Best sounding plugged in acoustic?
 

None of my guitars have electronics and occasionally I get the opportunity to play out with others. So, I've got the itch to get a guitar with on-board electronics. I want something that I won't be sobbing if it gets a scratch. For my planned use, unplugged sound quality is secondary; mostly matters how it sounds plugged in. What are some good "plugged in" choices in the $1k - $2k range?

I wouldn't cry if a $2K guitar got banged up. But I'd certainly be mad at myself.
Yamaha A3 series guitars are great plugged in. They are being closed out. I paid $900 for an AC3R with nice hard shell case. I had an A1M but had to give up on dreads due to shoulder pain. Also nice at $600 with HSC. Check the big online stores for close outs. I think Sweetwater had them for considerably less.

Try a Takamine.

I would suggest Taylor's stuff.

As a full-time working musician I've tried many different options and for the wide variety of genres, dynamics, venues, and volumes I employ; I've found that Takamine's MIJ models to work best for me in combination with the two Loudbox Performers I use in tandem...the Cooltube system is warm, phat & beautiful sounding. Easy to dial in, few ever feedback issues that are easily remedied. They are plug n play, rugged, comfortable and the five I've owned came setup stage ready perfect, and yes the MIJ Taks do sound lovely unplugged, using HHG, scalloped bracing & dovetail joints which I prefer.

I also use my D18 with a Baggs M80 for certain venues, a different sound and very nice for finger picking in my more mellow venues.

Btw...I've purchased 3 Taks from our AGF sponsor Pacific Guitar Sales, Jerry has a very nice inventory and is wonderful gentleman to do business with!

eric

+1 on Pro level Taks.

Another vote for Takamine in that price range

Redundancy...Takamine Pro Series.

Why not just add a pick-up to A guitar you already have, to give you good sound whether plugged-in or not? There are a lot of great minimally evasive options out there these days, and you'd save a lot of cash...

My acoustic duo partner plays a Takamine Pro Series with cool tube pre-amp. It sounds really good electrified; even if I'm not a fan of the Tak neck and unplugged tone - you have to respect what that guitar does well.

^^^ This is sure a low cost approach to moving into 'plugged in sound'.

You have guitars you like, "occasionally" you play with others, why spend $1-2K on a once in a while guitar?

Add removable electronics to one of your guitars, seriously. I've gigged with very expensive instruments for decades, they show no more wear than the guitars I leave home. Outside of weather (temperature/rain) and truly rowdy bars, play your best to sound your best.

Do you leave you car home because it might get parking lot dings?

When I was a heavy gigging musician I had dedicated acoustic electrics, but they were still $4K instruments, not to save my other guitars, they were tools for a purpose.

To answer the question I prefer Martin Auras and Taks both over Taylor acoustic electrics, but I would try some of the great removable electronics on one of your existing guitars first, my .02..........;)

So far, I like my Pono amplified the best of my three. It has a Fishman Infinity Matrix and I run it through an LR Baggs Para DI and a Boss RV6 for just a touch of reverb. I definitely like it better than the sound of my Larrivee with a K&K mini. My Martin is currently at the shop getting a Fishman installed so I may be changing favorites soon.

Good plugged in tone can't happen unless a guitar sounds good before it's plugged in.

Find a guitar that meets your expectations acoustically and add a K&K Mini transducer.

I've put these in 4 acoustics with great results each time. You DO need to route them to a preamp, using a high quality low capacitance cable to obtain the best sound quality. One of the nice things about a non-active K&K Mini installation is it basically changes nothing with the exception of the end pin jack. With no batteries and no electronics to go obsolete you can forget it's there until you wish to use it with sound reinforcement.

I've got a Martin D28 and a Taylor 816, neither sound as good plugged in as my cheap Takamine G-series. But then again, unplugged the Takamine sounds thin and weak and the other two... spectacular.

Taylor 300 Series models with Expression System 2. ES2 is my choice for the best factory-installed system.

