Best Acoustic Guitar Pick-up?

[Agli]

I absolutely hate the sound of acoustic guitar pickups, but if you're going to get one, you might want to check these out http://www.sunrisepickups.com/

[aevan]

I've got a Seymour Duncan 'Woody' which is one that just sits in the soundhole, so you only put it in when you need it and don't have to hack your guitar body.
I often use it to mix in with a mic. Keep in mind, whatever you get it won't sound like an acoustic recorded through a mike.

[allencollins]

checkout the Fishman Ellipse Matrix Blend

[Rednose]

Neve makes a nice one thats available for Taylor guitars.
I'm not sure if you can get it as a stand alone.
I agree with the above, its best to mic an acoustic.
Matt

Originally Posted by Vandergraf

Greetings!

I hope this is the appropriate forum for this question:

I have a new Gibson SJ-200 acoustic guitar, and I am debating wether to install a pick-up, so I can just plug-in to my Digi002.

Which pick-ups are the best? I've seen (not heard) the offerings from Martin, Fishman, Seymour Duncan, B-Band and Dean Markley.
Which is the best at capturing the tone of the guitar?

I appreciate any suggestions about this.

Thanks
Van

[phelbin]

A good friend of mine is an A-Team acoustic player in Nashville. He hates the sound of pickups, but he came up with a good setup that works nicely...when using a mic isn't an option. He uses a B-band pickup (I'm not sure which model), and he had a condensor installed inside the guitar as well. He runs each into a little mixer and adjusts levels according to taste. The mic represents the high end in a way that pickups just can't. I think the mixture is about 30% mic and 70% pickup...but it makes a world of difference.

Another friend of mine used his concept on a Taylor and on a Breedlove and the results have been really good. So this definitely does work on a wide range of acoustics. And I think he spent something like $6-800.

I think it's a crime that guys are paying $5k for a Taylor with a Fishman in it that makes it sound like a $500 Ovation. Anyway...

[Fran Guidry]

Doug Young has a pretty good range of pickup samples on his web site:

http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/pickuptest.htm

Fran

[GearGeek]

Man do I hate the sound of pickups. They sound NOTHING like your guitar in the studio. It's very frusterating. That being said, sometimes they are the only choice. I use an RMC pickup which I think is the best. A little pricely though. I run that through an AG Stomp mic simulator and then to a mixer. I also run an internal mic to a seperate channel and blend it in as much as I can before feedback. And still with all that crap it still does not sound like my guitar acoustically. But it's workable. The good thing is that everytime I'm in the studio it feels like heaven!

[hrn]

You should have a look at this one:
http://www.mikrofonen.se/prod_ehrlund/ehr_en.html

Hans

[Bob Amirian]

Originally Posted by Vandergraf

Greetings!

Which pick-ups are the best? (...)

Thanks
Van

Appropriate question it is, young Jedi.stike

I'm mostly acoustic guitar player, so I'll give my suggestion straight from the battlefield.

Of all pickups on the market I'd suggest you to buy L. R. Baggs product, whichever fits your purposes. These are truly the best, being mounted in most of serial and custom Martins, Gibsons, Godins, Larrivees, Taylors, Seagulls, Linda Manzer's and tons of others great guitars. I'm sure for a certain reason.

My favorite stuff is iMix and T-Bridge. The first I've installed in my Linda Manzer and the T-Bridge in my hollow-body Gibson ES-175D, Pat Metheny model.

Both sound awesome.

Although to get that sound out of hollow-body Gibson I had to pair the T-Bridge with the ParaAcoustic DI, a LR Baggs amazing outboard preamp, little heavy box with amazing capabilities - acoustic guitar taylored EQ, Feedback Notch Filter, phase reversal, effect loop and stuff. It operates with 1 9V cell, which can last for a half a year.

And NO, I'm NOT anyhow affiliated with this company. I'm just a happy customer.


Take care!

Bob

[nathanvacha]

Bill Lawrence? I hear this is what elliott smith always used, and i think most of his songs were recorded that way... you can tell, but I guess the magic was in his fingers.
(-- okay, that was off topic...)

[Santiago]

Daniel Lanois is another user of 80s Bill Lawrence pickups for his acoustic sounds. The Edge from U2 also used to use them in the 80s, though not necessarily for naturalistic acoustic sounds...

Santiago

[Midlandmorgan]

Another vote for Sunrise...IF you don't have feedback problems on a stage....

I have a Martin 000 with the standard Fishman/Martin system, and a Martin D1936 with the Fishman saddle pup and an EMG preamp/jack system...both work very well, with or without the soundhole covers for live DI...

[Benjy King]

Originally Posted by hrn

You should have a look at this one:
http://www.mikrofonen.se/prod_ehrlund/ehr_en.html

Hans

I would love to try one of these. Any idea of price and availability?

[Vandergraf]

Wow!
Thanks for all the quick replies to this.

I am in the process of checking out all of your suggestions.

Thanks again
Van

[swafford]

Live I use a Highlander IP-2 system via a Pendulum HZ-110. Solo, it's the Highlander bridge with an internal mic; with the band, the Highlander bridge pick-up with a Sunrise. For recording at home, a Rode K2 and a modded Oktava MK-012 through a MH ULN-2 is pretty damn fantastic and makes the Mbox I was using sound like it lived in a boot.

Good luck. It's a never ending quest!

[HudHudson]

I've never liked the sound of just a bridge sensor pickup...so on my go-to live performance acoustics I have both a Baggs iBeam and a Sunrise or Lawrence soundhole PU as well (I had a blend pot installed on my '73 rosewood LoPrinzi Blue Stripe and just barely let the low end from the Sunrise into the mix). I would never record an acoustic guitar direct, but that's my main instrument and YMMV. For a nice reference of how an acoustic can be well-recorded with a PU instead of a mic, check out James McMurtry's most recent fare, "Childish Things."

[hrn]

Benjy,
I talked to Göran Ehrlund, the designer and owner of the company and he told me that the price here in Sweden is 2500 Swedish crowns which is around $330.

This patented technique is THE thing I think with a stunning freq response and can be used to record whatever you want as long as you can attach the mic to it (listen to the cat or the heartbeats on the link in my earlier post).

There's a review of the mic in Sound on Sound under "Guitar Technology".

I can read that the distributor in Canada and USA is:

JP Cabletek Electronics Ltd.
Bldg. 100, 1638 Kebet Way
CA - Port Coquitlam, B.C. V3C 5W9
Phone +1 6049 421 001
E-mail peterjanis@cabletek.ca

Göran Ehrlund also has a tube mic coming (not a contact mic) with a new thinking in design, also patented. It will be presented at AES in Paris.


Best Regards,
Hans

[soundthinker]

See if you can find a TrueTone M7. A a 3 way system with a bridge 'pickup' plus two mics. Imagine sending the bridge 'DI' to the monitors while the mics go to the house system.

/jim

[sdelsolray]

A subject dear to my heart. This is discussed over and over at length at several of the acoustic guitar forms. One common suggestion from numerous folks is to vist Doug Young's site, which has comparisions of dozens and dozens of pickups, including dual source combinations. Each pickup test is also recorded with a pair of TLM103s for comparision too.

http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/pickuptest.htm

[squeegybug]

www.tranceaudio.com

Steve

[Bob Amirian]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

A subject dear to my heart. This is discussed over and over at length at several of the acoustic guitar forms. One common suggestion from numerous folks is to vist Doug Young's site, which has comparisions of dozens and dozens of pickups, including dual source combinations. Each pickup test is also recorded with a pair of TLM103s for comparision too.

http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/pickuptest.htm

Yeah, but he used NO EQ during the test. And this surely doesn't give you a full picture, 'cause that's very important and so frequently used feature.

It's like comparing a, say, Millenia Media STT-1, SPL ChannelOne and Focusrite Platinum VoiceMaster preamps without all the goodies except preamp sections. You'd find that astonishing difference in price doesn't figures, because the preamp section only is fairly comparable in sound between these units. I know it, 'cause I own all of these and already checked it this way.

I found VoiceMaster's tiny preamp section very transparent and truly decent. The rest of features is weak, but preamp easily compares with those in ChannelOne and even Millenia Media channel strip. There are some slight tonal differences, but definitely not worth THIS dough.

So if you want to compare the acoustic axe PUs you should tweak the EQ and other features as well. They make difference too.

Ignorance is bliss.

Cheers guyz.

Bob

[Pohaku]

I use a combo of a Sunrise and a Pickup-The-World. Adjust to taste.

[shikawkee]

I've tried, Baggs, Fishman, Sunrise....you name it.
I can't get into all the varied experiences--it's over 20 years of trying stuff--but I currently go with the Fishman Matrix under saddle. Reason:Reliaibility.
My luthier here in Nashville, who has installed a few of everything, says they are simply the easiest to deal with on the road. Very little fuss and very reliable.

Have I found better sounding? Absolutely, but none that are as stress-free.
(I dig the Baggs too but it has a microphonic element that sticks out the bottom of the saddle and this can cause feedback problems in bugger clubs).

My fave from my past efforts was the Pick-Up-The-World #20 or #27 I think.
Best sound but you have to find the right pre and right spot on the guitar.

If y'all are interested I went so far as to design a DI box/EQ channel that is specifically for guitar/bass and deals with the quack quite nicely (and a larger, very respected manufacturer is about to license/distribute).

[gsilbers]

anyone has compare the sound of the glue ons pickups, againsts tthe wooden dean marley/ removable placed on the sound hole?


whats the diference soundwise and well, i guess anyonther comment.

[shikawkee]

I just tried the D-Tar Wavelength and I'm completely blown away.
I'll post a review later.

[Autocrat]

K&K Trinity here in my Martin OM35. Takes some tweaking, but overall very nice.

[shikawkee]

D-Tar Wavelength acoustic guitar pickup system

Over the last 14 years I may have probably spent as much money on my acoustic guitar rig as I have spent on food. Seriously. It has been the single most frustrating part of my performing career that I can’t get a decent acoustic sound in a venue. This has led me to try literally dozens of different pickups and systems. I even went so far as to custom-design a hi-fi DI/EQ channel called the Coil EQ with Valvotronics to try to remedy this issue. While our DI solved half of our front end problem, it wasn’t unitl I recently tried the D-Tar Wavelength that I have finally found a transducer to settle on for a while and complete my live acoustic rig.

This is easily to best sounding bridge pickup--scratch that---ANY pickup that I have ever tried. I actually hear the wood again. The secret may be the 18v pre built into each Wavelength (vs. 9v for most piezo pickups). On theory this should help reduce spikes and peaks and give a smoother overall response. Boy, they ain’t kidding. The best test may be the direct thru signal from the DI to the amp which sounded like the best acoustic signal I had ever heard and it was a crummy practice amp! This is before I even listened to the sound coming from the mixing board via the XLR output of the DI. Just awesome. So much warmer and so much more detail than I had been used to. It FELT better which makes anyone play better IMO. I recorded samples and I had to listen to them carefully because it almost sounded like it was coming from a mic. It was that good. Blended with a mic on my vocal it was fantastic on some quick demos.

My system included a new product; a volume/tone control that fits nicely in the top of the guitar’s soundhole. I found it very useful after plugging in to my usual settings to adjust and fine tune to different clubs and sound systems by dialing in/out tone and volume without having to reach for my DI/EQ. Very nice.

As a professional recording artist/musician/producer I endorse several products I believe in. I do not officially endorse D-Tar or the Wavelength but I wish I did. This is one of the best products I have tried in a long time.

www.edpettersen.com
www.myspace.com/edpettersen

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by gsilbers

anyone has compare the sound of the glue ons pickups, againsts tthe wooden dean marley/ removable placed on the sound hole?


whats the diference soundwise and well, i guess anyonther comment.

Most soundhole pickups are magnetic partake to some degree of a typical electric guitar sound. Undersaddle pickups tend to be bright and quick, but sometimes a bit plasticky (if you hear one you'll know what I mean). Soundboard transducers depend a lot on correct placement, can sound fairly natural, but are more prone to feedback.

Try my buddy Doug Young's pickup test site: http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/pickuptest.htm

He has a bunch of pickup samples with mic samples recorded at the same time. It will at least give you some idea of what's out there.

I've had decent luck, for low volume fingerstyle solo live shows, with B-Band AST, K&K Pure Western Mini, Pickup The World Dynamic Duo, and D-TAR Timberline.

Fran

[the_panic_offic]

To state the bleedingly obvious, it's all going to depend on your own take on acoustic tone.

As has been said above, an undersaddle will give your great attack - it'll also give you a fairly synthetic top end and get that ol' lovely quack when you dig in.
Like the others above, I'd look at a combination setup - piezo, face transducer and mic where possible. That way you can find your sweet spot between the attack of the piezo, the earthy mid of a face transducer and the air and detail of the mic.

Go Fishman if you like something fairly bright n' toppy.

Baggs are fantastic - generally sweeter through the mids and come into their own for a rounder, more mellow tone.

My experience with B-Band has been limited, but what I've heard I've liked.

One out of left-field is the Brad Clark designed pickup in the Cole Clark Fat Lady guitars. To my mind the best jack-of-all-trades pickup n' pre out there. That said, I don't think they're being sold separately at the moment. Still, if you get the chance to hear one, do it.

After all of that, though - just mic the damn thing. That way you'll have the best chance of your guitar actually sounding like a guitar.

Crazy idea, but it just might work..

Andrew