Acoustic Pickup

[heavydutysg135]

I am looking for an acoustic pickup for my Alvarez Yairi DY-57. I am playing at coffe houses with two other guitars and need to increase my volume so my single note riffs and solos can cut though the mix better. I would like unbiased opinions on the best sounding acoustic pickup. I would prefer not to spend over 100 dollars but would consider it if the sound is much better. I am currently considering seymour duncan, EMG, Sunrise, and Baggs. Thank you in advance.

 

[Artie]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

You may want to consider some of the offerings from D-TAR also. I haven't used them myself yet, but they're supposed to be some of the best.

BTW - The "D" in D-TAR is Seymour Duncan.

 

[Lee_M.]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

You may want to consider some of the offerings from D-TAR also. I haven't used them myself yet, but they're supposed to be some of the best.

BTW - The "D" in D-TAR is Seymour Duncan.

As soon as my 6-String goes in for a re-fret, the D-TAR is getting installed. I can't wait to try it out.

 

[Artie]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

Hey Lee; I hope you'll write us a little mini-review. I'm trying to decide what to put into my Yamaha acoustic now.

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

I know you said un-biased, but I'm biased -- still, these are my honest opinions, and I know a fair amount about this stuff.

Best acoustic pickup, no holds barred: the Seymour Duncan Mag Mic. Best under-saddle pickup is the D-TAR Timber-Line.

Both are over $100.

If you have to stay under $100, I'd go with the Seymour Duncan Acoustic Tube or Woody.

You can also check out the brand new D-TAR User Group Forum, where there's a lot of very informative talk about acoustic guitar amplification.

I hope that helps.

 

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

I was just speaking to Evan about D-TAR reps in the area....also, he says he likes the Mag-Mic the best. That's a Mag-Mic in his Guild D-40 in the picture on the main page!

I've been trying to read up on these...maybe somewhere down the road I'll want one for my D-55. I'm very curious to try out some of the D-TAR stuff!!!

 

[Thames]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

Evan (or anyone else with the right answer!),

If I need to amplify my classical/nylon string, what'd be the best system no matter which price, and what'd be the best bang-for-buck ?

 

[klbrackin]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

I want to put an SD Woody in my old Yamaha FG75. The sound hole is smaller than the published size range for the Woody. Is there any way to trim the Woody to fit the smaller sound hole? This is my first post, so if I'm doing something wrong be gentle.

 

[Surgeon]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

I second the mag-mic suggestion....

Awesome pick-up, that's what I use in my Taylor for gigs...

 

[dfsixstring]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

My primary instrument is acoustic and it also happens to be an Alvarez, albeit, not quite a Yari (MF-80 folk). After much searching I put in an LR Baggs Dual Source pickup system in it. It has the piezo pickup under the saddle and it also has an internal mic. I know several professionals that use this same setup in their acoustics that record in the studio with them - that's right, they don't use a condenser to mic the guitars when they record, they record straight from the pickup. There are several ways you can run this little jewel too. You can run it mono or stereo. There are two control knobs that mount on the soundhole of your guitar (no damage to the guitar - it's a sandwich) that give you control of the mic and piezo independently so that you can blend the two. I ran a test between a studio condenser mic, mic'ing my Alvarez and then running with this LR Baggs Dual Source and brought an unbiased person (who couldn't believe it could possibly sound better than a mic) and made a believer out of him. He said it actually sounded more realistic than the condenser mic did. You will have to do things a little different live though. I have to make sure that my monitor is always on my left now - never on my right or it is like holding a mic in front of a monitor - feedback. There are also gain, phase and low-cut controls inside too. This is - bar none, the best pickup I have ever had. You can buy one of these from musiciansfriend.com for about $220.00 and install it yourself if you can shave your own saddle. I opted not to do that and had several things done by a luthier in Nashville - when all was said and done I think I spent around $400.00. It sounds good though.

 

[Surgeon]

Re: Acoustic Pickup

I want to put an SD Woody in my old Yamaha FG75. The sound hole is smaller than the published size range for the Woody. Is there any way to trim the Woody to fit the smaller sound hole? This is my first post, so if I'm doing something wrong be gentle.

I don't really think that's feasible. From the way the Mag-Mic is built you can't really grind anything to make it smaller...

Sorry...