Takamine EF340STT and Takamine EF360STT both with TLD LineDriver 2.

Or add a Trance Amulet M Dual Mono Acoustic Guitar System to any decent guitar. Trance is my choice as the best aftermarket system.

If you're OK buying used:

• Find an older ('70s-80s) USA Ovation deep-body/non-cutaway
• Find a mid-80s Peavey Bandit 65/Special 130 1x12" combo
• Plug into the low-gain input, set all EQ controls @12:00, turn the Pull Bright off and the Saturation knob to 0, add a little reverb, and set the individual channel Gain/Volume controls to your taste

You'll have a setup that allows you to switch between rhythm/lead or pick/fingerstyle, with loads of clean headroom and all the volume you're likely to need, physically tough as they come, that actually sounds like a loud acoustic guitar (not the edgy, quacky "acoustic-electric" tone customarily associated with the genre), all for well under $1K - this was my go-to rig for 20 years, and although I've played/owned more expensive gear I've yet to find anything better...

My 2¢: Don't buy the guitar for the electronics. Buy the guitar you want, add a Fishman Infinity Matrix and invest in a Fishman Aura Spectrum DI.

That's what you're hearing at a James Taylor, Jason Isbell, Jerry Douglas, John Hyatt or Steve Earle show.

Isbell says he can't tell the difference between the a Fishman Aura and a mic live.

Neither can I. :)

Based on the OP, I'd pass on the sophisticated and wonderful systems described and go for a basic Takamine or the like, which IMO are designed exactly for what your say you want to do. Seeking amazing amplified acoustic tone soon becomes like changing pickups, effects, tubes, speakers... everything... for an electric. It all makes a difference, and you can definitely get good advice (such as all the stuff in this thread) if you have a tonal goal in mind. On the other hand, though, there's the simplicity of a basic instrument like a Takamine that may never give you the spectacular tones of James Taylor's amplified Olsons, but will serve you well through just about any amp and in just about any room. Just depends on what you want. It's not always necessary or even helpful to chase the most beautiful acoustic tone attainable. If I were a featured or solo performer playing to an audience regularly, I'd look into systems mentioned here. For pick-up gigs of all kinds, I'd go with a reliable Takamine or others.

Theres no substitute for a condenser mic...

Im a purist, I hate the sound from internal pickups, they just sound hollow and dead, but I would agree with the Tak's though as being one of the better.

I have a K&K in my DM and a Fishman Matrix in my 000M and I have a Takamine P5NC. When played through my Fender acoustasonic or my Trace Elliot none of them can compare to my Takamine P5NC.

I don't want to add a pickup to a guitar I already have because they don't fit into the "guitar I wouldn't cry over if it got scratched" category.

A Japanese built Takamine is the only way to go at your price point. Great value plug-in-and-go guitars with highly reliable state-of-the-art electronics, quality construction, peerless finish and while they're pretty good unplugged, they sound a million dollars plugged in. A no-brainer, in my opinion.

The first question is what is your play style? Are you looking for something to play and sing over? Something to play Finger style or something to flat-pick? You probably do a little of all of these, but which one do you do most often?

With a budget up to $2k you can easily buy a used staple (D18, J-45, etc..) with a few dings already in it and add a great sounding pickup. If you shop around a little you can find one with a great sounding pickup already installed. This is the no-compromise approach.

A lot of people have mentioned Takamine. Takamine innovated in pickup technology in the 90s. But in the past decade or so they have not changed much with their designs. The innovation in pickup technology has come from Fishman (used by Martin, et al), LR Baggs (used by Gibson, et al) and companies like K&K.

