Quote:
Originally Posted by ameadows
Thanks for the advice! Curious...did you ever try one of the anthem systems in either of your D28s?
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Yes, in an attempt to eschew any kind of pedal preamp requirement, I’ve tired every mainstream (and most of the boutique) pickup options on the market. I’ve tired all of the LR Baggs products. The LR Baggs products are designed with components that will give you a high percentage likelihood of getting a decent amplified tone. However, those components, in my opinion, are detrimental to the acoustic tone of the guitar. Some disagree with this conclusion. But, I tried (obsessively) to make those pickups work and they all degraded the acoustic tone of my instruments.
My inevitable conclusion is that a lightweight passive pickup, with proper preamp, wireless systems, amplification, etc. (outside the guitar) is the best compromise for me.
There are some passive/active soundboard transducers that give similar results with different tonal benefits: Trance Amulet, Dazzos, Schatten HFN, McIntyre, etc. These reproduce/artificially produce more high frequency resonances, harmonics, reverberations, etc. because of their three dimensional shapes. You can listen to demos of these on Doug Young’s pickup website. I’ve tried these all too. Some worked better for me than others. I can recommend Dazzos if you are comfortable with the installation process using epoxy. HFN is simple, light and cheap, and can sound very nice in some guitars. Some report less bass.
The reason I’ve landed on K&K, for now, is the rugged installation, relatively flat sound, and predicable response. I know how to EQ these to get what I want. Plus, you can get a decent/usable tone into just about any amplification system with high or low impedance, without a pedal, in a pinch. I can plug it into anything from 5M Ohm to 400K Ohm and get a very usable sound without too much EQ. For instance, K&K will sound great using nothing but a wireless system into a PA. That’s a real advantage. Of course, pairing it with ToneDexter results in a sound that is about as good as it gets.
The Dazzo had a slightly more interesting tone without processing, but you had to be careful about what you plugged it into. It needs more impedance load to sound good 5-10M Ohm. That means you need a pedal or preamp whenever you plug in. It sounded poor into low impedance PA equipment that I occasionally have to use. Also, a passive Dazzo using a wireless system was not as successful. I needed more EQ. So, for me, Dazzo was a little more finicky. However, it’s a small distinction.
The way K&K was designed resulted in a piezo pickup that can sound decent at impedances 10X lower than most other piezo pickups. That makes it more practical for me when I plug into a wide variety of amplification systems that don’t have dedicated 5-10M Ohm preamps. This, of course, is the same trick that all active pickups can do. But K&K is the only passive pickup I’ve used that can do the same trick.
And, for me, the wireless system direct to the PA is the most simple and convenient solution. All that points to K&K for my use case.