Pickups continued

[AeroUSA]

The past few weeks I have tried a K&K, Matrix Infinity, Baggs Anthem, ES2, M80 and Matrix infinity blend pickup.

The best of the bunch plugged in was the Anthem. The problem was that it made the OM-28 sound dead. Once I pulled it out it came back to life and sounded amazing.

The best plugged in tone I had was from the Anthem, ES2 and Matrix Blend.

The Anthem killed the tone of my guitar unplugged and the ES2 is great but only for Taylor's.

I am very impressed with the Matrix Blend. Is anyone here using this? I'm sure it affects the tone of the unplugged guitar a little but nowhere near as much as the Anthem. I feel the piezo and mic blend is the best for me and the way that I play.

The only pickups left I would be interested in trying would be the Lyric, Fishman Rare Earth Blend and the Amulett M.

I'll report back when I settle on one of these next week. It's been an interesting and expensive experiment.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by AeroUSA

The past few weeks I have tried a K&K, Matrix Infinity, Baggs Anthem, ES2, M80 and Matrix infinity blend pickup.

The best of the bunch plugged in was the Anthem. The problem was that it made the OM-28 sound dead. Once I pulled it out it came back to life and sounded amazing.

The best plugged in tone I had was from the Anthem, ES2 and Matrix Blend.

The Anthem killed the tone of my guitar unplugged and the ES2 is great but only for Taylor's.

I am very impressed with the Matrix Blend. Is anyone here using this? I'm sure it affects the tone of the unplugged guitar a little but nowhere near as much as the Anthem. I feel the piezo and mic blend is the best for me and the way that I play.

The only pickups left I would be interested in trying would be the Lyric, Fishman Rare Earth Blend and the Amulett M.

I'll report back when I settle on one of these next week. It's been an interesting and expensive experiment.

There's an elite (top) percussion style guitarist in our area who uses the Matrix Blend to very good effect. Also an excellent acoustic jazz-pop stylist who uses the Matrix Blend with a lute soundhole cover and a huge pedal board.

If you ever come home to ToneDexter, you'd be all set with the Matrix Blend. You could have a WaveMap for pure UST and a high feedback threshold, and also a WaveMap for a more percussive, top-responsive sound. And of course, you'd still have the Blend used alone for quick setup stuff.

[AeroUSA]

But you would turn the mic off completely while creating maps right?

[AeroUSA]

I'm impressed with the Matrix Blend but no one seems to talk about it

[Petty1818]

The Matrix Blend is okay, I used one for close to seven years. I personally hardly ever dialled in more than 10% of the mic as it was just too feedback prone and it never really added much to the tone. Never noticed a change in the unplugged tone of my guitar with that system installed. Make sure you match the action and height of the saddle pre-UST installation as this can have an impact. If you action is lowered a bit, you will notice less sustain and bottom end.

I would skip the Lyric if I were you. I had one and I currently have the Anthem SL (coming out soon). The Lyric is like the Anthem but with far less bottom end. It's very natural but your guitar will sound thinner than with the Anthem.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by AeroUSA

I'm impressed with the Matrix Blend but no one seems to talk about it

It's an old system that's why. It just doesn't have the new or "wow" factor at the moment.

[AeroUSA]

The Matrix Blend doesn't change the tone. The Anthem does. It choked my guitar. It was so muffled with hat installed.

I also only dial in a small amount of mic but I like the air that it gives.

It seems to be the best compromise to far for me.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by AeroUSA

The Matrix Blend doesn't change the tone. The Anthem does. It choked my guitar. It was so muffled with hat installed.

I also only dial in a small amount of mic but I like the air that it gives.

It seems to be the best compromise to far for me.

I was just going by your comment that the Matrix Blend does impact the unplugged tone but not as much as the Anthem. Thanks for the clarification.

[AeroUSA]

I never heard the guitar without it. I imagine ANY pickup affects the tone slightly but where the matrix would probably impact it 5% the Anthem is more like 40%!

[martingitdave]

If you like the ES2, as I do, you may really like the Amulet M. Any pickup can be improved with the Tondexter, evidently, as long as it fits in your signal chain. Regardless, I completely agree with your conclusions.


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[M Hayden]

I use an older version of the Matrix Blend (old Stereo Onboard Blender) and it works quite well, overall, with a nice reliable live sound. It's a good basic design and Fishman has kept working on it to provide incremental improvement.

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by M Hayden

I use an older version of the Matrix Blend (old Stereo Onboard Blender) and it works quite well, overall, with a nice reliable live sound. It's a good basic design and Fishman has kept working on it to provide incremental improvement.

Do you have this one? https://www.guitarfromspain.com/en/p...al-guitar.html

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by AeroUSA

But you would turn the mic off completely while creating maps right?

Not necessarily. You can make multiple WaveMaps (experimenting with mic positions) with the pure UST signal and keep the best one. This will be the best WaveMap for high feedback immunity and playing which doesn't incorporate tapping.

Alternatively, you could also set the pickup system for a good tapping blend and make multiple WaveMaps (experimenting with mic positions), choosing the best one as your go-to tapping WaveMap. Of course, when you use this WaveMap you'll need to set the pickup blend control for the same blend which was used in creating the WaveMap.

For situations where feedback immunity isn't an issue and tapping isn't required, you can use whichever WaveMap (along with its corresponding pickup setting) produces the best Dexterized tone for your ears.

It would also be possible to make WaveMaps for the blender on full mic position and this would likely produce a Dexterized tone which is less feedback prone than using the full mic blend without ToneDexter. It would certainly be an interesting experiment to compare the full mic blend Dexterized tone with the full UST blend Dexterized tone.

One of the cool features of ToneDexter is that it can be used with internal mics and SBTs, as well as USTs.

[M Hayden]

I have the Fishman Stereo Blender that Taylor used from about 2000 to 2005 or so. It's really quite good, better than it's usually assessed and it's simple to plug and play.

[gfa]

I just play into a microphone. Works really well for me.

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