acoustic guitar pickup shootout

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Sat Feb 16, 2013 3:36 am

I thought you guys might be interested in this. It's a short 25 second track featuring 4 different guitars with 4 different pickup systems.

1. Guild D55 which comes stock with an undersaddle pickup system powered by a 9 volt battery. No controls. Not sure what brand, because the current models feature a DTAR system powered by AA batteries.

This one I had set at 0 gain and 0 level

2. Taylor GS mini Mahogany Top, I installed a Dtar Sadducer Undersaddle Pickup which requires NO battery power. Just a piezo hooked up to a input jack. No controls obviously.

This one I had set at 0 gain and +6 level

3. Yamaha FG331 with a LR Baggs M1A Active Soundhole Magnetic Pickup with volume set at 10. It was a bit quieter than the other two

This one I had set at +10 gain and +4 level

4. Taylor Big Baby Acoustic with a Fishman Matrix Infinity Acoustic Guitar Under Saddle Pickup kind of. Unfortunately the nice red piezo pictured got broken when some primate guitar tech shoved it up through a tiny hole drilled for a cable and snapped it. The current piezo came out of my Dean performer SE, and it's clear that this combo is no good. Full volume and flat EQ.. sounds like shit. Completely unbalanced between the bass strings and top. Need to order another sadducer...

This one I had set at on a -20 DB pad because it was stupidly loud compared to the others. No wonder our live shows are such a pain in the ass for sound engineers to dial in.

http://soundcloud.com/ianshanetyler/ac ... tar-pickup

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:38 pm

The first two are indiscernable from each other to me.

The LR Baggs sounds the best which is handy as it also looks the coolest, bit like those ancient DeArmond soundhole pickups

The Fishman sounds awful.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:47 pm

It's a shame the Fishman isn't working as it should, I've always found their equipment great. I use a Fishman Rare Earth humbucker which is fantastic, I bought it over the LR Baggs as I didn't like the contact noise that the Baggs picks up.

Anyway live I use a microphone if I can but when I need to plug in the Fishman works great.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:51 pm

I should stress I didn't mean to remark on Fishman in general, just that compared to the other setups this particular scenario with a mismatched transducer isn't holding up; kind of everything I DON'T like about undersaddle systems.

The Godin system in my Seagull S12+ is very nice, but I have few other frames of reference. I used a Dean Markley soundboard transducer with my Martin a few times, the old school "bug" type of top-mount pickup that you stick somewhere near the bridge with bluetac. I don't play acoustic live anyway so it's largely a moot point, though I'll probably keep the LR Baggs in mind for the Martin in the future after hearing this shoot-out.