First night out with my Prestige 330 pickup. Wow!

[C.F. Angee]

Last night I played with a pickup for the very first time: a Prestige 330 (a passive set of three bridge-plate piezo transducers, thoroughly reviewed on this site) in my Martin dread.

I paid the outrageously cheap $50 to JJB electronics, and $40 to a local luthier to be the one to take a drill to my baby.

I was totally unprepared for what a change this was to my stage experience, compared to using a mic. This place I was at, when crowded, holds at most 100 people, and it isn't usually crowded. So this is small. But it's also noisy: they are here for the beer.

With this passive pickup straight to the soundboard, my gentle fingerstyle was transferred to the room like it transfers at home to my livingroom, with access to the full range from gentle hammer-ons to moderate strumming: I am never a loud player.

The bass is strong on both the Prestige 330 and its higher-priced brother, the K&K Mini: a great feature if your guitar lacks warmth or boom. The engineer adjusted the bass down a touch right up front, and I was pleased with the balanced, full and natural sound.

I walked off last night wanting more. More time. The audience? Yeah, I don't know about that. But I got more positive response between songs than ever before and multiple compliments as I put the guitar away. Money well spent, my friends.

Preamp in my future? Maybe, sure. But not unless I get to where I am playing a diversity of settings where I never know what I might get, and I have to be ready. That isn't my reality today. My reality today is that this passive pickup just radically altered my enjoyment levels -- already high -- when playing my so-happy guitar to my almost comprehensively sad songs.

Yay, life!

[kaos]

Originally Posted by C.F. Angee

Last night I played with a pickup for the very first time: a Prestige 330 (a passive set of three bridge-plate piezo transducers, thoroughly reviewed on this site) in my Martin dread.

I paid the outrageously cheap $50 to JJB electronics, and $40 to a local luthier to be the one to take a drill to my baby.

I was totally unprepared for what a change this was to my stage experience, compared to using a mic. This place I was at, when crowded, holds at most 100 people, and it isn't usually crowded. So this is small. But it's also noisy: they are here for the beer.

With this passive pickup straight to the soundboard, my gentle fingerstyle was transferred to the room like it transfers at home to my livingroom, with access to the full range from gentle hammer-ons to moderate strumming: I am never a loud player.

The bass is strong on both the Prestige 330 and its higher-priced brother, the K&K Mini: a great feature if your guitar lacks warmth or boom. The engineer adjusted the bass down a touch right up front, and I was pleased with the balanced, full and natural sound.

I walked off last night wanting more. More time. The audience? Yeah, I don't know about that. But I got more positive response between songs than ever before and multiple compliments as I put the guitar away. Money well spent, my friends.

Preamp in my future? Maybe, sure. But not unless I get to where I am playing a diversity of settings where I never know what I might get, and I have to be ready. That isn't my reality today. My reality today is that this passive pickup just radically altered my enjoyment levels -- already high -- when playing my so-happy guitar to my almost comprehensively sad songs.

Yay, life!

Sounds like you had a decent impedance match with the host's PA. Even if you don't use it, a preamp is a good thing to keep with you. Eventually you are going to plug into someone system where it just sounds horrible ... thin, and tinny. Congrats on your night out!

[jonfields45]

A Boss GE-7 (or keeping with the cost constrained theme a Behringer EQ700) will be all the preamp and control you will need and something that will run nearly forever (50+ hours) on a single 9v battery.