Acoustic Soundhole Feedback Blocker (mini review)

I was subbing on acoustic guitar at church this past weekend, and during last week's practice I was getting horrible feedback any time I turned the floor monitor up to a level at which I could actually hear myself. We're in a small corner of the church and I'm very close to the monitor, but for whatever reason my Breedlove Atlas seems especially prone to feeding back (more so than the guitars used by the regular guitarists.) The Fishman Classic IV preamp in the Breed does not have a notch filter, so that could be a big factor.

I went out and bought a Lute Hole brand soundhole feedback blocker on Saturday. I had to sand down the top edge slightly so that it would fit against the neck, but otherwise it was very easy to install.

Brought it to church on Sunday, turned up the monitor and was very pleased - no feedback at all. The blocker does affect tone - unplugged there's a notable treble roll-off, but plugged in it needed only a slight EQ adjustment. (I got the medium blocker but probably could have gotten away with the light version, which supposedly doesn't make as much tonal difference.) And from what I heard in the monitor, the guitar sounded more natural, with less piezo quack (could just be that I rolled down the "brilliance" on the preamp when setting the EQ.)

Seems like a very functional product to me; looks good too. I do wish they had the mahogany one at my local store; the maple is a bit pale compared to the guitar's spruce top, but I may blast it with some amber lacquer to get a better color match.

My 2 cents; ymmv.