Acoustic guitar pickup woes and advice ...

thomasross20 · July 2016

I bet it'll play like a dream soon enough once ICBM is done with it

revdick · August 2016

I have an Armstrong 12-string, played mostly in church, and have the LR Baggs I-Mix pickup system which I installed myself. It has a bridge transducer and an underbridge element. It works extraordinarily well and sounds great; and I've tried a few, including Fishman. I think maybe the Anthem was either badly fitted or the wrong choice.

thomasross20 · August 2016

Thanks to @ICBM for sorting my acoustic out.
Regarding the action, a little more groove needed to be made on the nut for the B & high E strings only.
Mainly, though... there was a 0.5mm shim under the saddle which he simply removed and has helped the action a fair bit!!
How about that!

Lewy · August 2016

thomasross20 said:
Mainly, though... there was a 0.5mm shim under the saddle which he simply removed and has helped the action a fair bit!!
How about that!

It wasn't a sort of pinky orange colour by any chance was it? I found one under the saddle of a
D09 I used to have....

thomasross20 · August 2016

I think t's more brown. Seems a popular thing to do!

ICBM · August 2016

This one was rosewood.

Pinky-orange is 'Paxolin' usually - a hard resinous composite material.

thomasross20 · August 2016

Amazing the difference it makes!

revdick · August 2016

and that shim probably affected the sound from the pickup quite badly.

ICBM · August 2016

revdick said:

and that shim probably affected the sound from the pickup quite badly.

Unlikely, since firstly it was rosewood and secondly it's not an undersaddle pickup.

I didn't notice any change in sound when I took it out. That isn't always true, sometimes cardboard or thin plastic shims seem to, but in general a well-made hard shim doesn't make any difference.

camf · August 2016

Despite having played for nearly forty years, I'm incredibly uninformed regarding acoustic set ups.

My guitar is nearly thirty years old and pre-velco so has a tricky battery holder clip thing to navigate that I know I'd struggle with in any live situation. I have a dread of a battery dying on me at the worst possible time so I'm thinking of installing a passive pickup (probably the K&K mini unless anyone has a better suggestion). Is the K&K preamp the best long-term solution for connecting to a desk or would I need that (or an alternative) and a DI?

Using the guitar's current onboard pre-amp, I'm using a Behringer ADI-21 which seems a neat little thing although I'm not sure how robust it will be. Is there a good single unit preamp/DI that would work well with the K&K mini?

Thanks.

cam f

Lewy · August 2016

camf said:

Is there a good single unit preamp/DI that would work well with the K&K mini?

Either the K&K Pure XLR preamp/DI or an Orchid DI would work. K&K Pure Minis like to see a 1 Meg Ohm or lower input otherwise you can get excessive bass muddying up the sound.

camf · August 2016

Yes, the Muting Orchid seems like a neat solution. I found this thread on another site that suggested the Orchid might even do away with the need for a preamp with the K&K Pure Mini. http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.yuku.com/topic/70201#.V7x7ko7RM_U

thomasross20 · August 2016

I've got the cheap non-muting orchid. Workrs a treat and cheap as chips. Fancied the muting one but it is too big to fit into the guitar case.

camf · August 2016

Hi @thomasross20 ;

And you're just using that without a preamp, yes?

thomasross20 · August 2016

Yeah I just go straight into PA - do all the EQ on the mixer. For all the time I'll be playing acoustic I don't need some million dollar setup. Anyway, the orchid stuff is really high quality.

camf · August 2016

Cool. That sounds like it should work for me too.

I might spring for the version with the mute though.

thomasross20 · August 2016

Yeah that's probably the better option - let us know how it works out!

crunchman · September 2016

I've used a K&K straight into the PA with an active DI box - normally an Orchid but I've probably used one or two others as well.

Bidley · September 2016

I've got a K&K Mini in my acoustic, run through a Tonebone PZ-PRE, and the preamp isn't needed at all!

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Acoustic guitar pickup woes and advice ...

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