There's so many options out there.
Does anyone know of any COMPARO sites.
-OR-
Perhaps if I mentioned what I'm looking for I could get some input?
As some know, Santa brought me a beautiful, warm, lovely (can't believe I'm using that word) new Epi Masterbilt for Xmas.
Its a solid Cedar top with Solid Rosewood sides. Its sounds absolutely great. Now I want a pickup for it. I want something that won't change/flavor/alter the sound of this guitar. I want to capture "Its" tone, not a Pickup's tone. Does that make sense?
I know more about electrics than I do these.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers
Darren
Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. - Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977)
Its a solid Cedar top with Solid Rosewood sides. Its sounds absolutely great. Now I want a pickup for it. I want something that won't change/flavor/alter the sound of this guitar. I want to capture "Its" tone, not a Pickup's tone. Does that make sense?
It makes perfect sense.
It's not gonna happen with *any* type of acoustic guitar pickup.
If you throw enough money at it, you'll find some that come kinda close.
How much money are you willing to spend?
Your other alternative is a microphone. Is this for performance or recording?
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
It's more for performance.
I should've asked in my original post.
Would the most likely solutions be to MIC the thing?
I don't necessarily want to do any 'surgery' to this guitar and not like the sound/results.
It did occur to me to spend the money on a mic stand/cables and plug into the board with it.
Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. - Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977)
http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/pickuptest.htm
My favorite by far is the Fishman blender w/mic
Although if you take a listen at the bottom of the page above, you'll be surprised at how good a simple Radio Shack lapel mic sounds. I've used a stereo one before and was shocked at the quality.
I have a Sunrise & luv it.
http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/pickuptest.htm
My favorite by far is the Fishman rare earth blend w/mic
Although if you take a listen at the bottom of the page above, you'll be surprised at how good a simple Radio Shack lapel mic sounds. I've used a stereo one before and was shocked at the quality.
Nick, Perfect.. thanks. and with sound bytes too... NICE!! :)
Thank YOU!!
Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. - Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977)
No problem.
By the way, that should be Fishman Blender with Mic, not rare earth.
A mic will always sound more "acoustic" than a pickup. A pickup adds freedom to move around on stage, but adds nothing good to the tone. Even with a mic, leaving aside issues of the mic's frequency response curve and sensitivity, the location of the mic has a huge effect on what the mic "hears" coming from a guitar. A guitar's sound(s) won't be radiated in an even, symmetrical pattern. It's quite directional, and as different sounds come from different parts, which blend together with constructive and destructive interference at various distances and directions affecting different frequencies at different points, you can change the sound a lot by moving the mic around, or the guitar in front of the mic. On Bob Brozman's site there's some good information on that, specifically applied to National resonator guitars, but the principles can be applied to others. Takes experimentation.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
The people on the Acoustic guitar forum rave about K&K Pure Western Pickups:
http://www.kksound.com/purewestern.html
Of course, a lot of them also think that a $20 Radio Shack microphone (see the bottom of the page Nick linked to) sounds better than most acoustic pickups.
You might want to browse that forum though:
