What is the best acoustic piezo pick up mic?

[Musicman2008]

What is the best acoustic piezo pickup mic?
I am looking to record a Martin D15 guitar and want a alternative than a tube mic?
Can you reccomend a piezo that sounds good blended with a microphone recording the guitar?

[joeq]

I have always felt that piezos are a necessary evil suitable for giving you some serious gain-before-feedback in live situations, albeit at the cost of a weird buzzy sound.

why anyone would use one in the studio, when they could use a wide choice of microphones and place them anywhere they want is beyond me.

I have taken the pickup into a DI at the request of the musician, but unless I have some "effect" in mind, it never makes it into the mix.

What is that sound? is that supposed to be an acoustic guitar?

feh.

YMMV as always.

[camerondye]

It's pretty much standard practice that everybody hates the sound out of the plug on an acoustic for recording. I would suggest a non tube SDC if you are looking for an alternative to a tube mic (I'm assuming LDC). Neumann, Gefell, Shure, Oktava...tons o' great choices. Good luck...
cam

[EstateMatt]

I beg of you.

DON'T BE THAT GUY

I just got this great pick up system. it sounds so natural and woody.

Cool Wow. Must be awesome live.

Great, ok why are you setting up mic stands?
is that for a talkback mic?

I'll use a pair of 414s on you, this'll sound great. I'm excited.

Yeah sounds awesome we can blend it
with my 1200 dollar pickup system.

NO, your pick up system is perfect for live use.
here it sounds like UTTER DOG SH*T

OK well we can just record it just in case we need it later

No

But I read on harmony central that dave matthews,
james taylor and ben harber use this rig.

No. Will you please drop dead here and now?

Why? Is it because you don't use an avalon U5 like them

Sure.. whatever, can I stick knives in your eyes now?

[allencollins]

LR Baggs makes good ones. Fishman?

piezo isn't a mic it's a transducer/sensor?
it converts mechanical enegry to electrical

[big country]

I dont know if its the best , ( not fully tested )
kinda gave up on it a while ago

but I will eventuay put more momentum towards
the Idea

But its a transducer that Im working on that works like a ribbon mic

only the ribbon being the bridge

cool thing is it uses a tranformer.

to give it that 3d image that a good tranformer gives

[swafford]

I use a Highlander, but like the others, you'd have to kill me before I'd track with. Great live, though.

[erosconpollo]

If you want to use a piezo for recording -- as opposed to live -- you're probably better off using one of those ones that stick to the top (preferably, but not necessarily, inside the guitar) instead of a pickup under the bridge. Move it around until you get the sound you like best. It won't have the volume of an under-bridge piezo but that's not so important in the studio. Stuck on the soundboard like that, it picks up more of the vibrations of the guitar rather than just the strings across the bridge.

Still a nice idea to use a mike, though.

[hv_]

Don't know about recording a Martin 6-string but I recorded an upright bass last year that a friend had turned into a stick after the body went to pieces from years of use. He said the bridge pickup he used was a Fishman. I was a little skeptical but di'd it into a Presonus m80 mic pre and it sounded great. Here's a snipit: Piezo bass snipit ... that funky string sound near the end wasn't the bass, btw... the piano did that.


Howard

[Jimbo]

I use one of these on my banjo, and like it.

Manufacturer of Acoustic Pickups for Acoustic and Electric Stringed Instruments and Drums

It's less metallic sounding than others I've tried.

[allencollins]

Hey Jimbo.

How's that rme converter? Kinda shrill huh? That $80 u spent on owens corning 705 really makes that $300 conversion sound like a Weiss huh? And you thought the 1inch slabs were for bass. Alot of good that did your
corners.

It's funny you think you're making a fool of me but your making a fool of yourself. No professional studio uses an rme. Tune your room with baffles and diffusers but guess what you'll never get an accurate sound with that d/a you bought at guitar center.


-Dumbo
your average rme user...........

