Yup. I'm back. The wordy one.
Sounds like one or both of two problems.
1. The undersaddle pickup is not seated well in the saddle and doesn't pick up lower frequencies to the best of its ability. Make sure the bottom of the saddle is dead flat, and the pickup ribbon is seated comfortably tight. You can also make a soft string louder with a little piece of paper over that area of the pickup (and I mean Little) and under the saddle - a shim - but that will not fix a major problem with the sound.
2. Even if it is well seated, you have a piezo crystal with a signature sound and it has inherent limitations as a pickup. It simply can't deliver the *gorgeous* sound you have probably gotten used to with the D-35. In fact, I hate you... I want that guitar... No, just kidding. Your guitar produces an unusually complex sound; D-35s are like that. Like 1960s Alfas. Go like hell; bitch to keep running.
Maybe two solutions.
1. Shop around for a DI box ("Direct Inject" , "Damn Interesting", or Do you take vIsa" - something like that) to plug into between you and the amplifier or recorder. Lots on the market, for any budget. You will get what you pay for here. A really nice tone comes from an expensive box called the Demeter. And Behringer has one for a little less than a hundred bucks. A tried and true medium is a Fishman blender, but prepare to pay something for these.
They are set to EQ and otherwise fool with a piezo signal; they anticipate a raw sounding high impedance quacky thing and temper it to sound much more acoustic. Gets rid of the quack that you're hearing. They work.
2. Consider augmenting or replacing the system you have with a dual source system. Augment first; the thinline (or goldline) is a very respectable unit already. But a dual source system creates two signals of different characteristics that can be blended in a mix. One signal will be from an internal condenser mic. Placement within the guitar body will affect the sound of that signal tremendously. That means you can tailor the signal in many subtle ways (you will also get good at changing strings). Many of these on the market and a variety of installation theories available, including clamps to internal braces that are completely non-invasive. They usually (but not always) involve an internal preamp and pump out a stereo signal through an endpin jack.
Fishman is everywhere with these, but there are others, and good ones. Martin has a setup; L.R. Baggs; B-Band, etc. Some of these use outboard preamps that allow you to tailor the signal more, have notch filters to combat feedback, etc. Hard to try these out without buying, but perhaps you can hear them in other guitars of similar style to get a feel of the sound.
Retrofitting guitars can be pretty expensive. You can lose easily five hundred bucks in an afternoon, which is why I usually suggest to people that they consider trading their instrument for one that is already set up. But in your case, D-35s don't grow in trees (well, I suppose they did once), and you may find it worth the expense and hassle to do it right.
And, one more thing not to forget. You're in the same price range here as a couple of Octava condenser mics - a stereo pair, in fact (Only From The Sound Room, of course!!). Or Sure, or Sennheiser, etc. Do some searches in the microphone section; lots and lots of info there.
Depending on your intended use, you might actually get more bang for the buck buying a matched pair of recording condenser mics, learn how to use them (means sitting still when you play, among other things) and then having ultimately a far better setup in the long run. And with the D-35, that may be the only true path to an authentic sound. Just a thought...
[This message has been edited by Treeline (edited 06-05-2000).]
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