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Old 01-05-2018, 08:53 PM
BluesKing777 BluesKing777 is offline
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 3,517
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Firstly, print Doug Young's reply and pin it to your wall!......dual source/internal mic.

Next, great Lowden! You don't mention whether you play solo of in a band etc. But if you play solo, there are more options to get a natural sound, I think, and the world of mics live is your oyster if you are prepared to use NO monitors/amps and wear in-ear monitors or headphones. Mics feedback as soon as they see a monitor, even if they are off!

That said, I have been mucking around with dual source setups at home - using my great little 4 channel A&H mixer. (Zed60 10FX)............. great, great preamps for guitar in the channels 3 and 4.

Now I have a Maton SRS808 with the fabulous inbuilt dual source AP5-Pro pickup system, used by TE, Keith Urban etc. It just sounds superb with the pickup and mix flat out! Of course, the only trouble with that is you have to buy a Maton acoustic guitar to get the system.

With your Lowden, you should get a great sound using an Aura Spectrum or a Tonedexter with the inbuilt Highlander pickup.

Now, I have been fiddling with using dual source with undersaddle (piezo), soundhole (magnetic) with internal mic (condenser). I don't like the sound of undersaddles or mags on their own AT ALL! But I have set the mic and added just enough to get rid of the boxy internal mic sound.

So with my trusty Fishman Rare Earth Blend (mag with mic and lead hanging out the soundhole) in the soundhole of my 1993 Lowden LSE1 (mahogany with sitka), I turn the mag part fully OFF, mic full on and ran to 1 channel of my mixer. I then plugged another lead into my undersaddle pickup and ran it to another channel of my mixer.....leads everywhere.

Clear as mud?

So I have the mic on with a good level, using headphones, and then add just enough undersaddle channel to give it a touch of bottom end, making it all 'fuller' and less 'boxy'.

So I did a recording (link below) with the Lowden in Open G tuning and a bit of bottleneck (slide highlights any quack or tone problems, let me tell you!).

First a couple of progessions with 1. the mix of the 2 channels I like most...then I ran through a progression of each with just the 2. undersaddle (yuk), then the 3. mic only (I like it but it isn't as 'full'), then the 4. mag pickup alone (yuk!) and then back to 5. mic AND undersaddle on to finish off on a high!


https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/mud777



And here is a blues test track on my Maton SRS808 with the AP5-Pro pickup system, u/s piezo full up, mic full up - direct to my A&H mixer, channel 4 (good for guitar), all eq flat, splattering of reverb:


https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/mud7b-2



BluesKing777.

Last edited by BluesKing777; 01-05-2018 at 10:47 PM.
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