For fun...what acoustic pickups do big hitter live performers use?

[akagilligan]

Although arbitrary, let's define big hitters as those performing or have a history of performing to audiences over 5,000 on a regular basis.

David Gilmour-Baggs M1 into Avalon U5
Clapton-Carlos CP-1a/Fishman UST into Avalon U5
James Taylor-Baggs LB6 into Pendulum
Phil Keaggy-Baggs LB6
James Nash-Baggs LB6 and DPA mic
Dave Mathews-Fishman UST into Avalon U5
John Mayer-Martin Thinline into Avalon u5

Some of this may be outdated..feel free to update

Wanna play just for fun?

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by akagilligan

Although arbitrary, let's define big hitters as those performing or have a history of performing to audiences over 5,000 on a regular basis.

David Gilmour-Baggs M1 into Avalon U5
Clapton-Carlos CP-1a/Fishman UST into Avalon U5
James Taylor-Baggs LB6 into Pendulum
Phil Keaggy-Baggs LB6
James Nash-Baggs LB6 and DPA mic
Dave Mathews-Fishman UST into Avalon U5
John Mayer-Martin Thinline into Avalon u5

Some of this may be outdated..feel free to update

Wanna play just for fun?

Hi aka-g...

Keaggy has been using a Baggs Duet (side-door install) with an LB-6 and internal mic through a rack mounted SPS-1 (Pendulum) for over a decade now.

James Taylor switched to an Aura system programmed with actual recordings of his Olson (I think with the LB-6 saddle) about 5 years back. His gear isn't sitting on stage and I haven't seen anything concerning his systems lately.

Last year 2013 at Healdsburg Festival, Don Ross, Brooke Miller, Erik Skye and a ton of others were playing guitars outfitted with K&K Pure Mini. Some were dual source, others just a good old K&K.

There were also the usual mix of under saddle and mag pickups as well.

Several artists set up mics in front of themselves, and plugged in pickups on stage (through a Humphrey hand built amp which was on stage as a monitor). Most of them by the end of their allotted time were heavily leaning on the pickups.

In the instrument demo room, it was all mics all the time. Sounded great and the tech was really good at keeping it under control, loud enough for the polite listeners and without feedback.

My wife and I just spent a week on a cruise this winter with about 10 Nashville artists, and the younger players had K&K Pure mini and Venue pedals, and the older players whatever had been in their guitars for the past 20 years through a direct box on the stage.

The 'house band' had a large variety of electrics, and only 2 acoustic guitars, and one was playing the top-end Blueridge (installed at the factory), and the other guy a stock Takamine from the factory install (on a guitar 15 years old).

I'm not sure you could draw consensus from it.

They were using a multi-kabillion dollar system (ship's main auditorium) with a 32 channel digital board…and techs who knew how to use it, so it all sounded pretty great.