Need Opinions on Acoustic Guitar Pickups

very much a personal choice. FWIW, here's mine: I prefer a high quality/performance magnetic sound hole pup to nearly all under bridge or contact piezo pups. I find that piezos of all sorts suffer from the classic piezo harshness and "quack." A high end EQ with higher voltage supply rails (to prevent piezo transient overload) will help, but the brittleness still comes through for me. Contrary to what some believe, a magnetic sound hole pup can capture (and quite well) the acoustic characteristics of the guitar, as the body and strings interact strongly to create the overall timbre of the instrument.

This isn't one of the choices you'd mentioned, but I'm a huge fan of the Fishman soundhole mics. They may require a little mod work from a luthier, but their sound is amazing.

Thanks guys, great points and info

This isn't one of the choices you'd mentioned, but I'm a huge fan of the Fishman soundhole mics. They may require a little mod work from a luthier, but their sound is amazing.

Fishman also makes at least one combo magnetic/mic soundhole pup, as does one or more other makers (slipping my mind). I think that's a great combo. haven't tried the mic-only versions, but I can believe they work well. I like Fishman gear.

I was going to have a pickup fitted to my acoustic but in the end the cost of the pickup plus fitting came to more than than what the guitar cost me in the first place. It proved to be more economical to buy an electric acoustic.

And, of course, it gave me an excuse to buy another guitar. :D

I've always wanted to give the Barcus-Berry 'Maple Bar' single coil soundhole pup a go....
Haven't yet.

The old timers I know talk highly of it though.

My acoustic has piezo pups in it - which I dislike strongly.
Piezos sound very fake; like you have an effect pedal on all the time of something that's 'suppose' to sound like
an acoustic guitar :roll:

Ken

I was going to have a pickup fitted to my acoustic but in the end the cost of the pickup plus fitting came to more than than what the guitar cost me in the first place. It proved to be more economical to buy an electric acoustic.

And, of course, it gave me an excuse to buy another guitar. :D

know how you feel. I installed a Fishman active humbucker soundhole in my 30-y-o, cheapo Alvarez lam-top. in this case, installed" means with endpin jack. that pup is worth far more than the guitar. def an impulse buy. but the guitar is good for a toss in the car and go. makes a pretty good slide guitar too.

for my more recently=purchased Tacoma, I have one of the now-common maple bar clone pups of the Barcus-Berry pup Zen/Ken mentions. adequate in a pinch, but not as good as the Fishman. might have to do a swap.

I have one of the original Barcus Barry pickups. I almost never use it. I like the Baggs M-1 and the Fishman Rare Earth.

Ah, so you guys (Greg & Nick) like the HB design over the SC for acoustic?

I checked out the specs on the Fishman Rare Earth, looks cool - never heard of that kind of magnet before tho.
It would seem that acoustic pups are a whole different breed than electric....

I have no experience with anything other than the piezos, so all I could do was apply what I know/prefer of electric pups.

Is the SC too thin on an acoustic?
Does the HB give enough treble response? (The Fishman RE said they improved treble response).

I would be interested to know a bit more of your thoughts....
Which has the most natural sound? (As opposed to the very unnatural piezo sound)

Thankx,

Ken

my Fishman humbucker is from the Rare Earth series. I'm sure the SC version has more sparkle, but SC and HB of the upper line (non-mic combo) versions are active, so have relatively small coils and stronger magnets. not always a good thing, but seems to work. there is a high freq contour switch on the pup I have that opens up the top end for fingerstyle, but sometimes is better rolled off - depends on the need.