Suggested pick up for O ?

[larryb]

Anyone have a pick up in their 0 size? Looking to amplify a Bourgeois 0.

[syrynx]

I have pickups in my 1935 Martin 0-18 and '59 0-15. I doubt that my solutions will be relevant to you, but since you ask...

I fell in love with the sounds Leo Kottke was achieving back in the 1970s with Lawrence Sound Research pickups in his Martins. In 1979, I bought a Lawrence FT-145 and put it in the 0-18. The guitar sounded terrible through it, until I learned that Bill Lawrence intended for the pickup to be used with the stainless steel-wound strings he also offered. I tried a set, and was hooked. I used Lawrence stainless strings for several years, until I discovered that other brands of SSW strings sounded equally good to my ears. Subsequently, I found that nickel-plated steel-wound strings also sound fine to me, and don't seem to chew up the frets as quickly as SSW. Even unplugged, I've never ever wanted to go back to bronze-wound strings; they die far too quickly for me. And I've never considered replacing the pickup.

In 1982, I bought the 0-15, intending it as a backup for the 0-18. It needed a neck reset, and I couldn't justify the cost at the time, so I put an extension nut on it and played it as an acoustic Hawai'ian steel guitar. (I was gigging primarily as a pedal steel player at the tine.) When I looked for a Lawrence FT-145, the shop didn't have one, but did have the A-345, which is similar but with adjustable pole pieces. The combination of guitar and pickup was magic to my ears (and to many listeners; often audience members would come up and ask, "Play the brown one!"). It still is.

Fond as I am of my Lawrence pickups, I'll be the first to cheerfully acknowledge that they're not the highest fidelity devices ever made. Besides, they haven't been offered by the original maker in 30 years. (Devices with similar appearance and model names are available, made by someone else. I won't touch 'em.) And I've done enough testing with other guitars to know that dual-source systems will always offer higher fidelity than any single-source solution.

If I owned your Bourgeois 0, and if the best possible reproduction were my goal, I'd combine a SBT system with a magnetic sound hole pickup. I'd consider the K&K, Trance Audio Amulet, PUTW and Dazzo SBTs, based on what I've read and heard, and I'd expect to be pleased with any of them. My magnetic pickup short list would include the DiMarzio DP230 and DP138 and Baggs M1, on the same basis.

The only current sound hole offering I've tried personally is the Lace California Acoustic Sensor, which sounded shockingly good to me in a Martin LX1 in a music store, through a Fishman Loudbox Mini, even with the factory-installed bronze-wound strings. But adjustable pole pieces offer a desirable degree of additional flexibility.

If I were really obsessive about it, after settling upon a pickup partnership, I'd try all of the various non-bronze wound strings available. In addition to electric guitar strings, there are several sold specifically for acoustic guitar use. The ones I'm aware of include GHS White Bronze (nickel-iron windings), John Pearse Pure Nickel, and Martin's Tony Rice and Retro monel-wound strings). I might even try silk and steel strings, even though long-past experience suggests they'd die far too quickly in my hands. I was more than a little surprised to discover that Roy Rogers uses S&S on his Martin 0-16NY, through a DeArmond humbucker (into a stereo chorus splitting the signal between a Boogie and a Leslie).