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  #1  
Old 12-28-2016, 07:46 AM
achilies12 achilies12 is offline
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Default Advice on a pickup

Hey all, I'm looking for some advice on a pickup . I have a bourgeois sj and I'm torn between putting a pickup in or just using a mic . Kk makes a soundhole pickup up as well. Any recomendations ?

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  #2  
Old 12-28-2016, 08:48 AM
kcnbys kcnbys is offline
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Playing live or recording? What playing style (strumming, finger-style, flat-picking, etc.) do you mostly use? How much do you want your guitar affected?
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  #3  
Old 12-28-2016, 08:56 AM
rokdog49 rokdog49 is offline
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LR Baggs Anthem SL is what I use. UST and microphone with pre-amp.
Very natural and close to your guitar's voice when you get the proper amount of microphone dialed in to suit your particular instrument.
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Old 12-28-2016, 09:03 AM
drive-south drive-south is offline
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Put a K&K mini western pickup in the guitar and use an LR Baggs Para DI preamp externally. No battery inside the guitar and nothing under the saddle.

If you dont want to ream the endpin for a jack use a "Vintage Jack" from PUTW (pick up the world).
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Old 12-28-2016, 09:06 AM
Schen Schen is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rokdog49 View Post
LR Baggs Anthem SL is what I use. UST and microphone with pre-amp.
Very natural and close to your guitar's voice when you get the proper amount of microphone dialed in to suit your particular instrument.
Unfortunately, I am not a fan of the LR Baggs Anthem SL. I don't have any issue with the pickup tone, but the undersaddle element has this soft outer layer that ruins the acoustic tone of the guitar.
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Old 12-28-2016, 09:07 AM
llew llew is offline
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Another believer in passive bridge plate transducers. K&K, JJB, McIntyre Feather. All are " hot" enough to plug directly into an acoustic amp or DI box into PA board. Of course an outboard preamp will only make it better.
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Old 12-28-2016, 09:19 AM
rokdog49 rokdog49 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Schen View Post
Unfortunately, I am not a fan of the LR Baggs Anthem SL. I don't have any issue with the pickup tone, but the undersaddle element has this soft outer layer that ruins the acoustic tone of the guitar.
That's an opinion I don't share. While I can't argue scientifically that it may or may not have an effect on tone, it doesn't "ruin" it.

After posting my initial response and then reponding to another post as I just did, I should tell you to be prepared for lot of suggestions. There are lots of opinions here and lots of preferences and biases. They are all very subjective. The best advice you can get here is from an application standpoint and how various pickups perform in "live" situations.
More "real world" and less subjective.

You can use this as a helpful resource:
http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/pickuptests/

At least you will have something on which you can make up your own mind.
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Last edited by rokdog49; 12-28-2016 at 09:31 AM.
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Old 12-28-2016, 09:25 AM
Puerto Player Puerto Player is offline
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Buy an iSolo system. Just got mine a couple weeks ago, and I'll probably never use any of my guitars pickups ever again. It's that good. It's your guitars natural tone amplified, nothing more.
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Old 12-28-2016, 09:34 AM
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Old 12-28-2016, 09:39 AM
adaw2821 adaw2821 is offline
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I don't have much experience with a lot of the different examples listed, but in general, I don't like UST's. I haven't hear one yet that doesn't have a piezzo quack. My A3R has a UST but uses a lot of mic modeling to make it sound natural.

I would go with some form of bridge plate transducer like the ones listed. A passive pick up like that is pretty minimally invasive with only drilling for the jack. If you don't want to do that, then I would consider the vintage jack option, Isolo, or just using a regular mic.

As always there's a lot of personal preference here, so you'll have to decide what the best option is for you, but hopefully this gives you some stuff to think about.
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Last edited by adaw2821; 12-28-2016 at 09:41 AM. Reason: correction
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  #11  
Old 12-28-2016, 10:21 AM
dcmey dcmey is offline
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LRBaggs M1A or M80, they are soundhole pickups that sound pretty natural.
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  #12  
Old 12-28-2016, 12:21 PM
akafloyd akafloyd is offline
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It seems like it should be such a simple question... For every pickup that's recommended there will be people who hate that pickup. A microphone can be the best sounding option but can be problematic in some settings. Soundboard transducers, like the K&K Pure Mini, can be quite natural sounding but might not fit in with a loud band. Magnetic sound hole pickups are pretty good for rejecting feedback but can sound a bit like an electric guitar. Under saddle transducers, like a Fishman Matrix, are sort of the standard for an acoustic/electric guitar and are the expected sound for sound techs and audiences but aren't always terribly natural sounding.

