[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Dave L

If a UST is thinner is seems it would have less effect on the natural tone of a guitar? What pickups have you found have little to no effect when considering UST?

Hi Dave L

None.

A limitation with under saddle transducers is the same as magnetic pickups or sound-board transducers - they each only capture a small portion of the complex sound characteristics of a guitar.

It's the same limitation we have with microphones, though a good mic will sometimes capture more of those natural characteristics.

Undersaddle get the the attack, sustain, and pitch pretty well. The magnetic pickups the pitch and sustain, but not the attack very well, and the sound-board transducers capture the attack, some of the sound-board resonance, the sustain, and other characteristics. None of the three capture the sound that is being radiated into the air.

Of the three, if I can only have one, I'll go with the sound-board transducers (all 4 of my acoustic guitars have K&K Pure Mini in them). If I can combine two, I'll take the sound-board with an internal mic and an external preamp (all 4 of my acoustics have an internal mic).

These days I've switched to a ToneDexter, which is like using a pickup and an external mic (far better quality than internal mics), but does not limit my output volume as much on stage as an actual mic would.

To summarize - all pickup/microphone systems are compromised and ALL of them alter the sound from the guitar-in-the-room-by-itself.

Thankfully have choices as to how close we want to get given the actual strengths/limitations of venues we play in, and the groups we are part of.