Pickup preference

[mannish]

Not sure where this should be posted - curious to what kind of PUs ya'll use on acoustics. I have used old Fishman rare earths forever - they worked great for me. I recently put a K&K Western Mini in my Lucas after a few gigs I am beginning to like it and plan to put one in several of my guitars. I use a Fishman pre-amp with it

[Taylor Player]

Hi mannish

 

I have K & K mini westerns in both of my Gibsons. Love them! If and when the old Highlander UST pickup in my Taylor dies, I will replace it with a K & K. I also have a LR Baggs PARA DI preamp but find that for the most part, the K & K's work great alone with my Genz Benz Shenendoah acoustic amp.

[zombywoof]

DeArmond 210. Not the most acoustic sounding of pickups but they put out a sound that you can't hear with aything on the market today. Just plug 'em straight into any amp.

[Flinx]

L.R. Baggs Dual Source, with a Para DI and an old, super clean Fender Princeton Chorus amp. It's pretty sweet, and kicks b--t for small/medium size clubs, if I plug straight into the PA, 'cause then I can use the amp as a monitor, too. People are always telling me how good my gitbox sounds, and that's fine with me. I just grin at 'em. It makes my day, if ya know what I mean.

 

Flinx

[Hoyt]

If I put a pickup in my J45, it will be the K&K. Had one in a Martin (I sold for a Gibson), and have one in my Mandola. Very natural sound, light with no preamp/battery, and fairly easy to install.

 

Now, sometimes I likely using one of those Dean Markley sound hole wooden things. They sound a lot more like an electric hollow body. And you just flip it out when through.

 

The standard pickup in my Blues King ain't bad. It's just more difficult to install than those above -- have to drill a hole in the bridge, route wires to preamp battery, etc. Sounds good through a PA and it works surprisingly well through an electric tube amp for recording.

 

Lot's of options.

[drathbun]

My fav acoustic pickup is the LRBaggs Active iBeam. They are easy to install and capture the natural sound of the acoustic instrument.

 

From Bob Colosi's website about the LRBaggs Active iBeam:

 

On a personal note... This is my personal favorite of the entire Baggs lineup. I simply can't say enough about how natural this transducer sounds. This is arguably one of the better units available to make your plugged-in performance sound "acoustic!"

[DonCarlos]

As for recording..........

I have a LR Baggs UST and although it is fine for amp use, I found it extremely time consuming trying to EQ, and tailor it, for a decent recorded mix. So, I have found it best to get the sound of the J45 to always use condenser mikes (one at the hole and one by the base of the neck) to capture the true Gibson sound.

[G u e s t]

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My 1974 Harmony H6365 'hog Grand Concert was retro-fitted with a seventies Bill Lawrence sound-hole electric pup (the one before his 'A-series') - all the others are mic'd up, no pups fitted. Those early Lawrence's are just so fine..... if you want to electrify your acoustic. To acoustify an acoustic, I prefer to mic.