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<blockquote data-quote="frank kayser" data-source="post: 14768" data-attributes="member: 28">Re: Acoustic guitar pickupsDick,What a crapshoot.&nbsp; I&#039;ve heard cheap guitars with the Fishman clamp-on humbucker sound great, at the same time, a Martin or a Taylor sound like a wet shoebox.&nbsp; I have a friend with a high-end Taylor in maple that sounds terrible in the winter, and merely miserable in the summer.&nbsp; I attribute some of that to the &#039;&#039;goofy on-board EQ&#039;&#039;...Mostly, I too try to have an eq available as an insert on the channel.&nbsp; For the most part (and&nbsp; there are as many exceptions as there are guitars) I find most of the fundamental string frequencies way overpowering the harmonics - and I find myself cutting a-220 for an octave or octave and a half to let some of the higher harmonics through - maybe a presence boost too - One Martin OM I work with sounds great unplugged but gave me fits to get it sounding anything close to right - no bottom end at all - just a hollow, muddy mid mix.&nbsp; Added a bunch of a-220 down, sharply cut some mids above that and added some highs &gt;1K to let some harmonics through.I can get them somewhat acceptable, let&#039;s say, not objectionable, but never great.&nbsp; The body ring and resonance is lost too many times even with good factory pickup systems.&nbsp; Add an internal condenser mic, and you end up with a howling good time on a loud band. The pickups are popular because they are convenient, not because they sound great.The best I&#039;ve heard were a Taylor w/bridge pickup and internal condenser, and a Martin D28 w/ K&amp;K Trinity.frank</blockquote>

[QUOTE="frank kayser, post: 14768, member: 28"] Re: Acoustic guitar pickups Dick, What a crapshoot. I've heard cheap guitars with the Fishman clamp-on humbucker sound great, at the same time, a Martin or a Taylor sound like a wet shoebox. I have a friend with a high-end Taylor in maple that sounds terrible in the winter, and merely miserable in the summer. I attribute some of that to the ''goofy on-board EQ''... Mostly, I too try to have an eq available as an insert on the channel. For the most part (and there are as many exceptions as there are guitars) I find most of the fundamental string frequencies way overpowering the harmonics - and I find myself cutting a-220 for an octave or octave and a half to let some of the higher harmonics through - maybe a presence boost too - One Martin OM I work with sounds great unplugged but gave me fits to get it sounding anything close to right - no bottom end at all - just a hollow, muddy mid mix. Added a bunch of a-220 down, sharply cut some mids above that and added some highs >1K to let some harmonics through. I can get them somewhat acceptable, let's say, not objectionable, but never great. The body ring and resonance is lost too many times even with good factory pickup systems. Add an internal condenser mic, and you end up with a howling good time on a loud band. The pickups are popular because they are convenient, not because they sound great. The best I've heard were a Taylor w/bridge pickup and internal condenser, and a Martin D28 w/ K&K Trinity. frank [/QUOTE]

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