be a problem and I've cranked it up pretty loud. I waited a month before posting my views to make sure I really had a chance to put in some time with it. I like it so much and am so happy with it that it has gotten me to stop searching the forums and reading about this pick up and that preamp. The price may turn some people off but it's really not much more than a decent pick-up and pre-amp and this has the recording feature as well. Besides you can buy one unit and use it on every guitar.

[SpruceTop]

Interesting, and when listening to the website demos I thought it sounds really good when played fingerstyle. Have you tried the system when playing with a flatpick? Also, have you tried positioning the mic outside the guitar? If so, how does the amplified tone of that positioning compare to positioning the mic inside the guitar, which I gather is the usual placement? Thanks.

[Fret-O'File]

I have tried it with a flat-pick and it sounds really good. In my opinion, that's where other pick-ups fell short. Strumming seemed to sound brittle and a little quacky at times. Finger-style seems to sound better with more systems than strumming does. But the iSolo does it all equally well, at least IMO.

I did try the mic on the outside of the guitar and got some decent sounds but I had to turn up quite a bit louder and use the highest gain setting on the transmitter. After days of trying out different locations, I kept coming back to the same place. inside the soundhole , about 3/4" to 1" under the strings facing up between the G & D strings. Doesn't have to be perfectly placed there to sound good but that's what I shoot for.

[dantin]

I also recently got the iSolo full system but haven't had time to try it out to any depth. Will try and update soon.

[Fret-O'File]

Originally Posted by dantin

I also recently got the iSolo full system but haven't had time to try it out to any depth. Will try and update soon.

I look forward to hearing your review and seeing if you like it as much as I do.
Like with most pick-ups, I think a decent EQ really helps.
Having the mic inside the guitar seems to pick up a lot of mids and cutting about 8db at about 700k has really helped. Of course every guitar and set up is different but that's what's working for me.

[min7b5]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

I would say it looks like a cool and interesting product that I would like to know more about, but Just to be an old crank this morning, I thought I'd chime in a say I don't like these super hyped promotional videos at all. Lest anyone think this is just some young guy that stuck a pickup in his guitar in the park, this is a studio recording carefully mixed and mastered with high end reverb and compression plugins, and even a string pad overdub in the background... And then lip-synced, err, finger-synced to video. I know most people on this forum know that of course, but I think there's probably a lot of people that might not at first. Okay, pet peeve-y rant over, back to the dicussion

[Fret-O'File]

Originally Posted by min7b5

I would say it looks like a cool and interesting product that I would like to know more about, but Just to be an old crank this morning, I thought I'd chime in a say I don't like these super hyped promotional videos at all. Lest anyone think this is some young guy that stuck a pickup in his guitar in the park, this is a studio recording carefully mixed and mastered with high end reverb and compression plugins, and even a string pad over dub in the background... And then lip-synced, err, finger-synced to video. I know most people on this forum know that of course, but I think there's probably a lot of people that might not at first. Okay, pet peeve-y rant over, back to the dicussion

You are absolutely correct about that Eric. When I was researching this product, I paid little attention to the promo videos and knew that live was going to be a whole different animal. I was unable to find any "live" footage where someone was playing through an amp and it was recorded on video. Despite all that, I eventually decided it was worth taking a chance and I'm glad I did. It turned out to be an amazing piece of gear for me as a solo fingerstyle player. I think for sure anyone playing on a loud stage or in a band would at least need a UST or SBT as a second source or feedback could be an issue like with any mic.