Looking for the perfect pickup system
 

I Love acoustic guitar set ups where the preamp has almost infinite options as far as EQ - low/mid/treble/notch. My question is, without drilling a huge hole into my guitar, what options do I have for a pickup system that mounts into the soundhole? Thanks

A soundhole pickup sounds best. Head over to the amplification section and use the search facility.

I prefer an external preamp that sits on the ground. It keeps things simple on the guitar. I've been happy with both the Venue DI from LR Baggs and the K&K Pure XLR Preamp. For pick ups both the Baggs Lyric and the K&K Pure Mini have served me well to keep things simple on the guitar.

IMO the best sound hole pickup is the Baggs M80.

" Looking for the perfect pickup system"

Aren't we all.......:)

It would helpful to know your application. Recording? Live play? What kind of live play? Open mics? Gigs? What kind of gigs? What kind of venues? How big are the venues? How big are the crowds? Quiet and attentive crowds or loud party crowds?

Since you seem to be in favor of a good preamp with lots of EQ abilities (a good thing) then you're all set there. You seem to want a soundhole pickup which suggests live play and louder venues at that. Plenty of options for you that run the scale of price.

At the top of the heap is the Sunrise pickup. Very expensive and heavy but the standard for a long time with some of the biggest names in the business. Going downward from there in price popular soundhole pickups are the LR Baggs offerings like the M80 which has a built-in internal mic along with the magnetic pole pieces for a more natural sound, the M1 and M1A. Another couple of nice mid-range priced soundhole pickups are the Dimarzio Angle and Black Angel and then there's the Fishman offerings, some with little mics attached, some not. Then there's the cheaper ones and plenty to choose from there. I only have personal experience with the M80.

You say you don't want to 'drill the big hole' so that means running a cable out of your soundhole. You can do this but it looks awful and presents it's own issues like physical cable interference and whatnot. It's fine for testing out pickup systems but if you know you want some type of pickup system then resign yourself to drilling the hole (actually buy the reemer). Otherwise just buy a nice microphone and mic your guitar.

If your requirement is an active system with onboard preamp (as I have inferred), I have guitars with Baggs anthem and Fishman rare earth where no body modification is required. They are pricey but offer blends of two sources. I think you can wire in a third source to the rare earth too. The plug in and play facility they offer is very convenient. And they are high quality. Yet, used with an outboard preamp with eq settings, I have found even they are improved. It’s just that introducing the extra sound modification into the setup takes a bit of time and experimentation if you are playing live. I have also had a Baggs anthem easily removed from one guitar and then easily installed in another.

There are as many choices as there are posters
on this forum. We are all searching for that holy grail
of acoustic tone. If you only play in one situation
like in a band through the same pa. then the K&K
soundboard xducers are well respected here .,but
they require external pre and eq. If you play
in a lot of varied venues . Open mics ,impromptu
jams,Sitting in with different bands then a sound
hole magnetic may be a better choice.
Baggs m80,m1 .Sunrise or the fishman rare earth series.
all of these sound pretty good plugged into anything.

Only available with the perfect guitar - they're still working on that -

However, look at the Barbera Soloist - it is extremely good. And the new pickup from James May looks extremely promising, but I haven't heard one in person, yet -

I have used nearly every pickup mentioned in this thread but my DPA 4099 is the best at reproducing the tone of my guitar. I place the mic just under the treble strings and have it dangling down from there. I use black tape to hold it in that particular location. The tape blends in with the pickguard on my Martin D28 which is my most used gigging guitar. Its easy to use, lightweight, tiny in size, and incredibly accurate in tone and that location picks up the bass strings as well as the others. Highly recommended for high end sound. Cost of the mic is around $500. From there you would run that mic into a preamp of choice for eqing. The mic does use phantom power so either get an external phantom power supply unit or if your preamp has it like some do, that will suffice. Good luck.

Everyone hears differently and that is how we evaluate pickups. Personally listen to as many as you can and evaluate them. Based on your needs you will have to decide on active or passive designs.

The Barbera pickup is getting good reviews but they only come in an uncompensated design. If your guitar has a compensated bridge saddle intonation will be a problem.

Fishman Rare Earth Blend Soundhole Pickup. I've had a couple D-18's with the Fishman Ellipse Blend system installed. That's a UST, and internal mic. I ultimately sold both D-18's, and found a fabulous Gibson J-45 Vintage model (2017). I couldn't bear to alter the guitar to install a pickup, and went to a soundhole pickup this time. I tested it out tonight at an open mic, straight into the house PA. No floor monitors, just mains (it was an open mic right?) The pickup performed beautifully (as did I!). Great reviews from the local players on the sound. (although what do they know?). Had the pickup at 50% mic/magnetic pickup. No feedback issues, at a good volume. Through an amp, placed behind me, I would expect some mic feedback issues to adjust, but I'm very happy with my simple solution to amplify my new guitar, without a permanent install. I didn't even place a neck heel strap pin. Tried out a Planet Waves strap adapter for the headstock (like the old days). That worked well too, although, a strap pin isn't out of the question for the future.

"Perfect?" Doesn't exist. You have to pick your poison.