Hi fi mag pickup

[DoryDavis]

OK, I have scoured the board and think this might be a unique question. For a sound hole pickup (and possibly including outboard or onboard pre), what is the consensus on the most "hi fi" pickup available (mag/soundhole).
It is polarizing when talking about the ES-1 but it can be run balanced, to my ear that sounds more hi fi.
In terms of a mag pickup, not necessarily balanced, what would you educated folks on the board recommend. Hi fi sound, can cut through the mix, good strong signal, no hum.
Thanks!!!

[dogdog49]

This:

http://www.vanden.co.uk/kudos.htm

[atticus1019]

I like my sunrise. Once you balance the poles it sounds great. I do generally blend in a UST, but I've played more than a few gigs with just the sunrise and gotten pretty decent results. Great for a full band scenario where you'll be competing with a lot of other noisy instruments.

[Al Acuff]

A popular trick with the Sunrise is to run it through a Demeter Tube DI like Lyle Lovette, Keith Richards, and many other do. It's an old tried and true combination. The word is overused by there is "synergy".

I gigged with Sunrise pickups for decades and tried many preamps, eqs, etc. FWIW the Tube DI is the one I kept. It extends the frequency range of the Sunrise pickup and makes it sound more acoustic.

Recently I bought a DiMarzio Black Angel and I like it a lot... perhaps more than the Sunrise. The Black Angel is a really good sound hole pickup! You can find Doug Young's review if you search for it. He convinced me to try the Black Angel. I agree with Doug. It's a winner.

[KevWind]

The LR Baggs M-80 looks promising
Here is review by Doug Young a frequent poster here at AGF

[63telemaster]

Originally Posted by DoryDavis

Hi fi sound, can cut through the mix, good strong signal, no hum.
Thanks!!!

Hard to beat a well setup M80 in active mode for this applicaton imho. Plenty of frequency available for tweaking your EQ to suit.

The DiMarzio Black Angel looks a solid bet too though some of the youtube clips sound dreadful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zxeyr1giA4

Also I'd be a bit suspicious of anything with a mic blend in a band mix. Really depends on your application.

[open-road-matt]

Originally Posted by Al Acuff

A popular trick with the Sunrise is to run it through a Demeter Tube DI like Lyle Lovette, Keith Richards, and many other do. It's an old tried and true combination. The word is overused by there is "synergy."

I used to use a Sunrise and I liked it a lot. I went on a quest to get the Demeter Tube DI and ended up instead with a Summit Audio TD-100 tube DI. I liked that a lot with the Sunrise and the TD-100 allowed me to make the volume bump I like to make to go from flat pick to bare fingers.

Matt

[MrErikJ]

A lot of people like the M80 but I kinda prefer the M1, which is kinda like a miniaturized Sunrise. The M80's "body sensing" is kinda like a half-baked body mic and doesn't add anything terribly positive to the tone, in my opinion. The M1 sparkles a little more and is clearer. Again, just my two cents.

I've heard great things about the Black Angel and it seems solid. The best sounding mag I've heard is the Sunrise with the right preamp. I never thought much of the Sunrise until I heard it run through the appropriate preamp and then I finally understood what the fuss was all about. However, the Black Angel is smaller, has a phase switch, can be temporarily installed, and is far easier to acquire than the Sunrise.

In essence, just like with a UST, you want a clean sounding pickup that does a good job detecting the string vibration and doesn't produce any distortion. If it doesn't produce any fuzz, it'll sound pretty "natural" to the audience and doesn't have to do any fancy "body sensing" to sound like a guitar. If you want more body, mags (especially the Black Angel & Sunrise) have long been augmented with SBTs like the K&K.

[AndyC]

I have a K&K / DiMarzio Black Angel combo and it is stunning.

As ever, EQ is critical, but once it is dialled in it is just a beautiful sound.

[troggg]

Originally Posted by AndyC

I have a K&K / DiMarzio Black Angel combo and it is stunning.

As ever, EQ is critical, but once it is dialled in it is just a beautiful sound.

Do tell. What's the rest of your system/approach? Thx.

[AndyC]

Originally Posted by troggg

Do tell. What's the rest of your system/approach? Thx.

I use a Bose T1 as a preamp - maybe a slightly unusual choice, but it gives me the flexibility I need and it has a very flexible para EQ facility. I run this into a Bose L1 Model 2 for stage monitoring / smaller gigs, and I run a line out from the T1 into a TC Helicon Play Acoustic for vocal effects. I also run a blend signal of the Two pickups into the Aux channel of the Bose T1 to provide a blended post EQ DI signal into the Front of House system.

Incidentally, I also had the two pickups running through a Grace Design Felix dual chanel preamp which gave very similar results - it's just that the Bose is so much more compact and flexible with my vocal requirements, and it's all in one box. And if I'm playing a duo gig, which I do from time to time, I have a scene saved in the T1 that is just for the K&K in isolation (which still sounds great) thus freeing up a channel for my playing partners guitar and still leaving a spare channel for his vocal.

[DoryDavis]

These responses are great. It is the OP. Doug actually gave me some great perspective and helped me to focus what I was after.
And it is this: Good tone, that will cut through a mix and a medium loud crowd at a bar say, with less emphasis on being absolutely true to the tone of my specific guitar.
With that criteria, would the Baggs M1a be a good solution?
Thanks everyone.

[MrErikJ]

Originally Posted by DoryDavis

These responses are great. It is the OP. Doug actually gave me some great perspective and helped me to focus what I was after.
And it is this: Good tone, that will cut through a mix and a medium loud crowd at a bar say, with less emphasis on being absolutely true to the tone of my specific guitar.
With that criteria, would the Baggs M1a be a good solution?
Thanks everyone.

The M1A or the M1 would probably do that very well. Whether you go active or passive depends on whether you use an outboard preamp or not. The M1A probably has enough power that a good DI would be all you need to go to the board/house.

[MrErikJ]

Originally Posted by DoryDavis

These responses are great. It is the OP. Doug actually gave me some great perspective and helped me to focus what I was after.
And it is this: Good tone, that will cut through a mix and a medium loud crowd at a bar say, with less emphasis on being absolutely true to the tone of my specific guitar.
With that criteria, would the Baggs M1a be a good solution?
Thanks everyone.

The TL;DR version is: that pickup should give you exactly that. The remaining question is whether you want something active that has batteries in your guitar (will produce stronger signal) or something passive (no batteries, will need an outboard preamp).

The way I look at it is that if you have an outboard preamp with an adjustable gain and impedance setting, you can do whichever. If you go passive, you'll want a good preamp and may want to think of it like you would an electric guitar amp: you want something that fits the functional need and opens up the tone of your pickup. Most acoustic pickups really come alive with the right preamp, the Sunrise is an example of this and I bet the M1 is no different. Personally, I use a passive piezo pickup bc I don't want batteries in my guitar, so I use a Tonebone PZ Deluxe. For the M1, you may like the Baggs preamps as they're pretty adjustable and almost certainly matched to their mags. And, I'm confident they'll work well with it whether it's active or passive.

[Bajoquintoguy]

Ive tried a lot. My faves are fishman neo-d single coil, fishman rare earth humbucker, lr baggs m1a, dimarzio black angel, sunrise. The emg acs is great as well and also lawrence a345. Any mag p/u with adjustable pole pieces would be ideal. And good preamps are a must for passive pups. I recommend radial sb-2 which is a phantom powered di and is made specially for passive pickups.