Would like some info/advice on the Woody HC vs. the Acoustic Tube

[BrianS.]

Hello folks,

I recently had a customer who returned a Woody HC that had really low output. I had him test it out at my shop, and we had to crank his amp all the way up to get moderate volume. We also tried it through my amp & compared it with a piezo equipped guitar. It seemed so low in output, I suggested he return it under warranty.

He's now interested in upgrading to the SA-1 Acoustic Tube. I'm trying to find reviews of both of these products, but there is very little, and what is out there is not promising. It looks like the SA-1 might have even lower output than the Woody.

Is it the nature of these passive acoustic pickups to be so low in output? My piezo pickup (with preamp, of course) is much, much louder than my customer's Woody. I expected it to be louder, but the Woody seems to have impractically low output. I could find nothing physically wrong with the pickup, though.

Bottom line: What can be expected of a properly working Woody, and how does the the SA-1 compare, as far as volume output goes?

Thanks.

[unisafe]

Re: Would like some info/advice on the Woody HC vs. the Acoustic Tube

My Woody needs to be reasonably close to the strings or it is very low in volume. Although l I use mine for an slightly overdriven tone, similar to John Butler's sound.

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[BrianS.]

Re: Would like some info/advice on the Woody HC vs. the Acoustic Tube

TTT one time.

[jeremy]

Re: Would like some info/advice on the Woody HC vs. the Acoustic Tube

basically yes, its a low output pup. if you use acoustic strings meant for soundhole pickups then youll get more volume but not a ton and it will obviously change the tone.

get a preamp. ive used the duncan pup booster with low output acoustic soundhole pups and it works fine. it doesnt have the control of my baggs or fishman preamps but it works and is simple and relatively cheap

[BrianS.]

Re: Would like some info/advice on the Woody HC vs. the Acoustic Tube

get a preamp. ive used the duncan pup booster with low output acoustic soundhole pups and it works fine. it doesnt have the control of my baggs or fishman preamps but it works and is simple and relatively cheap

I've been thinking this same thing. I will suggest it. Thanks for the response.

Brian

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Would like some info/advice on the Woody HC vs. the Acoustic Tube

Stack pickups by their nature tend to be lower output than single coils or side-by-side humbuckers and both the Woody SC and SA-1 Acoustic Tube are stacked humbuckers. Still, the Woody shouldn't be that low output. I wonder if it's defective. Do you have another one you can compare it to?

[BrianS.]

Re: Would like some info/advice on the Woody HC vs. the Acoustic Tube

Evan, no, we did not have another to a/b it with. We did compare it to a piezo setup...which is obviously not a fair comparison, but the piezo beat the Woody even with the volume nearly off. The Woody may be defective and we did return it. It will be fairly easy to tell if it was the pickup when we get a new one because we could literally turn the customer's amp up all the way to 10 and get only moderate volume output.

I will post results when it's all said and done. Thanks!