Seeking recommendation: pickup system for Tommy Emmanuel style

[geewhiz]

I've been on a Tommy Emmanuel woodshedding binge for the past year or two. Although it's not a requirement to play that stuff plugged in, it sure is fun to amp up and apply a little reverb and get the thump and percussiveness that he sometimes applies. I know a big part of that is due to the internal condenser mic of his AP5.

I have a couple Martins with under saddle pickups that work okay for my standard-fare duo and trio gigs, but I've been thinking about setting up a guitar with a dual source system with internal mic to further explore Tommy's style.

I'm aware of the AP5 (or whatever it is) that comes in the Matons. A Maton is beyond the ol' budget unfortunately. I'm wondering if anyone here can offer a recommendation for a more standard fare, off the shelf system that will do what I want it to do. Since I want to retrofit this to an existing guitar (or maybe one I don't have yet), I want to avoid the barn door cutout for a preamp.

I know the major players (Baggs, Fishman, Dimarzio, etc) offer dual source systems but I haven't really researched them extensively - and reading about them doesn't really tell me how they would work for this particular application. Does anyone here have experience with one that provides a strong fundamental guitar tone and an internal mic?

I've noticed from some of Tommy's live recordings that he gets a bit of piezo quack when he really digs in. I can live with that if it sounds good overall and delivers otherwise. In other words, my mission here isn't to look for the best of class, most natural guitar tone. It's just gotta be "good", if that makes any sense.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw this out on the forum to see what others are doing for these kinds of setups.

[BluesKing777]

I had a bit of a mission to find the dual source sound of my Matons to go in a guitar with larger neck!

K&K Trinity Pro is what I have landed with - K&K under the bridge and an internal mic that both run out by a stereo lead to the outboard Pro preamp:

https://kksound.com/products/trinitypro.php


BluesKing777.

[Tannin]

A number of guitar makers offer the Brad Clark pickup, two that come to mind are Auden (but at Maton prices) and Tokai (at or below Epiphone prices). Tokai electrics are excellent, and back in the day their made-in-Japan acoustics ranged from competent to outstanding. Their current acoustics are made somewhere cheap (China?) but knowing the company they are very likely better than decent. Brad Clark designed the original Maton pickup many years ago (it has been updated since his day, naturally) and the original Cole Clark pickup (which has also been updated since Clark's time at the company). His current "Clark Supernatural" pickup seems to be sold to guitar manufacturers; I don't think you can buy it stand-alone.

(PS: it sounds weird for someone who owns two Martins to say that a Maton is beyond the budget! Over here, a D-28 costs $4200, give or take, a D-45 about $16,000. Matons start at $1200ish and go up to about $6000 (not counting custom shop special builds). A Tommy Emmanuel Maton is $2600. The exact same one that Tommy plays (identical to the $2600 EBG808TE but hand-made in the custom shop) is about $6000. Any Maton over about $1500 comes with the AP5 Pro. Those prices are AUD. $1 AUD is 77c in USD.)

[jklotz]

To me, the Matons have a distinct sound, both acoustically and plugged in. If that is the sound you are after, maybe try to find one used?

[AeroUSA]

Get the Tommy signature Maton!

[AOCarroll]

I just bought a Cole Clark Angel 1e BM.
The good:
fantastic and versatile pickup system! Just great!
I think many of the demos don't do it justice, because the face sensor brings in more mids, that can seem honky, if you have the EQ flat, but dial back the mids, and bring in a bit of treble, it sounds great and natural. And plenty of room for tweaking!
The guitar is about 2/3 the price of a Maton with AP5 pro here in Europe.
Overall well built. Nice Organic feeling instrument.
A bit different acoustic tone, not all that loud. But I actually liked the acoustic tone. Unique.

I did end up sending it back though...
Bad (for me):
The action was 2,5 mm at 12th fret (bass side). I would like it a bit lower, but the saddle height at the bridge seemed a bit low to sand it down. It was about 2,5 mm above the bridge. I was concerned tvat I might not have enough string break angle if I shaved it down...
Neck was Ok feeling, but a bit on the slim side down by the nut for me...
The nut seemed to be cut ok, but I could see that they have tried several times to cut the slots. By the slots fir the D, G and B strings the was the a little slot where tvey had furst started to cut it, but then decided to move it... only cosmetic, but still.

If it had more saddle height I think I would have kept it though.
I might try another one at some point, as the pickup system was awesome.