Strange, but good experiment

[Marshall]

I've been messing around with 3 different pickup systems in 4 different guitars.

GS-Mini = Fishman PowerTap Earth (Mag/SBT)
Nick Lucas = Skysonic Pro 1 (Mag/SBT)
Gibson J50 = Goaa pickup. (saddle/Mic)
Eastman E1-Ss = Goaa pickup. (Saddle/Mic)

Each has plusses and minuses tone wise. Plus now I've been using a NUX Optima Air to color them all, with great benefit. So, I decided I needed to do an internal shootout to decide how I should use each or put various ones back in the closet. Plus I needed to decide what programs to use with each one to get the "best" sound. And would any one combination stand up head and shoulders above the rest for my pick oriented strumming guitar work. And it was enlightening and satisfying.

The result is I can get a pleasing/satisfying/terrific sound from all 4 guitars and different pickups. And truth be told all the pickups better with some IR modeling programs in the NUX. And the results are not as I would expect, but really quite great. What I mean by that is that sometimes a Mag/SBT pickup sounds best with a Piezo modeling program. And a piezo oriented pickup (the Goaa) sounds best thru a Mag IR program. Body types for the IRs bear no relationship to what I'd expect. By that I mean:

The GS-M is best through a Gibson-J15-Pz program and a Taylor-314-Mag program
The NL is best thru a Taylor-314-Mg program, & a Martin-D45-Pz program.
The J50 is best thru the Taylor-314-Mg program.

Probably the J50 with Goaa is the cleanest. But the other two pickups sound excellent when modeled, and are very gig-worthy.

I also tired them thru the NUX with just the IR (no preamp), and then with their preamp engaged. there are subtle differences, but I'm able to make a list of 1st and 2nd choices for each guitar/pickup. I wanted to do the preamp on/off choices because some people on the NUX thread are saying that the NUX can go wonky after a couple hours or so (I haven't seen that yet), and that turning the preamp off and just using the IRs seems to fix that.

I haven't made custom IRs yet for these guitar/pickups yet. I did that using Cuki's program for different pickups and had loaded them into the NUX. But I don't think I'll go through that process now because of the good success I'm having with the pre-loaded IRs.

Crazy stuff, but satisfying.

[martingitdave]

Marshall, I’ve been impressed with the success you’ve been having with pickups and the NUX at the open mics. I thought my D-18 sounded really good through your setup. I’ve been auditioning the LR Baggs Voice Print DI with a battery pack and updated firmware and voice prints. Keep up the good work!

[Marshall]

Thanks, Dave. - Yeah I thought the NUX did very well on you D18. I'll do Teddy O'Briens on Thurs, & probably Park St on Friday. We can compare notes if you make any of those.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Thanks, Dave. - Yeah I thought the NUX did very well on you D18. I'll do Teddy O'Briens on Thurs, & probably Park St on Friday. We can compare notes if you make any of those.

I have my fingers crossed!