Pickups And Pre-Amps

[BluesKing777]

I was going to reply to a few threads about pickups, so I thought I would make a new thread.

 

We often hear: "The ".....insert pickup name...." sounds a bit crud!

 

 

So I will go back a few spots to the day that I had a new Fishman undersaddle pickup put in my 1976 Dobro, tried it in a gadget at home - fabulous!, then went to a blues jam night, jumped up for a couple of tunes when my turn came and the host plugged me direct to a shabby PA and walked off to the bar and leave me at it! A really awful guitar sound like cardboard tearing.... ouch.

 

On another front, I went to see another blues picker I know at a bar. He had the 'couldn't be bothereds' - not a big paying gig, couldn't be bothered dragging an amp there, so YEP, beautiful Gibson acoustic straight in the desk and turn the PA up as loud as it goes. I was sitting there up the front cringing and couldn't really flee because I know the guy quite well, but wow, what an awful guitar sound.....

 

Then to top things off, I went to our local Grand Prix motor racing most years and in the bar near our seats, they had a duo on acoustics in the breaks belting out hits at a volume to overcome the noise of the place and you guessed it - u/s pickups straight in a PA. Head-ache inducing tearing cardboard noise with some distorted vocals on top.....

 

So why do we get these pickups and then do that to people in the audience? Because in the wrong hands miking an acoustic live can be very hard to do properly. To get any monitor level at all gives screaming feedback, so that gets turned right down first and then you can't hear yourself among the boom from the front speakers, even though you are the only one playing!

 

So over the years I have looked into various acoustic guitar pre-amps to try and get a better sound and tried a few combinations - I do like the sound of an acoustic guitar in the PA speakers when it is miked with a simple Shure SM57, and a compromise was made where I used a pre-amp for my foldback and had the 57 going out front. The audience gets the miked sound and I get the pre-amped blah sound! Works though, so it needs getting used to.

 

One of the biggest disappointments of me moving from electric guitar to acoustic years back was the lack of gadgets - I am a bit of a Mr Gadget, funds allowing. No more boards and racks and floor pedals for an acoustic - you can do it but it will generally sound like an electric guitar then...

 

 

A few years back I bought the first model Fishman Aura pedal and then later the Spectrum Aura DI when it came out. I know not everyone likes this stuff, but a pre-amp of some kind is needed between an u/s pickup and an amp I have come to the conclusion. There is a technical guff about impedance matching and things I have no idea about, but basically it smooths out the quacks and gives you some volume, tone, compressor, feedback and other controls to make it easier for you.

 

So it was more long-winded than I intended and I need to get back to work, but I plugged my J45 with Baggs into my tube amp and it sounded horrible. I then plugged it into my Line 6 Pod and it sounded great and even better when I plugged it into my Aura and then the Pod and then the amp! Impedance matching smatching slightly electric sound but way better than tortured quack and pain mentioned above!

 

I went to the same blues night, plugged just my Dobro and Aura DI into the PA and everyone was saying how beautiful a sound I had, so I don't bother with the mic anymore...............................

 

 

To prove my own point I may buy a cheapo pre-amp foot pedal or such to see if it works. I many not!

 

 

BluesKing777.

[duluthdan]

I have an LR Baggs Paracoustic DI box I generally shlep around with my 2 Martins, having USTs. Especially if I know I'm gonna be plugging into a starnge house PA. Don't know how or why it works, but it does give a bit more control than just plug and play. Have not tried it with the Trance, so far the only systems I've plugged into have a dedicated sound tech monitoring the board.

[zombywoof]

Even when playing electrics I was not much for gadgets and gizmos other than a touch of slapback echo. I always felt the best FX you could have was a tube rectifier.

 

I do understand the thought that if you can get more tone variations it can enlarge your playing.

 

Maybe I am just old school or have a desire to keep it simple but I do not want any onboard electronics on my acoustics. I use the same setup today that I did in the 1960s - slap a Dearmond 210 or Kent WRC-18 pickup across the soundhole and plug into any old amp which lately has been a 1967 Supro. Admittedly this is not going to give you the most natural acoustic sound out there. And you have to think a bit differently about strings and keep things in mind like the pickups read nickel better than bronze wound strings. And I keep thinking maybe I would be better off with a solid state amp, But this is the sound I wanted to make as a kid listening to Elmore James and Lightnin' Hopkins. And I guess it just still works for me.

[onewilyfool]

A tube rectifier????...Sounds like that could hurt!

[BluesKing777]

In my way around way I was trying to help the millions (?) that have bought a Gibson Acoustic equipped from the factory with a Baggs undersaddle pickup, plug it in to a PA and say it sounds sh**te.

 

A pre-amp will improve the sound - there are those like Fishman Aura pedals and Baggs pedals designed for acoustic electric guitars, but I would guess that an electric guitar reverb foot pedal or similar with a level control would help a bit - just turn the reverb off or right down and use the level knob. I don't have any foot pedals at the moment to try it - somebody try it for me and let me know....

 

You don't need to rip the Baggs out in disgust just yet....

 

 

ZW - I have a DeArmond on my Hummingbird copy and I do love that sound, being a Lightnin' fan! (Purist acoustic sound, no). Straight into a tube amp, nothing better - I have a Boogie 22. which is a bit of a copy of an old Fender Princeton. It also sounds better into a nice pre-amp!

 

 

 

BluesKing777.