Time for a new pickup

[daylightrobbery]

I can't bear my pickup any longer (I have a Baggs ribbon transducer run through a PADI).

 

Maybe I've been spoiled by having gigs with decent PAs, good outboard EQand compressors (and sometimes could afford to have the same sound engineer) but since I've moved to Germany I'm kind of starting from scratch again and doing my own sound- and my J200 sounds like having broken glass rammed into your ears!!

 

Fitted a Baggs Element VTC for a friend last week and even though it probably cost as much as his guitar, the sound was a definite improvement on the ribbon I have. Wasn't by any means a dead ringer for a natural acoustic tone but pretty bearable for a UST.

 

However, someone (Jinder I think?) described the Element as not having as much headroom for strumming as the Fishman Matrix. The sound clips from Fishman's site sound terrible IMHO but I know some folks here use the Matrix Infinity and quite like it so I'm guessing in real life it sounds better!!

 

Anyone played both and can describe the differences?

 

I play pretty much 50/50 fingerstyle/flatpick and sometimes let rip with pretty hard strumming, so was a little concerned about the "headroom" observations about the element.

 

I'm also thinking hard about the Aura Spectrum DI which should be tailor made for the Matrix but in the case that I decide against the Aura, I don't want to be stuck with a pickup that I don't like without effects.

 

All help appreciated, as always!!

[steverok]

Welcome to hell. I heard a kid's $200 Alvarez that sounded fantastic plugged in. Supposedly the D-Tar Wavelength has mucho headroom, due to its pre-amp design, although it supposedly uses the same UST as the LR Baggs Element. I have used K&K PW mini - they have been hit & miss. I replaced one K&K with a PUTW I/O, which I use in conjunction with an LR Baggs PADI. The PUTW was better than the K&K in that particular guitar, but it does seem to crap out with heavy strumming. I wish I knew the answer universally, myself.

[KL]

It might be worth using the search facility on the forum as acoustic pickups have been discussed here not too long ago. There may be something useful in the archives. I'm using L R Baggs M1 active soundhole pickups in two of my acoustics (J-45 and J-185 12), and I have a headway in my D-28 which a lot of people say sounds good. I like the M1 Active soundhole pickups they sound great and are easily installed.

 

You're probably going to gets lots of other different replies too!

[daylightrobbery]

Yeah, looked through the archives, that's how I've got it down to a shootout between the Element and the Matrix.

 

But..... I'm looking hard at Schertler pickups now. Heard a few good things about them but on other forums but, well, who knows if you can trust those other guys........

[Jinder]

Schertler are very good, the Bluestick system is well worth auditioning...a former bandmate of mine had one in a classical (a humble Freshman, I recall) and it sounded amazing.

 

The bottom line for me, pickup-wise, is thus:

 

I have owned five guitars fitted with the Baggs Element, and all have had varying degrees of sonic success with it. Here is my rundown:

 

Gibson J45 - sounded fantastic amplfied.

 

Gibson Blues King - sounds fantastic amplified.

 

Gibson Hummingbird X2 - both sounded excellent amplified, although these are the guitars in which I noticed the headroom issues, which may have been more instrument related than pickup related.

 

Gibson Dove - probably the least successful guitar/pickup pairing of the five, sounded distant and unfocused, usable but not a particularly enjoyable or responsive tone. This may have been a faulty pickup or installation problem, though.

 

 

The facts are, the Element is an excellent UST which listens from both sides, so you get a good dose of "top" tone in the mix too. It's very faithful and doesn't stray too far from the guitar's natural tonality when in use. I constantly get positive feedback from

sound engineers...in 2007, for example, the very experienced sound engineer at a festival I was playing at in Nottingham told me that the Hummingbird I was playing at the time was the best sounding acoustic guitar he'd ever heard, and added that he'd left his desk EQ completely flat, just turning up the level and adding a smidgen of 'verb.

 

When I bought my Blues King, my plan was to whip out the Element and replace it with a K&K, but as soon as I plugged it in I was smitten...the Element works REALLY well in that guitar.

