[dc.]

I am interested in hearing about pickup options for achieving a natural acoustic tone from an archtop guitar. Magnetic pickups are great but I would like to learn more about the other types of pickups that are available these days.

I have a Kinman noiseless P90 magnetic pickup installed in my fully-hollow Eastman archtop. Since the guitar has a beautiful acoustic tone, I also like to amplify the guitar using a microphone. I blend the two sources together or switch back and forth between the two. I have come to prefer dual source systems like this since installing them on my acoustic guitars, and the result is just as pleasing on my archtop. The Kinman magnetic pickup sounds great; it's my favourite magnetic pickup that I've tried to date, but I find that I like the sound of the guitar through the microphone just as much. It's also fun to record a rhythm track on a looper pedal with the mic and then solo over it with the magnetic pickup (or visa versa). I get great results by using FX on the magnetic pickup and blending that with the clean acoustic sound.

After using this sort of setup for some time, I find I really miss the microphone when I don't have it, but I'm hoping to find a natural sounding pickup that I can use as a suitable replacement for the microphone. The mic is a pain in the neck to deal with in general, and feedback is always a concern. I'm looking for a practical plug-and-play alternative. Ideally, I would like to wire the magnetic pickup and acoustic pickup to a stereo endpin jack for the sake of convenience and simplicity.

Thanks!