Passive pickups.

Gary Blanchard

Gary Blanchard

beloved, local musician
I am considering putting a pickup in an acoustic guitar. For aesthetic reasons, I am looking at something like this:
21HeYlODrEL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


So, since it is passive, school me on preamps. Suggestions?
 
Don't buy a piezo pickup. Get a sound hole pickup or a contact mic that can be installed on the underside of the top.

Use your zoom processor as a preamp.
 
Use for this - recording or live - or both? Budget?

There are a multitude of very good acoustic pickup systems available.
 
Lerxst said:
http://markweinguitarlessons.com/fo...-Markley-ProMag-Acoustic-Sound-Hole-Pickup-15
ah-hem
Click to expand...


I have one and hate it. I don't even want to sell it to someone else.


I will probably never use a pickup, but I one time when I needed to amplify the 12-string and the soundhole pickup sounded bad and the cord got in the way. My default position is always mic the guitar, live or recorded. I just thought that it would be good to have an option.

Maybe I'll pull the Seymour-Duncan out of the garbage bin and just use that in case I ever again need to plug in the 12-string. That might be enough to get me to make sure that occasion never again happens. :grin:
 
Gary Blanchard said:
I have one and hate it. I don't even want to sell it to someone else.


I will probably never use a pickup, but I one time when I needed to amplify the 12-string and the soundhole pickup sounded bad and the cord got in the way. My default position is always mic the guitar, live or recorded. I just thought that it would be good to have an option.

Maybe I'll pull the Seymour-Duncan out of the garbage bin and just use that in case I ever again need to plug in the 12-string. That might be enough to get me to make sure that occasion never again happens. :grin:
Click to expand...

IDK, i've found that if you have an amp with a decent EQ section or even better, combine one of those pickups w/ an EQ pedal, they don't sound bad at all. I just have no use for it.
 
I don't think the pickup is really designed for a 12-string. It sounded more like an organ than a guitar. Then, the cord and pickup got in my way strumming. I'm just a "mic-it" type of guy, I guess.
 
In my experience, piezo undersaddle pickups sound bad amplified. And, since they sit between the saddle and the bridge, they also hurt the unamplified sound of the guitar.

Mic is first choice but I've been pretty happy with the K&K bridgeplate systems. The main drawback to them is most acoustic preamps are voiced for undersaddle piezos and make the K&Ks too bassy.
 
Gary... you have an ear for the acoustic guitar.... so you really should be looking at something like the L.R. Baggs Lyric system.

http://lrbaggs.com/lyric/

It picks up the vibrations, but it also mics the inside of the instrument and then uses a balance control to mix them together.

LR-Baggs-Anthem-SL.jpg
 
Geez -- what a buncha' corksniffers. USTs have been used in literally thousands of concerts and recordings, and somehow folks have muddled through the "terrible" sound.
 
baimun said:
Gary... you have an ear for the acoustic guitar.... so you really should be looking at something like the L.R. Baggs Lyric system.

http://lrbaggs.com/lyric/

It picks up the vibrations, but it also mics the inside of the instrument and then uses a balance control to mix them together.

LR-Baggs-Anthem-SL.jpg
Click to expand...

That's okay, but I was looking at a maybe once or twice in a lifetime use. I will never ever plug in my guitar for a folk gig, and have the A/E 6-string for cover gigs. I don't want to fuck up a nice 12-string with tons of electronics. I'll just stick to using the 6-string if I ever need to plug in.
 
bsman said:
Geez -- what a buncha' corksniffers. USTs have been used in literally thousands of concerts and recordings, and somehow folks have muddled through the "terrible" sound.
Click to expand...


They "work"... but they always sound like the pickup. They don't sound like "the instrument". If Gary is going through the trouble to install a quality pickup, he might as well do it right the first time and not have somthing that "just gets him by".
 
I am shelving the idea of a pickup in the 12-string. I really don't like them and much prefer to use my guitar mic, especially since I also use a mic for the banjo. On those rare (once or twice in 10 years) times I need to plug in I'll use the 6-string A/E.

To be honest, I hate A/E guitars and don't know what I was thinking to begin with. Must have been all the apocalypse stuff messing with my head.
 
baimun said:
They "work"... but they always sound like the pickup. They don't sound like "the instrument". If Gary is going through the trouble to install a quality pickup, he might as well do it right the first time and not have somthing that "just gets him by".
Click to expand...

Actually, a UST mixed with a contact p/u (I use a single JJB, just behind and between the Low E and the A bridge pins) works out to sound exactly like the guitar they're in, and then plugged into a good active DI/preamp (I use the Baggs PADI) is a great way to sound like your guitar is mic'd, w/o the feedback and noise issues of a mic.

All of my performance acoustics are set-up like this and I love how they now sound. :)

For my banjo, Gary, two JJBs, one under each tip of the bridge, then into the PADI, sounds very natural. :thu:
 
Last edited:
Terry Allan Hall said:
Actually, a UST mixed with a contact p/u (I use a single JJB, just behind and between the Low E and the A bridge pins) works out to sound exactly like the guitar they're in, and then plugged into a good active DI/preamp (I use the Baggs PADI) is a great way to sound like your guitar is mic'd, w/o the feedback and noise issues of a mic.

All of my performance acoustics are set-up like this and I love how they now sound. :)

For my banjo, Gary, two JJBs, one under each tip of the bridge, then into the PADI, sounds very natural. :thu:
Click to expand...

Welcome, Terry!

I'm sticking with the good-old SM57. I'm really just doing folky-type gigs now and I am much more comfortable that way. I'm retro. (Sounds better than I'm old. :old:)
 
The problem with piezo is not the pickup or the technology. It's the lack of instrumentation attached to the circuitry. High end guitars that come piezo equipped typically include a PCB with full controls to 'mix' and tune the output of each string to make the guitar sound the way the builder intended which for any one with half a brain would be just like it sounds acoustically.
 
altoidman said:
The problem with piezo is not the pickup or the technology. It's the lack of instrumentation attached to the circuitry. High end guitars that come piezo equipped typically include a PCB with full controls to 'mix' and tune the output of each string to make the guitar sound the way the builder intended which for any one with half a brain would be just like it sounds acoustically.
Click to expand...

but that's not how it happens. you get a thin strip of pickup shoved underneath a bridge saddle with volume and tone controls. they sound harsh and never sense the actual voice of the instrument.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top