acoustic pickup help please

[NationalSandwic]

hi

i'd like suggestions for the best pickup i can install into my classical guitar. (that's also just called a nylon string guitar by some people).
pretend, for now, that money's no object

thanks!

 

[Dani Pace]

First off, there are two basic types of pickups that will work for nylon string guitars, one is a contact mike that is glued inside the body, and the other is a bridge mount. The contact models are easier to install but the placement can be a little tricky, even a half an inch will alter the sound. The bridge mount model requires drilling a hole through the bridge and mounting the pickup under the saddle, you will also have to trim the saddle to compensate for the thickness of the pickup. Either will require drilling holes or cutting out a section of the body for the plug and controls, this takes a bit of care and good tools. I prefer bridge mount (some people call these studio pickups) as far as sound quality is concerned and they wont pick up as much body noise as the contact models. Seymoer Duncan makes some really good ones and should cost around $90 US. Belcat makes fairly good ones for around half that much, I'm sure there are lots of other brands out there. If you don't trust yourself with the installation, by all means have it done by a trusted shop but the installation may cost you as much as the pickup itself. I hope this helps.

 

[Light]

All but a few pickups for acoustic guitars fall into one of two catagories, magnetic, and piezo. Magnetics need steel strings, so we can ignore them for your purposes.

The most popular piezo pickup is the Fishman Matrix Natural I. This is probably what I would recomend for you. It is an undersaddle pickup, which have the most consistant sound and the best resistance for feedback. The pickup consists of an undersaddle pickup element, a preamp, and a battery clip. The battery clip gets mounted to the neck block, the preamp is a part of the new end pin jack, and the pickup gets mounted underneath the saddle. The is one small hole in the bridge and top for the wire from the pickup to the preamp (about 3/32", so tiny), and the endpin jack hole. There is no perceptable change in the sound of the guitar. Total cost, including professional instalation and the pickup, runs about $235 in my shop, which is probably a fairly acurate median price for the job.

Other options include similar systems by L.R. Baggs, Highlander, and D-Tar. I beleve B-Band is also making a similar system. The Fishman is by far the most popular of these systems, which all sound fairly similar, but the Fishman is much easier to install, and is therefore cheaper to install. Fishman is also the pickup of choice of most of the major manufacturers, including Martin, Gibson, and untill very recently, Taylor. Taylor still use Fishman pickups for their (really crappy) nylon strings, I believe.

Other possiblities inclued: the Baggs iBeam, which is a similar system, except the pickup is mounted in a "beam" under the bridge - This would not work, however, on most clasicals, as fan bracing does not provide a flat mounting location for the pickup; the Acoustic Feather (I can't remember who makes it right now), a pickup which does not impress me at all; or some varity of internal microphone. Internal mics, on the whole, do not sound all that good to me, and they are prone to feedback.

The other possibility is a clip on mic, which is what many classical guitarist seem to prefer, as it comes closest to the natural sound of the instrument, but I find them to be overly prone to feedback, and usually overly bassy. If you are only needing a small amount of amplification, though, they can be aceptable.


Light

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