The choice is complicated: personal preference, playing style, performance settings, the rest of the signal chain, how tolerant you are for outboard gear (preamps etc.), how much you rely on someone else running the sound system. So, check out Doug Young's pickup page, find someone whose live sound you like and track down what they use, ask your local shops what they recommend, try some guitars that have different systems to see how they respond to your playing style.

I have a few different systems and they're all fine - there's something to like and dislike about them all...
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Old 12-28-2016, 01:02 PM
Vancebo Vancebo is offline
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Hello, many people ask this question and believe it or not, we won't agree. There are a number of good solutions. It's like asking what's the best car to drive, or what's the best gun to own. If you would tell us specifically how you would use it, then we can possibly narrow the choices down for you.

For me, I can probably say I have owned everything and there are good and bad points to all of them. Currently I am running a handmade Dazzo pickup. It is $215 dollars and you give the maker a call and he will talk you or a luthier through the simple installation process. No battery in your guitar, it is wired directly to your end pin. It sounds like your guitar and I get a great sound with the EQ on my amp set flat. It's not a microphone but it acts like one. You won't hear it talked about much on here because they are made in relatively small numbers. Good luck.
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  #14  
Old 12-28-2016, 01:07 PM
jseth jseth is offline
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I'd suggest that the first question you need to answer is: How much am I going to be playing "plugged in"?

If the answer is "not much", then something very simple that has no discernible impact on your guitar's acoustic sound is your answer, but that's second to "no pickup at all". Using a microphone for infrequent amplification is probably the best way to go.

I have the Anthem SL in both my 6 and 12 string "stage" guitars; I like the amplified sound just fine, but the installation does affect the unplugged, natural sound of the guitar. In my case, the guitar in question is one that I've played, gigged, recorded and loved for nearly 40 years. When I first had the Anthem installed, my first impression was "Hey! What the (^$* happened to my guitar?!!!"...

Within a period of about 6-9 months, the tone and volume came back to nearly what it had been prior to the Anthem, but the tone is still a bit "off", almost as if the entire tonal spectrum was evened out, across the range... as opposed to the particularly lovely accented mid-range response the guitar had for all those years previous to the pickup.

Never experienced anything of the sort with the Fishman Matrix Acoustic Natural (or whatever it's called) and had good luck getting a nice sound with it. I think the key to having a good tone with an under saddle pickup is the player's attack strength; if you have a heavy right hand, the thing is going to quack like a duck!

I have a K&K PW in my Goodall Grand Concert. ZERO impact on acoustic tone, but it requires some fiddling to get a decent sound.

My signal chain is the guitar to either an AER Compact 60 or a Bose L1 Model II pa.
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  #15  
Old 12-29-2016, 11:14 PM
stevecuss stevecuss is offline
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I've tried almost every major pickup option and company. You have many, many good choices and every choice is ultimately a compromise in some fashion.

My top choices now days are some form of soundboard transducer pickup. IMO< they offer the best of all worlds and the compromise factor is smallest. I think the best of those are as follows:

1) K&K. Inexpensive, passive, strong output. The two downsides are: superglue installation which can hinder future pickup installations and a lower fi sound reproduction compared to other SBTs. Having said that, they sound really, really good and are hard to beat for $100 or so.

2) Dazzo or Trance Mono. I haven't tried the Dazzo, but I run a Trance and love it. Active and best of all, double sided tape install for a truly non invasive option.

3) McIntyre feather, BMG Elevation, JJB are all good options too.

I think the Baggs M80 is quite a good sound hole pickup and the Baggs Anthem is the best of the UST solutions, in my opinion, as is the DTAR Wavelength, but some complain that the UST dampens the acoustic tone.

best wishes on the search.
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