McIntyre GF-30 Acoustic Feather Pickup

[MorganDred]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has used a McIntyre GF-30 Feather Pickup? How do they compare to the K and K Trinity system?

I have a D-Tar Solstice preamp and I am thinking of running the GF-30 through it. I play modern fingerstyle.

Thanks,

Wayne Bargen

http://www.waynebargen.ca/

[simondylan]

Originally Posted by MorganDred

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has used a McIntyre GF-30 Feather Pickup? How do they compare to the K and K Trinity system?

I have a D-Tar Solstice preamp and I am thinking of running the GF-30 through it. I play modern fingerstyle.

Thanks,

Wayne Bargen

http://www.waynebargen.ca/

My experience and opinion, I've heard the K&K sound consistently better that the Feather every time. IF that is all you're comparing I truly believe it's the safest bet. For my personal situation though I prefer the Baggs Anthem SL. I've used it for a couple years now and still love it!

[royd]

Originally Posted by MorganDred

I was wondering if anyone has used a McIntyre GF-30 Feather Pickup? How do they compare to the K and K Trinity system?

I'm pretty sure that Doug Young has a feather permanently installed in at least one of his guitars... and as we all know, he has demoed virtually every system out there.

Personally, I've not used a feather but I have used earlier generation McIntyres in multiple guitars and like them as well or better than any other SBT out there. My #1 has an earlier generation Mc in it.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by royd

I'm pretty sure that Doug Young has a feather permanently installed in at least one of his guitars... and as we all know, he has demoed virtually every system out there..

I do have a Feather in my Ryan, but I basically never use it - I just don't use that guitar for plugged in gigs. I like the sound of the Feather, it's a bit brighter, or maybe just a flatter, more natural frequency response than K&Ks to my ears. Al Petteway uses them, and always gets a good sound. They have a lower output than the K&Ks so you need a good preamp. Unfortunately, I've tried 4 of them at various times, including the latest version, and they all have a slight hum that drives me crazy, including the one in the Ryan. That's a deal breaker for me, but others report they have no issue with hum, so your mileage may vary.

[MorganDred]

Thanks everyone for your input. I am still undecided. I really like a system that you can blend.

If I put in a Feather and find that it is not for me, is it easy to uninstall it?

Thanks,

Wayne

[Doug Young]

You can certainly blend the Feather with other sources. As far as removal, it's like a piece of masking tape - stick it on, and rip it off! The one caveat is that once it's stuck on, if you take it off, you're probably done. It's not sticky enough to be installed again.

[hotroad]

There is a black gooey gum like product that is made for attaching pickups and cords inside acoustic guitars. Wish I could tell you who makes it but I can't. Its worth researching though. I have used it various guitars and its even fine for on the face to hold a cord to the face in a temporary install of a soundhole pickup. Great stuff and doesn't mar the surface at all. It came with a high end mic to be installed on the face or bridge of an acoustic.

[lweb10]

I've had the feather in two guitars, a Flammang 000 and a Flammang 00. I liked the sound in both but in the 000 the feather kept wanting to peal off a bit. Oddly, it still sounded pretty good. I eventually replaced it with a Baggs Lyric, with which I've been pleased. The feather needs a good preamp, in my case a Baggs paraDI. I did call Mr McIntyre before buying the first one to get a recommendation for a preamp and had a very pleasant conversation. It also benefits (greatly) from a high quality cable of the shortest practical length between the guitar and preamp. This is an important point that I think many people miss - your average 20 foot guitar cord will not show this device to its best advantage. I use a Mogami 12foot cable with good results. 10 foot would probably be even better. I never noticed the buzzing issue Doug mentioned. The feather does pretty well in avoiding feedback. The remaining one in the 00 sounds great through my Loudbox mini as well as the larger systems I've played it through. I've also mixed it with the K&K meridian mic . . . very flexible but (for me) too much fussing around.

As my hearing gets funkier I spend less time worrying about the pickup and more time wondering if I can get to the end of the gig before my ears get too fatigued to determine if I'm in tune.

[Andy Howell]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

You can certainly blend the Feather with other sources. As far as removal, it's like a piece of masking tape - stick it on, and rip it off! The one caveat is that once it's stuck on, if you take it off, you're probably done. It's not sticky enough to be installed again.

I'm pretty sure that Martin Simpson is using a feather as a double pickup with his Highland pickup / or he was for a while.

[jonfields45]

What I like about the Feather is it can be easily installed and removed. No crazy glue required, but to get a similar quality tone a short cable to a preamp is the down side. If avoiding permanent glue is your concern (though a good luthier can remove a K&K while you wait) then it is a good solution.

I recently tried a 3M 467MP (pickguard adhesive) install of a JJB 330 in an inexpensive backup guitar (where future salvaging of the pickup was a consideration) and it was more than 20 dB down from the later crazy glue reinstall. If you had enough gain it sounded fine, but it was not practical for me to use with my stage setup for my other guitar.

The Feather uses some sort of polymer piezo material and does not have the hard glue install of a K&K/JJB which is ceramic and cyanoacrylate glued. They compensate for the lower output piezo material by using a lot more of it. There is probably no advantage to using a permanent glue with the Feather's pliable piezo polymer.