Go Acoustic Pickup System Experience

[JBarlow12]

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a question about the Go Acoustic versus Baggs HiFi systems. I ended up going with the Go Acoustic system, and told a few people that I would post about my experience with it. This may be a long read, but I want to make sure to include all the relevant information.

After posting my question, Paul reached out to me, and we ended up having a lengthy phone conversation that went into what the differences in the pickups versus other ones were, playing styles, feedback resistance, and a myriad of other topics. One thing that I was nervous about is piezo quack (who isn't?) and the fact that most all of the demos and artists on the site were all finger style players. I mainly flatpick/hybrid pick. Part of our discussion was the difference between compressed and uncompressed piezo crystals (Paul uses the uncompressed type), and how they are more resistant to quack. After this, as well as a few other topics, I decided to give the Go Acoustic a try. This went into a Santa Cruz Tony Rice model.

I live in Nashville, and Paul was gracious enough to not only install the pickup for me, but do it on a very tight turnaround. I did not have much time at his shop when I dropped it off, as I needed to leave directly from there for a weekend of shows. When I picked up the guitar, I spent a few hours playing and adjusting the preamp, playing a few other guitars, and some general bs-ing (it is worth a conversation with Paul simply to hear some of his stories about Nashville artists he has had experiences with). I also like the fact that Paul is a luthier as well. I chose not to install the system myself only because I personally did not want to deal with shaping a bridge, and it was worth the extra $40/50 to get the bridge installed correctly. I read through the installation instructions, and everything else seemed reasonable to me. Regardless of the pickup, Paul left my guitar playing as well, if not better, than it did previously after being set up at Glaser’s shop.

My first show with the pickup was on a cruise ship in a small theater. I had done this same show a year prior, and knew that the sound (both sound system and sound person) would be challenging at best. Last year, we gave up on sound check because eventually we had to go get ready for the show. What better way to give it a trial by fire? This probably was not the smartest idea, but I did not do anything to test it in the few days between when I was in the shop with Paul and this sound check. I was running it directly into a Grace Design Felix with the eq flat to start, and had the internal mic turned up to about 50%. The stage setup was me, the singer also playing acoustic, and a keyboard player. The keyboard player and singer typically get into a war with monitor volume when we use wedges, so the stage volume was louder than it really needed to be, which certainly does not help. I was initially getting some low end feedback until I narrowly notched out a little 160. To be fair, everyone who was playing an acoustic instrument (it was a 5-day country music cruise with music every night) had feedback issues, including my violins which almost never feed back. So, it is hard to tell if it was the system or the pickup that was the issue. I tried turning the mic down during soundcheck, and it surprisingly did not have much of an effect on the feedback, so I am leaning towards it being the sound system/sound person. Once I took out the 160, I did not have a single feedback problem the rest of the night.

Tonally, I thought it sounded great, but that was on stage, and you never know how things translate out front. To me, it was full sounding, not artificially bright, but still articulate. There is one song where the hook is a rhythmic octave lick over and over, and instead of using a boost (the Felix has a boost function), I decided to try digging in harder to test the amount of quack that I got from other piezo pickups. Surprisingly, there really was not much of any quack that I could hear. Perhaps in a solo setting it may be different, but I could not really hear any in context of what I was doing. Through the course of the trip, I had several guitar players search me out to ask me about my set up and compliment the tone.

What impressed me the most is the feel of the pickup while I was playing. Transparently, I am not a fan of acoustic instrument pickups, and typically feel like I am adapting my playing to the pickup rather than the instrument. This felt much more like I was interacting more with my instrument than the pickup.

There was a second time we played which was an outdoor impromptu “jam” where we did two songs. Different sound system and sound person. I plugged my guitar straight into an unknown DI box (no Felix preamp this time or eq) with the same about 50% mic setting. No sound check, just plug in and go with moderately loud wedges for monitors. I had no feedback issues. The second song we played was the one described earlier with the rhythmic hook, and I had no choice but to dig in harder for that and lead parts with no boost pedal. Even then, I still did not notice any appreciable quack. I have a short video of some of this that I will try to post.

I have only used this system for one show, so it is not like I have spent a ton of time with it. However, I thought that this was a good initial test, and here are a few summary takeaways:

1> Response/Feel — This is a very big deal for me with pickups, almost equal to the tonality. I felt like this responded more like I was playing my guitar, not playing my guitar with a pickup.

2> It just simply worked. I love equipment and tinkering, but that is not always what you want to deal with in a gigging environment as a working musician. Being able to quickly plug in and get good tone with what I would consider to be excellent feedback rejection makes life so much easier. I did not spend the entire show contemplating on how I could put lipstick on a pig and make it sound better. I was able to just play and obsess about how annoyingly loud the keyboard player was…

I am certainly not as experienced with different pickup systems as probably a lot of you on this forum. However, it is the first time I have had an initial experience with a pickup system that I did not walk away with a list of things I did not like about it. I am happy with the choice I made, and content to continue on with this system. I have another show that I am playing acoustic on next week, and looking forward to getting a little more time in with the system. I will update this thread as I discover anything about it.

For transparency, I paid full price for the pickup and installation, and am not obligated to express anything other than my honest thoughts.

If you are at all curious, I would encourage you to engage Paul in a conversation. I learned a great deal about pickups and applications from the conversations we had.

I am sure that I am forgetting some things, but this has gotten long enough as it is. Feel free to ask any questions, and I will do my best to answer. If any of you are in Nashville (or passing through), you are more than welcome to come try it out.

[Marshall]

Excellent report. Glad this worked out great for you. Let us know how it all progresses.

