Frequency loss with MagMic acoustic pickup

[Luka.Scepanovic]

A couple of months ago I bought the Magmic for my Fender acoustic. I really love the tone, and was sure my troubles with piezo quack were over. But after a couple of gigs I started to notice that the tone of the pickup would start to change after playing for a while. We use a couple of guitars on gigs, so they don't get too much play time, and after I first heard the problem I was sure everything was fine, and that the battery might be low, or a cable might be to blame. But the problem stayed. Tried different cables, mixers, amps, venues, using a different D.I, but couldn't get a persistent tone.
Everything starts out fine, and after half an hour the sound starts to change. It sounds as if someone is tweaking the EQ at the mixer, taking out the low or high end. I really love the little bugger, and I wish there was a way I could fix the problem. I live in a faraway land that no one at Amazon has ever heard of (Montenegro ), so getting a new one fast would be a pain.
Has anyone had any similar issues? If so, please advise

Cheers

 

[jeremy]

Re: Frequency loss with MagMic acoustic pickup

welcome to the forum!

that seems very odd. i have had a magmic for years and never had anything like that happen. it didnt happen for the first few gigs?

 

[Artie]

Re: Frequency loss with MagMic acoustic pickup

Grasping at straws here, but would it be possible to record a session, so that we could hear the affect?
Could climate be affecting your strings, or wood, or something, that quickly?

(I just checked . . . Montenegro is about the same latitude as Massachusetts.) Climate shouldn't be too weird.

 

[Luka.Scepanovic]

Re: Frequency loss with MagMic acoustic pickup

Thank you for the welcome, as well as the quick reply.
I'm can't be sure, since the first couple of gigs were done in a pub with awful speakers, and the high end (of all the instruments) kept cutting out entirely. But afterwards I kept thinking that it must've been due to a bad cable, or that the power at the venue was bad. Usually things either work or they don't. They don't change mid-gig for no reason.
And yes, the climate is pretty stable, and my fingers don't sweat all that much.
Some friends of mine work at a music store, and I'll try to recreate and capture the change in sound there next week and post what I get.
And once again, thanks for responding.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Frequency loss with MagMic acoustic pickup

Yeah, I'd be interested in the results, too, I have never heard this, but I believe you have experienced it. If we take the awful PA out of the equation, then I'd like to know what happens.

 

[Luka.Scepanovic]

Re: Frequency loss with MagMic acoustic pickup

Alright, so I went to the store, plugged the magmic in and tested it...for hours. In the end it turned out that the tone loss was indeed the result of a number of unlucky factors, but not the pickup. Turns out the first venue had a drum that was miked so loud that the limiter would kick in every two minutes. The other venues had a combination of bad cables, speakers and mixers and that was basically it. Just to be sure, i plugged the guitar into the aux input of a microcube (as dry as it gets), and recorded a part on a looper, waited an hour, recorded a second loop, waited, and so on, for a couple of hours, and the sound stayed the same. It turns out that a new tweed cable I'd bought was also faulty, and would lose top end and volume when moved a bit. But I guess I was just too dumb to blame a new cable. Sorry I posted the issue before I tested everything out beforehand, and thanks to everyone for the help.
P.S: Mr. Mincer, love your music, sir.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Frequency loss with MagMic acoustic pickup

Oh thanks!!

Don't worry, It is highly unlikely that you would have thought several things were going wrong. I am happy you figured it out, though!