Byron Carr Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 Hi all, any recent feedback is greatly welcomed before I take my much beloved j50 to become electric!! thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorrisrownSal Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 (edited) I owned a J-50 that I added a pickup to, and I currently own a J45-TV with the same pickup: a K&K pure mini. It is passive, unobtrusive, and hot. It sounds best when using a DI with proper impedance match... such as the K&K pure xlr, of the fire eye red eye. My other favorite pickup is a simple Baggs M1 Passive... played through a Venue DI. Edited March 15, 2021 by Salfromchatham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 A lot depends on what you want to do....do it for fun, experience? Open Mic? Going on the road? Sal said the K&K and the (Baggs M1 Passive) - both are good but you need to take the preamps (your new friends) with you. (everywhere!). Next would be the Baggs Anthem - fully self contained, great sound, but expensive and has battery and stuff in your guitar. And on upwards it goes until you spend large amounts! Have a peruse of the Acoustic Guitar Forum Amplification section.... BluesKing777. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinder Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 As I've said many times in the past, I love the Sunrise. I've never heard or played a pickup that pleased me more, and I've tried more over the years than I care to remember. I run my Sunrise pickups into my Boss AD10 preamp, and that's my live tone. Sounds great on any stage, however good/bad/flat-out awful the FOH rig is. I find the the Sunrise much less vulnerable to poor quality PA gear than piezos and similar-it seems to retain a solidity and detail whatever you run it through. Love 'em! Pickups are SO personal a choice and deeply subjective to the player and the playing style, though. I very much like the K&K Pure Minis that I have in my Hummingbird 12 string and '67 J45, but the K&K is a bit of a delicate flower with feedback susceptibility and always requires a "feedback buster" style soundhole cover. I find good quality passive magnetic pickups better suited to my playing and a bit more versatile. I cover a lot of bases in my playing and the Sunrise (plus honourable mentions to the Fishman Blackstack and Seymour Duncan MagMic) will go with me, wherever I wander off to stylistically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted March 16, 2021 Share Posted March 16, 2021 (edited) The Anthem is a great sounding pickup. I've had my share of issues with them, that I won't go into here other than to say disappointing that I wasn't able to get a stable setup with that config. Maybe you will have better luck. The biggest question to answer is how much "change" do you want to do to get a pickup in place. it can be as simple as a removable sound hole pickup that you put in and take out when ever you want, or something a bit more involved like the Anthem, or a Fishman Matrix Dual, or standard. The later will require some changes to your guitar, holes drilled for the under saddle element, and the and pin will need to be bored out to fit a jack. Even the K&K will need to have some sort of mods done to be properly installed The former, requires no modifications at all, you put the pickup in when you need it, take it out when you don't. Be advised tho,, there is more risk to this approach,, its quite easy to imagine dropping the pickup as you take it out or put it in, which will put a dent in the top of the guitar. (Ask me how I know)... If you decided to go with an installation route, make sure you find someone that can do the job correctly for you. I wouldn't take this on as a DIY.. and if you haven't caught the hint yet, it doesn't END with the pickup,, there's pre-amps, and other things to consider, so it can be a rabbit hole unless you have a real good plan in place on what you are planning to do with this. Edited March 16, 2021 by kidblast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twang Gang Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 As Kidblast just mentioned it depends on how involved of an installation you can stand, and as BluesKing said it also depends on your goal or why you need/want a pickup. But as to pickups themselves I had a LR Baggs Anthem in an SJ200 and it was great. With the phase switch no feedback problems, and the battery checking light was a useful feature. I no longer have that guitar, but no complaints about that pickup. I currently have Hummingbird that came with a Baggs VTC and I have found this to work very well also, nice accurate reproduction of the acoustic sound of the guitar. Another good pickup system was one I had installed in a Taylor guitar and it was made by B-Band and it was the best sounding of any I've experienced. It used a different transducer material and had both an UnderSaddleTransducer(UST) and a second pickup known as an AST which attached to the underside of the guitar top. They both fed into the pre-amp and could be blended to taste by a sound hole knob along with the sound hole volume control. A great system for about $250. At the other end of the Spectrum I have a Dean Markley Pro Mag sound hole pick up that just slips under the strings and fits in the sound hole. It's really old but they still make them and sell for about $50. There is no volume or tone control so you have to rely on the amplifier for that, and you have a cord hanging down the front of your guitar, but it is simple and inexpensive. So there are four different systems all of which I found to work well - just depends on how much you want to spend and how many holes you want drilled in your guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duluthdan Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 Trans Audio Amulet. None better in my book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave F Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 11 minutes ago, duluthdan said: Trans Audio Amulet. None better in my book. The Trance Audio Amulet Stereo system that was in the Jackson Browne I had was hands down the best sounding acoustic pickup I've ever heard. I did not like the box inside the guitar, the special plug and the external box you had to take care of. The Stage Deluxe LTD had a Trance Audio Amulet M installed in it. I thought it sounded almost as good as the Stereo with less hassle. I've tried few sound hole pickups that made the guitars sound too electric. I had a K&K Trinity in an EC 000-28 that sounded really nice. I haven't tried the one mentioned by Jinder but I would definitely try out anything recommended by him, Buc and a few other members that play out regularly. I haven't played out in a few years and may never play out again. A while back, I was looking for a quick on/off if needed and have a few I haven't tried out yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanvillRob Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 I am currently in the process of adding a K&K Trinity (3 pickups and a mic) to my J-50. Am waiting on the preamp...but I'll mostly just play it in my music room, so the preamp won't hamper me much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larsongs Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 Man, that is such a subjective question.. It’s almost like if you gotta ask maybe you shouldn’t mess up a great Guitar if you don’t know what you want... Ask 20 Guys & you’ll get 20 answers.. And they’re all right. You might be better off watching a ton of YouTube’s of different A/E Guitars & get an idea of the Sound you want.. Then go play a few.. Once you know what Sound you want go for it.... IMO, the best sounding Gibson A/E Guitar is my Bozeman Masterbilt Solid Top J-160E with P90.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbpicker Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 I’ve used many K&Ks, but this time I installed a JJB in my J45. Same idea a KK, a little better sound and half the cost. Win, win, win. rb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Woody Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 I really love the Lyric in my J-45. Used it at church today into the Venue DI with all the controls at noon (flat) and it sounded GREAT!!! Doing some recording with it tonight and again, it sounds great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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