Acoustic guitar pickup poll

[Mikenov]

Folks, I have an Alvarez acoustic I absolutely love. it's one of their high end all wood boxes. step down from a Yairi. The electronics in it suck though. I am considering changing them up. I have really like LR Baggs stuff in general.

What is your take on replacing electronics? I don't think I will be able to rip out the box and replace it. So, something in the soundhole? Under saddle?

What are your acoustic amplification preferences and why?

I want to hear it all and thanks in advance!

[Genericmusic]

You might be able to slave your choice of under the saddle or a sound board mic to your existing electronics. I did a repair like that about a year ago and it sounded. It is also quite possible to replace the old electronics (box) with an upgraded box. That involves a lot of research and measuring. Good luck with your project.

[rwinking]

So I use a pretty expensive system where I have a K&K piezo system hooked up to a sunrise then out into a K&K blender preamp. It sounds great. However, Dimarzio has a system called the Angel and it sells for about the same price as just the Sunrise magnetic. The cool thing is how you can blend the two pick ups from the sound hole.

[Blunote]

I have a Fishman Matrix piezo in one of my guitars, and B-band A2.2 installed in two others on the recommendation of our very own Rockabilly69.

 

The Fishmans are good as piezo's go, but still produce that annoying quack.

 

The B-bands are better, and have both an under saddle as well as soundboard transducers with an on-board crossover/pre-amp, and sound-hole/blend knob. Technically, the B-band transducers are not piezo and seem to provide a greater range of frequency response than the Fishman under saddle. I still get some quack and will be making some gain adjustments to the pre-amp at future string changes.

 

Ultimately, I've gone ahead and purchased an external small diaphragm cardoid mic that I use alone or in concert with the on-board pre-amps.

 

I have no experience with the K&Ks but have heard great things about them. I've also heard that the JJB products are every bit as good at about 40% less. And, like you're Heritage, it's made in Michigan.