To pickup or not to pickup...Emerald, so beware!

[jdinco]

I'm ordering an X7 and I'm trying to decide if I want/need a pickup in it. I do have a pickup in the garage, but that's a different story. My main concern is how much the UST effects unplugged tone. There's been some discussion about that here, but I was never able to see anything that was a firm statement either way. I don't plug in that often and of course there's the money I can save. Emerald has an Artisan in stock, so if I want no pu, I'd have to wait. Any suggestions or recommendations are welcome.

I sold my 2016 X7 6 months ago, and have been missing it. So I'm excited to finally be able to replace it !!

[kramster]

You are are gonna love the newer X7...just guessin'

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by jdinco

I'm ordering an X7 and I'm trying to decide if I want/need a pickup in it. I do have a pickup in the garage, but that's a different story. My main concern is how much the UST effects unplugged tone. There's been some discussion about that here, but I was never able to see anything that was a firm statement either way. I don't plug in that often and of course there's the money I can save. Emerald has an Artisan in stock, so if I want no pu, I'd have to wait. Any suggestions or recommendations are welcome.

I sold my 2016 X7 6 months ago, and have been missing it. So I'm excited to finally be able to replace it !!

UST pickups, in my experience, affect acoustic tone very little. The LR Baggs Element UST tends to affect acoustic tone a bit more, initially, than the Fishman Matrix UST but that difference diminishes after the Element has been in residence for a short time. I wouldn't hesitate to have Emerald install the Element VTC option or the K&K Pure Mini if that may be more to your liking.

[jdinco]

Thanks SpruceTop and Kramster. Yeah, I've been telling myself that I don't need an X7. But I never listen, so it's not working to well. And I love 12 frets.

[kramster]

Originally Posted by jdinco

Thanks SpruceTop and Kramster. Yeah, I've been telling myself that I don't need an X7. But I never listen, so it's not working to well. And I love 12 frets.

You can come check out mine

[AZLiberty]

Cost savings for deleting the pickup is $175.

For $175 in savings I figure I could always add a pickup later if I wanted one.

I've had the B-band, the K&K, and the Barbera PUs in my various Emeralds. So far the Barbera is my favorite--very true to the acoustic sound and very unobtrusive.

[btbliatout]

Low-level I may be (meaning you should take my thoughts/actions as practically meaningless), but I ordered my Emerald without pickups. I'm not a performer, so while it's fun to be amplified sometimes, I more or less feel like it's just a potential point of failure (or perhaps more accurately it's just an extra tonal variable that I simply don't need).

For now I'm pleased with using a mic to amplify (a Rode NT1-A with a Fender Acoustasonic 40). I'm admittedly also curious about the non-invasive MSP pickup by 123sound too...but I digress.

I figure if I ever do start gigging, I'd get something that was really designed from the ground up to be amplified, which for Emerald it seems to be the updated X10? It has the individual piezo saddles...which seems super cool to me. At the moment I spend more time in the nylon camp though, so I'd probably consider a Godin Multiac (it's wood, yes, I know) for gigging. Just my thoughts :-)

BT;

I had a multiac. it was blue and had all the bells and whistles. It was a sweet instrument, but turned out too heavy for my taste.

[Earl49]

When I ordered my custom X20-12 last year, I debated. Since I no longer actively perform, I felt no need to have the pickup in it and was looking to the credit. But my wife suggested that adding the VTC would never be cheaper or easier than at the factory. So I left it in the order. Someday whoever buys it from my estate may want that pickup, or at least the prep work that went into the installation. (My arms are too big to reach inside and install it myself).

The only way to know if the pickup adversely affects the acoustic tone would be to order two identical guitars, one with and one without electronics. (We can do that with carbon fiber -- in wood guitars, the tops will vary more than the with / without configuration). My bet is that you would not be able to hear any perceptible difference, and certainly not a significant one.

[GuitarLuva]

I would not order it with a pickup but get them to do the soundboard prep work. I sampled a crap ton of pickups over the years and I personally don't want the unplugged tone on my guitars affected at all. I've tried k&k, JJB, barbera soloist, fishman matrix, fishman ellipse aura, LR baggs element, ibeam, Anthem SL, full anthem (I think that's all). While not all of those affected the unplugged tone I always managed to find something I didn't like with them.

I recently tried a Schatten HFN passive pickup. They're a Canadian company. I'm Canadian, been playing for over 25 years and never heard of them until recently (how the hell is that possible?). Anyway the pickup is simply amazing I can't say anything bad about it. Super easy to install and sounds like a mic. I did a write up on it in another thread and I'm trying to spread the word on this awesome pickup. Lemme know if you're interested and I'll give you a link to the thread. As you can probably tell I'm just a tad picky when it comes to pickups and I finally found one I'm completely happy with.

[Kindness]

The Trance Amulet is supposed to be awesome...I am getting the Anthem SL per the recommendation of my tech.