Here is a short list of great sounding pro-grade pickups
LR Baggs Anthem
LR Baggs Lyric
LR Baggs Active Element (cuts through great when playing with a full band)
Fishman Aura
Fishman Matrix + external Fishman Aura Spectrum "imaging" DI
K&K Pure (passive) + quality DI like LR Baggs Venue DI

If your budget was under $1000, I would suggest an Alvarez Masterworks (they use B-Band and LR Baggs pickups and they sound great plugged in) or Epiphone Masterbuilt models DR500MCE or AJ45ME. The Nanoflex pickup system they use is no LR Baggs or Fishman, but it probably rivals what Takamine was putting in their guitars in the 1990s and on par with what they are using today.

I would also not rule out the new Taylor Academy series. Haven't played one yet but I know they really impressed a lot of people at NAMM who don't impress so easily.

If you like the 'Ovation' sound, then...



...impressive pickup and electronics. They can be found on EBay for cheap prices.

I'm also a big advocate of 'mic' modelling technology so I endorse the Fishman Aura System. However this has to be professionally installed on your guitar or you have to go the stomp box route via a piezo UST.

IMPRESSIVE PLAYING & TONE! What's even better is an Ovation with the VIP-5 Preamp that has five built-in Aura Images. My now traded Adamas 2080 NWT had this preamp and both its acoustic and amplified tone were superb! I shouldn't have let that guitar go!

Based on the reputation, wouldn't:
Rare Earth Blend + any guitar = success?

Thumbs up to this suggestion for quality. It delivers on quality

Last year I bought a Fishman Aura Spectrum DI (the box Jason Isbell uses and praises) and got to a point where I wouldn't plug-in without. Planned to equip all my guitars with USTs as an affordable way to move forward with plugged in sound. UST's like the Matrix or Baggs Element are easy to install and inexpensive. Also, chances with a used guitar you'll already have a UST system in it

The sells pitch on the Aura Spectrum is that if you pair it with the right image (think amp model in something like a Line6 POD for electric guitar, it's kind of the same thing but for acoustic modeling), you end up with a plugged in sound that models the tone of a microphone placed in front of the guitar combined with the UST blended in.

The down side of the Aura Spectrum approach.

1. To get optimal sound out of it, you have install the Fishman library software on your computer, plug the box into your computer and download the latest images

2. You have to spend a few hours tinkering with the images and microphone combos to find the best sound for your guitars and there isn't always a perfect match. For my Gibson WM-45, I go with one of three built in J-45 images, my favorite is one Fishman created using a $2000 Neumann microphone, my other favorite is J-45 image they created with a Sure SM57. I have a solid cedar top Alvarez that is similar in shape to a Taylor GS body style. After experimenting with a lot of images I decided on the Lowden F35C image with Neumann mic model. Even paired with the inexpensive stock BBand UST in the Alvarez it sounds great plugged in. So there Aura Spectrum is kind of a tinker toy. Probably not a tool if you're looking for a solution that requires no work at all.

I own a Sure SM57 and decided to have a friend of mine help me with a blind fold test. Playing my guitar though the PA with SM57 in front of it vs going through the pickup and Aura Spectrum using the spectrums SM57 + J-45 image with the blend set to 60% image 40% UST with the EQ flat UST I could not hear a difference. When playing with a full band I turn the blend knob to about 30% image and 70% pickup/UST sound and it works great. Add a sound hole plugger and you will never experience feedback.

The Aura Spectrum DI retails for around $400 so it would eat up a big part of the OPs budget. Since he's looking for the best quality, least expensive solution I'm not sure this is the best path. The Martin Retro's have the Aura technology built in but are outside OPs budget, however the Martin DCAura GT has the same imaging technology built into the guitars pre-amp these run $1400-$1600 used so that might be an option.

Since you have a budget up to 2K, I'll endorse the Rainsong Shorty. Can't beat it for worry-free playing out (or playing in - it's what sits out on the stand all the time at my house). The sound is fine, plugged-in or not, but it's not going to make you want to sell your expensive and pristine wooden beauties.

I'm aurally allergic to piezo pickups.

IMO to get any respectable sound from an acoustic you need a microphone