Re: OT - acoustic pickups, etc

["Jon Southwood" <jsouthwood@gmail.com>]

I've got a B-Band UST (Under Saddle Transducer) and AST (Acoustic Soundboard Transducer) combo installed in my Larrivee. The each goes into a different channel of the on-board preamp that allows me to blend the two. The AST seems to be pretty responsive to knocking on the soundboard (though I admit to not doing it very often in isolation during gigs). They also have a mini condenser mic that attaches to one of the internal braces on the soundboard. I have no experience with the mic.

My only complaint about the B-Band is that the signal, despite having an active preamp, actually puts out a lower-strength signal than the Pick-Up The World UST I have installed in my mandolin (passive). The PUTW UST picks up body knocks on the mando pretty well, too, come to think of it.

To compensate for that, this last gig I actually grabbed my cheapo ART pre-amp and dialed up one of the Acoustic Guitar settings and it sounded quite good to my ears.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Jon

On Dec 6, 2007 12:38 PM, Daryl Shawn <highhorse@mhorse.com> wrote:

Forgive this wholly off-topic query, though of course it does concern
equipment that will be eventually used in looping...

I like the onboard piezo pickup in my Takamine nylon-string, but I'm
starting to do more banging on the guitar body these days and the piezo
doesn't really transmit these sounds very well. An external mic does
fine with this of course, but I want something suitable for onstage use
and I hate having to hold more or less still in front of a mic. I've
gotten a recommendation (thanks Michael!) on the Baggs Element, but am
wondering if anyone's had experience with anything else, especially with
having two different pickup systems in one guitar. I'd like to keep my
current setup and add to it (maybe I can split the output at the endpin
with a TRS jack...?).

Also, I'm making more use of the harmonics that appear between the fret
and the headstock, which of course aren't heard by standard-mounted
pickups. I know Fred Frith had a guitar with a pickup mounted up on the
headstock, though his was huge (and appeared on an electric) and was
done quite some time ago, I'm hoping there are some kind of developments
here since.

Finally, I'm looking for a really really good portable (i.e., stompbox,
tabletop, half-rack) compressor that's well-suited to acoustic guitar,
that is, helps to even out the natural sounds and doesn't produce any of
the "breathing" effect - I'm not looking for extreme compression, just
something to musically accentuate the harmonics and even out the big
spike. The Keeley compressor is raved about frequently, but I'm curious
if anyone has had experience with it on acoustic guitar.

Daryl Shawn
www.swanwelder.com
www.chinapaintingmusic.com