Replacement for cheap onboard preamp

[Brendo]

HI all, first post, but I've had acoustics for years now.

I recently bought a solid wood dread from eBay, and while the guitar is quite nice, the onboard preamp stinks.

I'd like to get it to sound better, so my question [in four parts] is as follows

Do I

1- Replace the preamp with another unit? The dimensions are 4 inches long and 1.9 inches wide, and I'm having a hard time finding anything that will fit that hole without leaving some large gaps around the edge.

2 - Find a way to improve what I've got by changing the under saddle pickup (piezo) and use the existing electronics,

3 - Use an external Direct Box to EQ the output before it hits my amp; or

4 - Install a completely different pickup that bypasses the current setup altogether (I'm thinking K&K Mini, I've used them before).

The most playing this will get will be loungeroom and small church based events (and our church has about 45 attenders on a good day ).

Can anyone offer their thoughts?

[UninhabitedMan]

I probably wouldn't replace the preamp - if they're difficult to find in the right dimensions you may end up sacrificing sound for size. If the preamp is that bad it's unlikely that your guitar will have a decent piezo pickup, so I imagine it would be worth ditching the existing electronics and installing something better that you could use with an external preamp if necessary. I don't really know much about K&K, but magnetic pickups might be an option especially as they don't necessarily have to be preamped. You could install a magnetic pickup and still use the existing piezo & preamp to add a little sparkle to the top end.

Hope that helps!

[Kabalan]

Welcome to AGR!
the k&k mini with an external preamp(with tone and volume)
works great.

[mchalebk]

I'm curious as to why you think the preamp is the issue, and not the pickup. They're a team, so, if you should end up replacing anything, you'll likely want to swap out both. What is the system you've got?

[Ed422]

I'd go with #4. Leave the pre in place, remove the pickup, install a K&K, and use an external (K&K) preamp. If were going to attempt a replacement preamp, I'd get one that was smaller than the opening and install it on a ring that would fit the existing opening.

Ed