[rar]

... in that guitar.

 

This is so important! Anne and I have had a few pickups installed lately' date=' and we're fortunate enough to have a tech who comes up with multiple candidates that he thinks might work well [i']in that guitar[/i], tries installing each to see what works best in that guitar, then permanently installs the winner (as judged him and his coworkers in the shop, and us if we choose to come in and listen for ourselves). There have been several surprises, pickups that generally sound great in guitars of a certain type but don't work in a specific guitar of that type, and vice versa.

 

-- Bob R

[daylightrobbery]

Bob, you're a lucky man!

 

Ruled out the Schertler. Heard one (on a steel-string) and although it wasn't as "quacky" it had a sound of it's own that I didn't care for.

 

Really inclined towards the D-TAR Wavelength, same pickup as the Baggs Element but with an 18V pre-amp. The pickups themselves seem to be a "one size fits all". Does this then, work okay with the wider 1/8" saddle?

[onewilyfool]

Even though they have had some bad press lately, I still like the Toyota pickups.......and in photos, your Gibson guitar should look great with the Toyota in the background.

[J185-4Me]

Even though they have had some bad press lately' date=' I still like the Toyota pickups.......and in photos, your Gibson guitar should look great with the Toyota in the background. [/quote']

 

....and, as a bonus, you can fit a LOT of guitars in the new Tundra pickups -- they're the best!

[daylightrobbery]

Gonna try a D-TAR Wavelength.

 

Wanted to try the version with the built in mic but the manual says the mic should fit in the intersection of the X-brace but J200s have this pointy brace betwen the X-brace and the sound hole- looks tight...:-

 

What do you think?

 

http://www.d-tar.com/

 

http://www.d-tar.com/images/Multi_Source_Manual.pdf

[jefleppard]

new from baggs - anthem (sells for about $299)

 

here's the quackbuster w/element -this guys taylor sounds awesome (cant believe i said that..lol)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k292mDK0JsI&feature=related

[daylightrobbery]

The Anthem doesn't float my boat but I have to agree, the quackbuster w/element sounds the dog's danglies- v. impressed. That gives me an idea......

[jefleppard]

as a footnote, i just had a set up for my acoustic with a baggs element in it. i was thinking of switching pickups because the sound was a little weak, though i have never heard a bad element. the tech noticed that the bottom of the saddle was uneven and not making complete contact with the braided tranducer strip. he figured only about 20% of saddle was making contact. after filing it flat, the guitar is totally different for the better. there are so many things a skilled tech can notice and rectify that are otherwise beyond me. he just saved me cash and time as i was about to embark on a mad hunt for a new guitar/pickup. he only charged me $10 but i gave him $20 saying that "you don't know what a tailspin you just helped me avoid!"

[milod]

At risk of needing a foxhole into which to duck and hide my head...

 

I got into this stuff earlier than most - as in the 1960s. Mostly at that time we had soundhole magnetic pickups in a number of variations and clip-on jobbies that were "contact microphones."

 

In the mid 1970s I got a kinda matched pair of Ovations, steel and nylon, that were among the first true EAs as we think of them today.

 

Over the years I've concluded that the amp and settings make a bigger difference than anything other than the guitar itself and what strings one uses - and even that might be in question depending on how any sort of pickup is put into use.

 

Tube amps will be different from solid state, too. Many "acoustic" amps have a little dial to remove a bit of sound spectrum if you're getting feedback and that affects the sound too. Etc., etc., etc.

 

Nothing will sound like what you hear in your living room unamplified - and even that will have variations depending on whether you're playing, sitting across the room or sitting next to the player.

 

Our own ears "adjust" and will hear things differently, too, in different situations.

 

We also have to take into consideration, just as any "electric" guitarist, what the audience hears compared to what we might even hear on a monitor, depending on the venue...

 

EDIT: Cunk, you hit the other major variable - whether the electronics are installed correctly.

 

m