Shatten HFN. Active or Passive?

[gluve95]

So I have settled on a Shatten HFN pickup for my Larrivee L03R-TE . Only question is active or passive? I Will be running into a nice floor preamp. LR Baggs Venue or Fishman Platinum. Something along that line.
Are there any advantages to going active. Would it sound better with built in preamp of active since it is made for that pickup. One reason I'm going with Shatten is how non invasive it is. So the appeal of the passive is there. What thought and experiences do you all have with this.

[philjs]

Originally Posted by gluve95

So I have settled on a Shatten HFN pickup for my Larrivee L03R-TE . Only question is active or passive? I Will be running into a nice floor preamp. LR Baggs Venue or Fishman Platinum. Something along that line.
Are there any advantages to going active. Would it sound better with built in preamp of active since it is made for that pickup. One reason I'm going with Shatten is how non invasive it is. So the appeal of the passive is there. What thought and experiences do you all have with this.

If you're using an outboard preamp then go passive...no need to put an onboard preamp in front of an outboard preamp. Side benefit is no battery in the guitar.

If you need an onboard volume control than get one of the Schatten BB-03 "Black Box" passive end-plug pots. Side benefit is your straight plug cord becomes a right angle one when you plug into the bottom of the volume control.

Hope this helps...

Phil

[jonfields45]

I also have the passive one installed and a BB-03 in the case pocket.

[Methos1979]

Definitely go with the passive. Way less crap in your guitar and just about the easiest install short of a soundhole pup. Since you're going into a preamp there is no reason for the active.

I've owned both and the active version didn't add anything (tone-wise) that the passive didn't have. Unfortunately for me, neither gave me what I was looking for.

[gluve95]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

Definitely go with the passive. Way less crap in your guitar and just about the easiest install short of a soundhole pup. Since you're going into a preamp there is no reason for the active.



I've owned both and the active version didn't add anything (tone-wise) that the passive didn't have. Unfortunately for me, neither gave me what I was looking for.

Two questions. What was you looking for? And What did it for you. I do solo finger style. Any band stuff I do is on electric. An other option I had considered was a Schertler DYN G contact mic with Schertler David amp. Thought the whole external putty attached thing might be cumbersome. Lots of Fingerstyle players also seam to like the K & K Trinity. But that more junk in the guitar. And I just don't want to do the under saddle thing.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by gluve95

Two questions. What was you looking for? And What did it for you. I do solo finger style. Any band stuff I do is on electric. An other option I had considered was a Schertler DYN G contact mic with Schertler David amp. Thought the whole external putty attached thing might be cumbersome. Lots of Fingerstyle players also seam to like the K & K Trinity. But that more junk in the guitar. And I just don't want to do the under saddle thing.

A lot of it depends on your playing style and of course the guitar and amp or PA. For me, my fingerstyle playing was always with no nails so I always had a dark and muddy tone. I'd need a ton of external EQ help to get a decent sound. And forget going to any open mic where the PA is always set up for strummers. I used primarily the K&K Pure Mini back then for it's passive, bullet-proof simplicity. Every once in a while I'd try different things, whatever the flavor of the month people were raving about here, but I'd always be disappointed and end up back with the K&K and lots of EQ'ing. Even with that I never really found an amplified tone I liked.

The closest thing I found to decent sounding aftermarket pickup systems were the multi-source ones, so those like the K&K Trinity worked well but with those there's the extra cost, difficult installation and all kinds of stuff in your guitar oftentimes with needing to split your signal coming out and EQ/blending for best tone. I wasn't interested in doing that. Finally one day the local dealer started carrying Cole Clark guitars which (along with Maton and Takamine) I'd always heard were the best sound amplified guitars. So I brought my Bose S1 down and they weren't kidding. I bought one, then two and then three and sold all my other guitars. Finally excellent tone right out of the gate for both strumming and fingerstyle with just the least bit of signal tweaking on the onboard preamp. Not surprising since it's basically a 3-way multi-source pickup system.

I did recently pick up a beautiful Martin D-1 custom which is an all-mahogany 12-fret dread. I wanted something that would at least give me the ability to play it out on occasion but I didn't want a ton of stuff in it. I tried three soundhole pickups and although all of them were okay they still had that slightly electric sound to them with the dreaded B and high E plinkiness. That's when I decided to give the HFN passive a try but that sounded awful, much like my first attempt with that system.

Finally I tried the relatively new K&K Double Helix Solo soundhole pickup and I was shocked at how great it sounded! Very warm and not nearly as plinky on the B and high E. But the best thing is they have a tone switch that allows you to switch between strumming and fingerstyle that is incredible. And it's a passive system. Does it sound as good as the Cole Clarks? No. But it does sound really good. Better than any other single source pickup system I've tried and that's saying something.

I plan to do a video demo and review in a week or so after I change the strings. Keep an eye out for that.

[DavidE]

I have only recent experience with the Shatten active. The output with the preamp turned up to 100% (factory setting is 20%) was still much much lower than an active UST that an outboard preamp was necessary anyway. Though even with the Fishman or a K&K outboard preamp, the level was still well below a typical active UST system.