Anyone prefer a magnetic soundhole pickup?
 

I'm really not a fan of the piezo sound and I've been noticing some of my favorite pickup tones come from people using the soundhole pickups. It also seems like these have fallen out of favor these days with so many built-in options. Anyone still using soundhole pickups and which is your favorite?

i like the magnetic pickup sound (i used to have a mojotone pickup) but it's just too impractical to keep in the soundhole and aesthetically i am not a big fan. there are dual source pickups and transducers that are mic-based or piezo plus something else (like the LR Baggs Anthem or Lyric or the K&K mini) that work quite well and don't have that aesthetic baggage so i prefer those.

….I like em….I’ve owned most of the popular ones and currently own a Fishman Blackstack which is quite similar to but not as powerful as a Sunrise….and a vintage DeArmond compensated B model that I’ve had for years and is not as “acoustic” sounding as modern pickups but sounds terrific for a more electrified tone….

…still I do love my K&K’s that are not piezo sounding at all to me…and combined with a soundhole pickup in a dual setup are the cats meow….

Hi starshine, I am a fan of mag pickups. I gigged a Baggs M1a for a bunch of years and am now currently using an M80. Which to my ears is a little warmer in the mids and and is voiced a little differently, but both are good pickups IMO.

There are a lot of good mags out there, the Mojotone, K&K makes a nice sounding mag, the Dimarzio BLack Angel and of course the Sunrise.

I am using the same Dearmond 210 pickups I slapped on my guitars in the 1960s. Other than having to replace cables they all still work just fine. One that I really liked though was the Dimarzio DP-139. But it went out of production years back. And some day I will follow through on my threat to buy a Sunrise pickup.

In the context of a band (semi-acoustic ethnic folk music), I've been using mags for years. A Baggs M1 and now an M80. Sound is very good in that context, and neither is too prone to feedback. I use the M80 in passive mode through a Radial PZ-Pre direct into the PA mixer. A little reverb from the mixer and a delay pedal in the Radial's FX loop for solos. The M80 needs less EQ adjustment than the M1 did. The highs are a little mellower, and the mids don't need as much of a cut.

Louis

although i have a K&K and a fishman acoustic pickup, i really like the 3 others i use listed below

dimarzio dp136 natural super soundhole pickup- very natural sound and like being able to adjust each string with the set screw.

early Bill Lawrence soundhole pick up- very very jazzy sound and amazingly clean- cleaner than any of my acoustic pickups ive used (not that you cant correct the others using the acoustic amp settings but for pure cleanness, this is my fav)

simple "cling on" pickup- works great on my nylon string guitars and easily repositioned, i also use it on my 29 archtop from time to time, but with archtops im more a purist and prefer the acoustic sound

and still having fun with the Yamaha THR5A i bought especially with the editor run through laptop, opens up a world of diff effects and fine settings and library able.

I used to have a sunrise through a tube-di and some eq to bring it were i wanted it, a lot of work and equipment. I found the new headway sam-1 with
its inside eq preset spot on, goin direct to a mixer or in a driven Tubeamp.
Headroom and not as fuzzy as some other Mag Pickups with a inside preamp.

SPREEGRUESSE
Takis

The louder you play, the more they make sense.

They are very popular

Check the last pole:
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...ts&pollid=4036

I use a Seymour Duncan Mag Mic in my 000-28 and I am more than fine with the results. I plan on getting a Sunrise for my upcoming Boucher OM to (hopefully) kick it up a notch.

I have guitars with K&Ks, the Taylor ES2 UST system, and Baggs M1 passive soundhole pups. I don’t get super religious about any of them, but I often say my best live sound is a Martin D15 with an M1 passive, through a Venue DI. It’s a great pickup p, especially come solo time.

Hello I recently bought a LR Baggs M1a for my Gibson advanced jumbo.
I already had a hx stomp device and loaded J45 IRS that have been created using microphones and a magnetic pickup.
Really today’s rehearsal was so far the best pickup experience I had. The M1 already sounded good straight into the mixer but the signal responded very well to the IRs

I have gone through a lot of pickups in my gigging guitars and I keep coming back to the Baggs M1 passive pickups. They sound really good and are consistent from venue to venue. They are a great workhorse pickup. I have guitars with K&K, JJB and Baggs Anthem SL pickups as well but I just can’t get consistently good sound on every stage with anything other than a plain ol’ M1 passive.

Though I mainly use Tak Pro Series guitars for the bulk of my shows that are close to 200 a year there are select applications where I prefer my Martin D18 that I put in a DeArmond Tone Boss... mostly finger style and jazzy upscale clubs vs the coastal tiki venues I play most of the time.
Tak Pro Series use their Palathetic system which is not quacky like typical ust systems and picks up percussive slaps. So I get the best of both applications.
I like the Tone Boss and the M80 it replaced; both have a pleasing, usable tone that exceed a typical ust IMO. The trebles on the mag tho a bit more electric, are fatter and fuller then with a ust.