Yes, having Paul do the install is a trouble-free way to do it. Being a cheapskate and living in Chicago, not Nashville, I did the install myself. It's quite tricky for the average schlemiel. But the final result (after much redo and redo) is quite excellent.

Good for you.

[conecaster]

"One thing that I was nervous about is piezo quack (who isn't?) and the fact that most all of the demos and artists on the site were all finger style players. I mainly flatpick/hybrid pick. Part of our discussion was the difference between compressed and uncompressed piezo crystals (Paul uses the uncompressed type), and how they are more resistant to quack. After this, as well as a few other topics, I decided to give the Go Acoustic a try. This went into a Santa Cruz Tony Rice model."

J is a fabulous musician. After installing a system for him I felt the low pass was too bright for his flat pick technique. I had my partner mod the law pass for a richer upper end on a 2cnd preamp.

When J came to pickup his guitar I let him play the brighter preamp first. I then hooked up the modified preamp. In the end J preferred the modded preamp as I anticipated.

Sometimes the sound of a guitar amplified is different than expected. I am not sure why a dreadnaught would sound bright in this case, but it was an easy enough mod.

In prior Threads Marshall has mentioned upper end tonality that he uses other devices to amend.

The issue of how to set the preamp is best left brighter because if needed it can be rolled off with other devices. But adding highs is adding gain so its better to be brighter if needed. In many applications performers want brightness to cut in a mix.

In the case of Flat pick applications brighter is not really ultimate.

The pickup design uses bi directional load to generate voltage. While some feel the piezo tonality cannot be amended (thwack), if the elements are not compressed vertically the issue is greatly improved. The elements are under as little load as possible in our pickups and the greater the mobility of the elements the greater the voltage output and range of tonality captured.

Many feel the tonality of top mounted transducers is better. This would be because they are not compressed. They are passively absorbing energy. This does not mean they produce the greatest output voltage. Mechanical flexing of elements creates the greatest output signal. The 2 pickups designed for ultimate flexing, or bending, are RMC and Barbera. GoAA pickups have adequate voltage signal for our design and competes with both of these pickup designs in vol. At unity gain.

The advantage of greater output is gain can be limited or reduced. This lowers distortion. Ultimately, unity gain has the least effect on tonality.

Where as many system require as much as 15 db of gain, GoAA has a limit on gain of more like 5db at most and that is only if the string vol. Pots are maximized. With extreme pickup output the voltage must be cut to prevent over loading the input of an amplifier which creates overdrive distortion.

[JBarlow12]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Excellent report. Glad this worked out great for you. Let us know how it all progresses.

Yes, having Paul do the install is a trouble-free way to do it. Being a cheapskate and living in Chicago, not Nashville, I did the install myself. It's quite tricky for the average schlemiel. But the final result (after much redo and redo) is quite excellent.

Good for you.

Completely understand that. I read through the instructions, as well as your thread pretty thoroughly before making the decision on that. I am usually not too scared to tackle projects like this myself (I am a cheapskate as well!), but realize that you had some difficulty getting it installed. The deciding factor for me was I am not very good at doing guitar setups. So, whether or not I did the rest of the work, I would have still been taking the guitar in to someone to get the bridge shaped. Paul did a great job getting my guitar set up, but I am sure a good luthier/repair person could communicate with Paul to get the requirements of the bridge piece and get that done.

Paul and I (as described in his post) swapped around a couple of preamps and played around with the string balance while I was in his shop, and I got to handle them a bit and look at the connections. While it is obvious you need some care in installing the cables and turning the pots, it did not seem like anything that I would be concerned with doing. I fly a fair amount with this guitar, and the other times it is riding in a bay under a bus, so durability is certainly a concern. Paul was telling me that he installed these in a couple of Pat Metheny's guitars (if I recall correctly), and he has not had one fail yet. If it could stand up to what he is doing, I was sure that it would be alright for me.

[Marshall]

Glad to hear it all went well.

[conecaster]

Paul was telling me that he installed these in a couple of Pat Metheny's guitars (if I recall correctly), and he has not had one fail yet. If it could stand up to what he is doing, I was sure that it would be alright for me.>>>

I recently got a message from Andre who is Pat's tech. The tours Pat has been doing are very technically challenging and after another 10 weeks over the winter he wanted me to know how well it has gone. 3
continents.

We have a growing list of installers we work with. Here is a list.

Mario Oretea- MCO guitars, Ft Washington MD

Rick Mullens- Wappingers falls NY

Leonardo Yavincha- La paz, Bolivia

John Thayer- Bremerton, Washington

Bentley Guitar Studios- Parkville, Mo

Sam Swank- Dallas, TX

Amp shop bass exchange- North Hollywood, Ca

Norik Renson- North Hollywood, Ca

Hunter Allen- 7C Guitar Shop, St Petersburg, Fl

Hawaii music supply- Haleiwa, Oahu, Hawaii

David Morales Torres- Lima, Peru

Alexis Aspur Valenzuela- Lima Peru

Alain Queguiner- Paris, France

Dani Marcovich- Amsterdam, NE

Alan Watski- Weaverville, NC

Brian Mascarin- Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Larry Wagner- Maumee, Oh

Vizcarra Guitars- Santa Fe, NM

Kiernan Guitars- Kailua Kona, Hawaii

Lenny Brooks- Sarasota, Fl

Daniel Bennett/John Standefer- Vancouver Washington

Jim Treder- Loveland, Co

We have several shops in the process of doing their first GoAA installations.

Amp shop Guitar Parlour- West Palm Beach, Fl

Empire Guitar repair- Hemet, Ca