[joeq]

Originally Posted by allencollins

LR Baggs makes good ones. Fishman?

piezo isn't a mic it's a transducer/sensor?
it converts mechanical enegry to electrical

Transducers are devices which convert energy from one form to another. In the broadest definition, speakers, motors and light bulbs are transducers as well.

The movement of waves in air molecules is mechanical energy - no less than the movement of waves in a solid piece of wood.

All microphones are transducers, though in practice people do tend to reserve the term for the ones that pick up sound through solid objects.

Originally Posted by EstateMatt

NO, your pick up system is perfect for live use.
here it sounds like UTTER DOG SH*T

OK well we can just record it just in case we need it later

No

See, here is where I would just say yes. What the heck. There is little chance that the artist will want it after hearing a well miced guitar with some nice processing. On the off chance that he does want it in a mix, that's when I would stick knives in his eyes.

[travisbrown]

Having spent thousands of dollars on acoustic amplification systems in the past....

If you have to go with a contact transducer like piezo or otherwise, here's my preference in descending order.

1. K&K (<-- by far the best in my opinion)
2. Schertler
3. Highlander
4. LR Baggs

These are what I use when I can't use a mic. When using a contact transducer, I usually blend it with a Sunrise magnetic pickup.

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by hv_

Don't know about recording a Martin 6-string but I recorded an upright bass last year that a friend had turned into a stick after the body went to pieces from years of use. He said the bridge pickup he used was a Fishman. I was a little skeptical but di'd it into a Presonus m80 mic pre and it sounded great. Here's a snipit: Piezo bass snipit ... that funky string sound near the end wasn't the bass, btw... the piano did that.


Howard

Piezos on bass are a different matter. Seems to me that the lower frequencies translate well. I've heard some very good electric and acoustic uprights with bridge transducers.

I like the Graphtech bass guitar bridges with piezos. Sound good when blended with the mag pickups.

[big country]

Originally Posted by allencollins

Hey Jimbo.

How's that rme converter? Kinda shrill huh? That $80 u spent on owens corning 705 really makes that $300 conversion sound like a Weiss huh? And you thought the 1inch slabs were for bass. Alot of good that did your
corners.

It's funny you think your making a fool of me but your making a fool of yourself. No professional studio uses an rme. Tune your room with baffles and diffusers but guess what you'll never get an accurate sound with that d/a you bought at guitar center.


-Dumbo
your average rme user...........

LOL!

your to much Allen

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by travisbrown

Piezos on bass are a different matter. Seems to me that the lower frequencies translate well. I've heard some very good electric and acoustic uprights with bridge transducers.

I like the Graphtech bass guitar bridges with piezos. Sound good when blended with the mag pickups.

Second this. Back in the day, the first record I made was of a Kantele, the Finnish folk harp, playe dy an interesting eclectic woman, this was in 1981.I used a U-67 four niches above the cenbter of the soundboard, a pair fa Nakamichi CM-300s about six inches apart flanking the U-67, and one of our team was a fanricator for the FRAP as it was in development, and she let us use a prototype stuck to the side of the lap harp. It had bass forever, and sounded very rich and full. But we filerted everything above 100Hz on the pickup.

You might try using the guy's pickup that way - just take from it what you might want, nothing else.

Lou

[allencollins]

Originally Posted by joeq

Transducers are devices which convert energy from one form to another. In the broadest definition, speakers, motors and light bulbs are transducers as well.

The movement of waves in air molecules is mechanical energy - no less than the movement of waves in a solid piece of wood.

All microphones are transducers, though in practice people do tend to reserve the term for the ones that pick up sound through solid objects.





See, here is where I would just say yes. What the heck. There is little chance that the artist will want it after hearing a well miced guitar with some nice processing. On the off chance that he does want it in a mix, that's when I would stick knives in his eyes.

gee Thanks! for clarifying I left out the word 'and'
my apologies

So much for that BS in ME

[buzzjoe]

+1 for K+K - but they are more prone to feedback than a UST piezos

[big country]

time to do a little bragging

I just made a real electric guitar