OK, I get it. Dazzo content

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by Vancebo

Hi Bluesdale, I don’t know how much I can help but I will try with some very obvious solutions but don’t take it wrong please.

I use Dazzo 60s in my big dread. I use a Sunnaudio stage DI as well. I go into a Bose S1 at home. In this setup. The little Bose speaker is so highly compressed that the bass and the woofy low mids can come out massive at times. The Dazzos work best through a flat PA speaker. The Bass knob on your DI has only a 6 dB change in volume. Don’t be afraid to turn that down. Here’s the difference. Turning down the Bass doesn’t cut everything out below that centered frequency. It still allows some sub bass sound to come through to keep that fullness of sound. This can be either good or bad depending on your situation. Sunnaudio’s new preamp has an adjustable mid cut and an adjustable high pass filter. Anyway, don’t be afraid to crank that down.

Teddy and the Sunnaudio folks have recently did a lot of experimenting with various applications, as mentioned in the thread earlier, the tape application seemed to reduce the bass response a bit. That there may be your solution. Otherwise, the reason they use epoxy is because it sounds the best. Don’t buy into people’s fear of epoxy when thousands of people glue pickups in their guitar using superglue without blinking an eye. Boggles my mind really.

I have Dazzo 70s and a Sunndaudio line driver preamp. I have yet to install them properly but will be doing that this week. I want to experiment with tape though. I did try some Schatten putty for fun and the output was extremely low but with the pa turned up quite a bit, it sounded quite natural. I want try the Amulet tape next and if it's not great, I will use the proper glue.

[Vancebo]

Petty, let us know how that goes.

[Br1ck]

Teddy has done almost every possible installation method. There is no possible reason not to follow his advise. If you don't want to do that, just find something else. He told me of someone calling him complaining they did not like his pickups. The tech had used tape, degrading the signal. Believe me, I have Dazzos installed by Teddy in all my acoustic guitars. None are ever coming out.
I have every Dazzo pickup from 50s to 100s in guitars ranging from parlors to dreads. The beauty is never needing anything but minimal EQ. You can use a simple pre like the RedEye or SunnAudio. No SBT is going to get loud enough for a loud band. That is what a magnetic pickup is for. I have a friend using Dazzos with a drummer, but not a loud band. He uses a soundhole blocker. Works fine.

I've also never found the need to use a mic in conjunction with Dazzos, but can understand fingerpickers may need every nuance they can wring from their guitars.

My last guitar came with K&Ks. I actually took it to Gryphon to see if they were broken. The guys plugged into a Fishman amp, immediately rolled the bass completely off, then tried to find the mid frequency to tweak. I asked them if this was normal, and they said yes. Finally got a passable tone and they assured me they were working just fine. I could not wait to get those out of my guitar.

I had a Martin I was selling and a friend had it to try out. He was not sure so he took it to show several fine fingerpickers. All of them had been happy with their K&Ks, that is until they played the Dazzos. They were all blown away. My friend ended up buying the guitar.

There are many options out there, just don't buy a Porsche with skinny tires.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

Teddy has done almost every possible installation method. There is no possible reason not to follow his advise. If you don't want to do that, just find something else. He told me of someone calling him complaining they did not like his pickups. The tech had used tape, degrading the signal. Believe me, I have Dazzos installed by Teddy in all my acoustic guitars. None are ever coming out.
I have every Dazzo pickup from 50s to 100s in guitars ranging from parlors to dreads. The beauty is never needing anything but minimal EQ. You can use a simple pre like the RedEye or SunnAudio. No SBT is going to get loud enough for a loud band. That is what a magnetic pickup is for. I have a friend using Dazzos with a drummer, but not a loud band. He uses a soundhole blocker. Works fine.

I've also never found the need to use a mic in conjunction with Dazzos, but can understand fingerpickers may need every nuance they can wring from their guitars.

