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  #1  
Old 01-04-2019, 08:55 PM
YamahaGuy YamahaGuy is offline
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Default $9.99 pick up with sound clip

First off, I apologize for the lousy playing. My excuses:
I've only played this guitar twice
My fingers have super glue all over them
My fingernails are jacked and I'm awful at fingerstyle anyway
The pick is a 1mm Peavey (I usually use a 0.63)

That said, give a listen to the $9.99 pick up I got off Amazon.

Please read the YouTube description for details as some parts are mic only, some pickup only, one small part both.

I used a Yamaha MG16XU mixer, Samson active DI, Sennheiser e965 mic on cardioid about 5" off the 14th fret. The mixer was set flat for both guitar and mic. No effects used. This was put into Audacity. The only thing I did in there was to normalize the sound to bring the levels up.

Maybe the guitar signal was a pinch too hot.
Nonetheless, check it out...

https://youtu.be/PzFIMg3jg5A
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  #2  
Old 01-04-2019, 10:58 PM
TheJackal TheJackal is offline
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The mic and pickup mix was rich. Mic only seemed to emphasize higher frequencies. Pick up only seemed a bit muddy and tended toward low frequencies. The mix, however was nice.
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  #3  
Old 01-05-2019, 06:35 AM
Monsum Monsum is offline
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Thanks for the demo. The pickup sounds really good, it just confirms that paying extra for a similar pickup from a well-known brand is mostly paying for quality control and very little technical differences.
Having said that, unless it's a very cheap guitar I'd still use a K&K pickup.
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  #4  
Old 01-05-2019, 05:08 PM
wood nacho wood nacho is offline
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Impressive. I was not expecting it to sound that good. It is far from perfect (string to string balance for instance) but for 10$ I think this could very well be the best bang for your buck pickup. I've been wanting to do a similar experiment but with 5$ piezo film strips. I'll be sure to make a post when i have some recordings.

I'm surprised by the lack of response in this thread!?
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  #5  
Old 01-06-2019, 06:00 PM
YamahaGuy YamahaGuy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wood nacho View Post
Impressive. I was not expecting it to sound that good. It is far from perfect (string to string balance for instance) but for 10$ I think this could very well be the best bang for your buck pickup. I've been wanting to do a similar experiment but with 5$ piezo film strips. I'll be sure to make a post when i have some recordings.

I'm surprised by the lack of response in this thread!?
Cheap can't be good seems to be the general consensus I gather. Like white box stuff (generic products).
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  #6  
Old 01-06-2019, 07:17 PM
Wooly Wooly is offline
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Sounds alright. I may try one these in an yard sale Ibanez I have. It seems to me I installed something similar in it a while back but the transducers came with their own self adhesive and didn't sound very good. I think I will remove the adhesive and use super glue this time if I try it. Would likely work better
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Old 01-07-2019, 08:00 AM
MikeBmusic MikeBmusic is offline
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How about a link to the online pickup on Amazon?
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  #8  
Old 01-07-2019, 01:37 PM
YamahaGuy YamahaGuy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeBmusic View Post
How about a link to the online pickup on Amazon?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZH1FNX..._cskmCbAZMGYRM
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  #9  
Old 01-07-2019, 10:35 PM
ricdoug ricdoug is offline
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Sounds pretty good, Matthew!
Quote:
Originally Posted by YamahaGuy View Post
First off, I apologize for the lousy playing. My excuses:
I've only played this guitar twice
My fingers have super glue all over them
My fingernails are jacked and I'm awful at fingerstyle anyway
The pick is a 1mm Peavey (I usually use a 0.63)

That said, give a listen to the $9.99 pick up I got off Amazon.

Please read the YouTube description for details as some parts are mic only, some pickup only, one small part both.

I used a Yamaha MG16XU mixer, Samson active DI, Sennheiser e965 mic on cardioid about 5" off the 14th fret. The mixer was set flat for both guitar and mic. No effects used. This was put into Audacity. The only thing I did in there was to normalize the sound to bring the levels up.

Maybe the guitar signal was a pinch too hot.
Nonetheless, check it out...

https://youtu.be/PzFIMg3jg5A
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  #10  
Old 01-07-2019, 11:18 PM
tdq tdq is offline
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It did sound pretty good...I did a similar experiment with a $10, 3 piezo disc pickup I bought from eBay. I thought it was ok through my amp but when I went direct into my DAW it was awful, and it was difficult getting a decent eq on it (although I'm not an expert on this by a long shot). The discs were mounted inside a plastic unit and since installing them one has come loose inside the mounts and is buzzing so much as to be unusable.

I don't play amplified much so it was a worthwhile experiment. As others have said, my feeling is that the extra money you can pay is for QA and quality assembly, rather the the actual piezo discs themselves. I suspect when I'm serious I'll get something higher end, although I don't think it needs to be top end.
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  #11  
Old 01-08-2019, 07:44 AM
MikeBmusic MikeBmusic is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by YamahaGuy View Post
Thanks. I may pick one up to try out with my Seagull Merlin.
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2020 Taylor 324ceBE
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  #12  
Old 01-08-2019, 10:12 PM
gfirob gfirob is offline
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I tried one of these on a '57 National 1155, through a Tonedexter and it worked pretty well. I thought it was a little harsher than a K&K, but with the tape adhesive (rather than superglue) it is pretty easy to replace, so there is no big risk. And the Tonedexter really has it sounding pretty good.
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