Cheap Acoustic Guitar Pickup System

Bassman Brad

Bassman Brad

New member
Hey, gang! :)

O.K. Here’s the situation. My blues/rock band (minus the drummer) did a couple of “unplugged” gigs at a local bar/restaurant recently. This was mostly “just for fun” gigs, and were very informal. The two guitarists had done some acoustic duo gigs before, so I just brought a bass along and joined in the fun. Pretty much no rehearsal, whatsoever. However . . .

Much to our surprise, these gigs went over fabulously well. The audience had a great time. WE had a great time. And the club owner now wants to start booking us monthly as an acoustic trio.

Last night, we had a pretty long rehearsal with just the three of us. Very productive. We added about 10-12 good songs that could be added to the show pretty quickly. I brought along my cheap acoustic that I’ve had for ages, just to show them some of the songs that I like to play on acoustic. (I’m not really “a guitar player” by any means, but I do have an acoustic and an electric that I bang around on a bit.) However, we started discussing what we would like to do with the arrangements of some of these songs, and it was decided that we’d like for me to switch over to acoustic on some of the songs, so we could do some arrangements with either three acoustics, or two acoustic guitars and a mandolin or slide guitar (dobro). I'll admit that this would add some nice variety. Well, O.K., then. I’m game.

However, I currently have no way to amplify the acoustic, and we have been doing these gigs with a small amount of PA support. (Basically, we are using our monitor system for the whole house. This is mostly for vocals, but we’ve been putting the guitars in there a little bit, too.) So, I need to get a pickup to stick in my acoustic to be able to jack it into the PA. Obviously, I don’t want to spend a whole lot of money to amplify a guitar that only cost a couple of hundred bucks. I just need to have a way to amplify my cheap acoustic guitar when I switch to acoustic for a few songs. I’m assuming the way to go would be one of those removable, magnetic acoustic guitar pickups. Although I suppose I wouldn’t entirely rule out putting a piezo under the bridge, if it didn’t cost too awful much. I will be talking to a luthier pretty soon, anyway, since I need him to do some work on my electric. He might be willing to drop in a piezo bridge for not much money.

Suggestions?

Thanks,
 
I've got one of these Fishmans. It's worked very well live; a friend borrowed it one time for a gig and I got to hear it. You can also listen to "nice b n young" at the link in my sig; it's my acoustic guitar using that pup recorded direct. And you can move it to another guitar.
 
If you are going to spend a couple of hundred bucks...you might want to just look into buying a new acoustic/electric....especially if your current acoustic is cheap like you said...might not make sense to put any money in it.

Check out some of the Ibanez's...they have some very playable acoustic/electrics for around $300. I'm sure there are other guitars in that price range as well for brand new. You could find something on ebay too and might be able to pick up something better for the same price.

I wouldn't bother with one of those sound hole pickups...I'll sell you mine cheap if you want...very low output and sounds more electric than acoustic...and they're a pain in the ass with installing and removing it...and the cord is always in the way...and sometimes they don't stay on too good.
 
Both very good suggestions. Thanks guys. :) I've heard about the Fishman pups. They seem to consistently get pretty high recommendations. $160 for one of those. And I'm assuming you'd have to install a jack in the bottom strap button. I'd probably have the luthier do that. So, right at about $200. That's doable. I certainly wouldn't want to spend any more than that. But it does, indeed, look like I could get another acoustic (with the electronics already installed) for around that much, or just a little bit more, so perhaps I should look into that, as another option.

I suspect that I would prefer the sound of a nice soundhole pickup better than the sound of piezos. I've never been all that crazy about the sound of piezos. I'll still go check out some of those guitars in the music stores and see what I think. Of course, the soundhole pups don't sound exactly like a "real acoustic," either. And it would be prohibitively expensive to find an acoustic that truly sounds realistic. So, I'll be stuck with one of these two options, and will just have to make do with that.

Any other suggestions? Maybe some other cheap acoustic/electrics that I need to check out?
 
The Fishman Rare Earth pickups are fine (though they are not as nice as a Sunrise), but I can install a Fishman Matrix undersaddle for less than I can install a Rare Earth. Sure, the Rare Earth is a lot less expensive to install, but it is also more expensive as a pickup. Most people prefer the sound of an undersaddle to that of a magnetic pickup, though certainly not everyone.

If you want cheep, the Dean Markley and such are cheep, but they also sound like shit.

For what it is worth, I sell a lot of Matrix's, and about 95% of the time, people are very happy with them. I am never as happy as a sound guy as when someone comes in with a good basic undersaddle (be it a Fishman, a Highlander, a Baggs, a D-TAR, or whatever). They are predictable, and they sound fine. They don't sound as good as a mic with good mic technique in a controlled environment, but if you are on a stage with a loud drummer, your mic technique doesn't really matter. No one is going to hear your guitar.

A Matrix, installed, including both labor and the pickup, at MY shop runs almost exactly $225. Other shops may be a little more or a little less, but that is probably about average. If you like your guitar, it is a good option.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
If you don't mind a little drilling and cutting, Belcat makes a pretty good active/under saddle pickup (about $60 US) which sounds as good as the same style pickup by Seymore Duncan (about $90-$110 US). For $200-$250 there are some good acoustic/electric guitars (Washburn, Oscar Shmidt, Sigma, J. B. Player and others) which you might want to consider. Used guitars in the same price range might even get you something really nice, shop around before you start drilling.
 
Many thanks!

Thank you very much for all the comments and suggestions, guys. Thanks, Light, for pointing out the superiority of a piezo system, when it comes to amplifying them with a minimal of feedback problems through a loud sound system. Right now, we’re not playing our acoustic stuff through a large PA, but who knows what the future might bring? We’ll probably also work up a short acoustic set to incorporate into the full electric band, which certainly WOULD involve the use of a full-sized PA system. For that matter, the acoustic material seems to be going over much better than the electric blues/rock stuff. So, that could very well turn out to by our “main gig,” with the electric stuff as a sideline. Which means that we could end up playing much bigger venues with the acoustic material that we have, so far. Besides, given the fact that I probably can, indeed, get a used electric/acoustic for about what it would cost to properly electrify my cheapie acoustic (not to mention the fact that I’d probably also end up spending more than the guitar, itself, cost), that might be the way to go. So, I’ll probably be shopping for an electric/acoustic.

Once again, thanks to everybody for giving me some ideas to chew on.
 
F Y I

Just to follow-up on this post, I did end up picking up a cheap acoustic-electric with a piezo system (an Ibanez). And I was, indeed, able to get one for about what it would have cost to electrify my other acoustic guitar. (Paid $200 for it.)

The piezo does sound pretty much like every other piezo that I've heard before. That is to say, it's neither the prettiest nor the most realistic acoustic guitar sound I've ever heard. But, it'll do just fine for my purposes, which is merely to have a way for me to amplify my guitar while I strum some chords on a few songs behind the other two guitar players.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. :)
 
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