My last guitar came with K&Ks. I actually took it to Gryphon to see if they were broken. The guys plugged into a Fishman amp, immediately rolled the bass completely off, then tried to find the mid frequency to tweak. I asked them if this was normal, and they said yes. Finally got a passable tone and they assured me they were working just fine. I could not wait to get those out of my guitar.

I had a Martin I was selling and a friend had it to try out. He was not sure so he took it to show several fine fingerpickers. All of them had been happy with their K&Ks, that is until they played the Dazzos. They were all blown away. My friend ended up buying the guitar.

There are many options out there, just don't buy a Porsche with skinny tires.

I don't think there's anything wrong with experimenting. It's fun and sometimes you stumble on something interesting that just works. If I remember correctly, I believe someone (might have been Sunnaudio), mentioned that Teddy had tried some tape and was getting good results. A bit less bass but good. I believe there are also dealers installing the Trance Amulet by just reaching in and sticking it in place when a jig/clamp method is recommended.

I have tried a number of SBT's and although some are a bit more clear (like the Dazzo), it's not a night and day difference from the K&K. I don't get some of the negativity towards the K&K. It's easily the most consistent sounding SBT and with some simple eq fixes, it can sound amazing.

On a side note, maybe I am just lucky but I have used the Lyric, Amulet, HFN and K&K in a loud band setting with fairly hot monitors and never had any feedback issues.

[Bluesdale]

Vancebo, I would never take your great advice the wrong way. I'd call it sound sound advice.

This is exactly the type of suggestion I needed. I played around with EQ today and really got the tone dialed in nicely. I was all ready to sell my SunnAudio but maybe not now. I have a Red-Eye, the Sunn, and a ToneDexter and I really don't need them all. I think the one I really want is the Grace Alix.

That TD sounds over the top awesome though, even with all pickup and no wavemap. Add that in and it's really special.

I still need to remount one of my transducers, cuz it's touching the string ball on the high E. I guess I'll just epoxy it again like the other one. Do you usually mount them really close to the strings?

[dazzoman]

Originally Posted by Bluesdale

This looks like the right Dazzo thread to pose a question or two.

I recently installed my 2nd Dazzo in a Martin M-30 (0000 size top). The M series has 16" wide tops and they are lightly braced for good movement. My first install is in a Martin HJ-38, also a very wide resonant top and sounds excellent.

In the M-30 I am replacing a K&K due to feedback issues in a small band. I'm finding the same issue with the Dazzo and it seems a bit wolfy. Neither my Sunn Audio preamp nor me RedEye have a parametric mid control. Maybe I need a UST to get off of my lively top.

Two things have been suggested by a reputable pickup dealer (not Dazzo). He suggested try reinstalling the Dazzos with either a) superglue gel to offer a small amount of dampening, or b) reinstall with red double stick tape or c) put a strip of super sticky specialty masking tape (orange) on the bridge plate and glue the transducers to that. He warned I may lose some volume but I can always turn my volume up.

Anyone have a comment on those recommendations?

OP - capefisherman, how is your live gigging going with regard to feedback on your M36?

Hi Bluesdale ,

I can say in my experience that two sided tape loses sound quality (even tho Gryphons uses this method on Dazzos but I didn't sell them on that idea ).
If those pickups are not the wooden ones you can remove them and make sure you install just one pickup at low E side first , let it dry 45 min to see if you got rid of the wolf sound . The other thing is seeing if maybe both pickups are just too far out away from the string pins and out toward the neck . This can lead to more bass (but artificial bass) , might be too much low freq out there . You mentioned that you have one all but too close too the string pin and maybe thats another issue . The last thing is that you might have a mis match and need a Dazzo with a lower bass setting . Do you know if you have the Dazzo 70 or something in that guitar ?

[Br1ck]

Hey Teddy, I can't remember what pickups went into my D 35. Were they 50s? Anyway they sound great.

[chasapple]

Originally Posted by jwellsy

Just did a Reverb search for Dazzo, zero results. I take that as a testimony on how beloved they are.

Not surprising. I find Reverb to be a wasteland for acoustic guitar related gear. But 10 billion pedals for sale.