#91
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Schatten HFN passive pickup - my experience
I sent this to a friend this morning:
The HFN is a good option for people who can live with the downsides of K&K and are particular about having very little stuff inside their guitars. The structure appears to act as a natural (passive) filter for the low mids (the reduced contact area), and natural (passive) amplifier for highs (suspension of the piezo). Those are the two weaknesses of K&K. But, all the same relative strengths and weaknesses will be present with this piezo system. Moreover, because it it soft coupled to the bridge plate, you need to get the placement right, and adhesions solid, or you lose bass performance. The bottom line for me is that I am very happy with my active HFN VT installation in the D-28 Modern Deluxe. It’s probably one of the best sounding (low impact) pickups that I’ve use. I’ve used pickups that sound as good, or better, but they all weigh the guitar down and/or change the acoustic tone of the guitar, to my ears. The other piezo based pickups that give similar (potentially better depending on your needs) results are: Dazzo, Trance, and UltraTonic. The advantages to HFN over these others are price and ease of installation.
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"Lift your head and smile at trouble. You'll find happiness someday." Last edited by martingitdave; 07-31-2019 at 09:39 AM. |
#92
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Quote:
Other benefits to the HFN: active or passive, your choice. If active, then a second channel available for another pickup of your choice. Also, if active, then battery inside guitar or phantom powered outside. They've really done a lot to create an affordable, high end sounding, flexible option non invasive pickup.
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Steve Mcilroy A25c (Cedar, English Walnut) with Schatten HFN (custom MiSi Crystal Jack Preamp, putty install.) Maton 75th Anniversary OM 50th Anniversary Fender Am Std Strat. Gretsch 6120 Nashville Players in Blue. Line 6 Helix. If I played as much as I read threads, I'd be a pro.... |
#93
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Agreed. The soft couple language is from Les Schatten’s literature. It makes a lot of sense to me. On the other hand, there is value to the systems that use glue to attach (K&K, Dazzo, UltraTonic), if nothing more than for peace of mind.
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"Lift your head and smile at trouble. You'll find happiness someday." |
#94
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I still say that the HFN is closer to the Lr Baggs lyric in terms of tone. To me, it’s extremely balanced in that no frequencies really dominate the signal. That reminds me of the lyric. As a result, many are put off by the lack of enhanced bass. I know I miss it sometimes. It’s thicker sounding than the lyric, it just reminds me of it.
The k&k on the other hand has a thicker overall tone. I just feel as though the strings have more beef behind them. There’s also more bass and midrange. I like that the HFN is clearer but I also like the low end of the K&k. |
#95
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Quote:
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Steve Mcilroy A25c (Cedar, English Walnut) with Schatten HFN (custom MiSi Crystal Jack Preamp, putty install.) Maton 75th Anniversary OM 50th Anniversary Fender Am Std Strat. Gretsch 6120 Nashville Players in Blue. Line 6 Helix. If I played as much as I read threads, I'd be a pro.... |
#96
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I have had this pickup in for about 2 months now with Schatten’s VT pre.
It honestly has been a fight to get this not too be too bright or very middy in my J-45 without having the tone knob rolled down 80%. Perhaps I’m not very good with placement, but I’ve moved this pickup around 3 times now with putty on 2 feet and still have ALOT of highs. Almost tinny. I’m happy for ideas if anyone has them, or I may just need someone who knows more about how to get this thing set to help out. Just my .02 of experience. |
#97
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I do use a K&K like tool to get the placement directly under the saddle, but looking at the final results on my three guitars (checking clearance to the low E-string ball), I'm probably a 1/4" different across the three guitars. My experience would indicate you should try tape, not get too uptight about exact placement, and push up on the three legs and down on the bridge to make sure the HFN distorts to the shape of your bridge plate and is securely taped.
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jf45ir Free DIY Acoustic Guitar IR Generator .wav file, 30 seconds, pickup left, mic right, open position strumming best...send to direct email below I'll send you 100/0, 75/25, 50/50 & 0/100 IR/Bypass IRs IR Demo, read the description too: https://youtu.be/SELEE4yugjE My duo's website and my email... [email protected] Jon Fields |
#98
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Are you running an active or passive into the amp.
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#99
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It worked fine straight in but I usually run through a RedEye since I have one.
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#100
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Fantastic thread, folks! :-) So the HFN seems to be exactly what I‘m after for replacing my K&K Trinity (UST + soundhole mic) in my all-solid Voyage Air dreadnaught. I‘ve been very dissatisfied with the K&K in both modes (i.e. running just the K&K UST in passive mode with a mono cable, and running in dual-source mode with a split stereo cable, with the mic blended in via the K&K external preamp or a RedEye rigged with phantom power on one channel). With just the passive UST running, the guitar sounds unnaturally boomy and muddy and almost non-existent top end. It needs lots of treble added to get it sounding a bit usable, but at no point does the sound get close to the beautiful sound of the guitar, itself...and boomy feedback happens with floor wedges. With both signals running, the mic adds the necessary air and treble, but it feeds back really fast. So I ended up never using that guitar live, and figured one day I‘d replace the Trinity with a normal piezo. Enter the HFN. :-) My question to you folks is: passive or active? I use my guitars in various set-ups, so sometimes straight into a Bose S1 Pro or a Roland Street Cube Ex (with a different woofer installed for more bottom end response, in case anybody’s interested), and sometimes into a mixing desk, in which case I usually have my Zoom A1 Four in between for compression and effects (I usually skip the Zoom when going straight into one of my two amps used for quick-and-dirty busking). I could of course also toss the RedEye in to pep up a passive pick-up (count the P‘s). But does the passive HFN really call for so much extra gain, or would it be good to go in a Bose S1 Pro or mixer? One of the posters here (pages back) spoke of it not sounded great in the Bose S1 Pro. Any other experience with that, or with going into mixing desks, or into a Zoom and then into a mixing desk? The idea of a passive, no-fuss pickup appeals to me a lot, but I don‘t want to sacrifice any sound quality or be forced to always use a RedEye.
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#101
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HFN vs Lyric
Quote:
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