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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 4394
Location: East Tennessee | There are many ways to amplify an acoustic guitar.
Under saddle piezo.
Under soundboard.
Internal mic.
Magnetic soundhole.
What are the differences, advantages/disadvantages?
I'm looking into adding some type of pickup to my Ovation 1114 Folklore.
I can get an undersaddle from the factory or local music store.
I can get a K & K pure western mini.
Or I can get a Baggs M1 magnetic soundhole.
I need some advice. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Fishman RareEarth Blend sounds very good. |
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Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | I'm a big fan of the Fishman Eclipse Blend. Has a lot of flexibility mixing the undersaddle matrix acoustic pu and the internal mic. And it does not require you to surgically alter your guitar. Only limitation is that it will not fit all guitars. It assumes a traditional X brace pattern. Not sure if it would fit your FL or not. Dave |
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Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | If the factory has a model, equivalent to yours, get the one they use, X-perimenting with pu`s can cost, dearly !!..not only in "tons of money", but also in other areas, Ovation PU > pre-amp. will probably yield good results right away, or so I`d think, alternatively, the AKG 411 L..
http://www.akg.com/site/products/powerslave,id,357,pid,357,nodeid,2...
Vic
I`ve got one, it`s in-expensive, works like a charm, and since it`s removable, X-perimenting costs nuthin`,... :) |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Choice of acoustic guitar pickups is totally dependant on 2 things, which are: How loud do you need to be, and how accurate and "acoustic" do you want your tone to be.
The first of these, the "how loud" part is conditioned by many factors, such as type of music you play, type of venues/audience, do you play solo or with other instruments and or bass/drums? Do you use monitors and how loud do you like them? This is just a few, there are others.
The second part (how accurate) is a question of taste and will always involve some degree of compromise. I've heard just about every pickup system there is, and I've heard them all sound good to great and all sound terrible. When they sound bad it's either because it's the wrong pickup for the volume required, and/or poor sound-engineering skills. Usually both.
But, back to my 2 points of loudness v. acoustic purity. The pickups at the top of the list below sound the least accurate but have the highest resistance to feedback. Accuracy and acoustic purity increases as the feedback threshold gets lower. (There's actually very little between 3 & 4)
1) Magnetic
2) Undersaddle
3) Bridgeplate transducer
4) Internal mic
5) External mike
There are others, such as external or internal soundboard transducers, but they don't work well on instruments as big as guitars.
So if play professionally in a wide range of venues and situations and you need to be loud, free from feedback, and have consistent and predictably acceptable tone, then play safe and go for the mag or the undersaddle. If not you will probably be very happy with any of the other options.
Another solution, as more and more people are discovering, is to use more than one pickup source. For example a mag or undersaddle for bulk tone/volume and a small amount of mic mixed in for sparkle, accuracy and "air".
And this is before you even think about pre-amps and EQ! |
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Joined:
October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | paul,
if you are not already writing articles for guitar mags, you should be. you are quite the resource.
mahalo! |
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Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | The SAFEST option would be to go with the Ovation PU`s, the 411 L is the most in-expensive, most accurate, most versatile, and can withstand a reasonable amount of feedback, a great choice for classical ensembles, however, not recommendable for rockbands, used for recording it can produce results of high quality, it is a condensor mic., and AKG knows a thing or two about microphones,..but for your purposes, Gospel Church Gatherings, I would say : the Ovation PU might be worth considering. :)
Vic
..used for picking up the warmth and shimmer of Nylon strings on a Cedar Top, the C411 L is hard to beat.. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 4394
Location: East Tennessee | Many thanks for all the good information and suggestions.
After a couple of emails and a phone call to Kim at Ovation I ordered a CP-100 pickup from him.
I felt the best option for my situation was to go the under saddle route. I will add an external pre-amp in the future.
BTW I copied and pasted Paul's reply in to my computer for future reference. |
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Acoustic Amplification
