Piezo unpleasantness - is there any excuse for it these days?

RickLucas

The best sound I have had is from a Fishman Rare Earth blend system. It has a soundhole pickup and an internal condenser mic. They can be blended or better still, sent to separate channels via a stereo lead. I use only the mic, and whilst it is a quieter signal than the pickup or a transducer, it produces the best, most natural acoustic sound. 

MichaelWatts

There is no excuse whatsoever. 

david57strat

TimmyO said:

Radio 6 is on. Billy Bragg is banging away on some live set thing - complete with pretty brash guitar sound. 

Why is this still a thing? 

Who knows?  There are some nice pickups that don't have that awful nasally, quacky, brash tone.

For about the past ten years or so, I've been using an L.R. Baggs iBeam active pickup on my Alvarez dreadnaught, and it's the closest thing I've ever had to a miked sound, without a microphone. 

It's not at all designed for super high output before feedback, though.  I had to do all kinds of tricks to make it work for me, in a live situation, with other instruments.  (soundhole cover, EQ notching and anti-feedback units, etc.). But, I think it sounds beautiful.

For recording (or playing live) direct, without the benefit (or the setup inconvenience/nightmares) of having to be stationary, like a statue, in front of a microphone, it really does the job.

For me, it's come to be the perfect tool, for tracking into a DAW, while retaining a believable acoustic tone.

BabyFrankReborn

Blows my mind that despite Ed Sheeran's huge popularity (and the rewards that has brought), he still can't seem to get a decent live acoustic sound.  Horrible horrible piezo scratchiness...!

telehack

I've not battle tested this yet, but this video sold me on the Mooer Radar (skip about 2.5 mins. in):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXMz06S5OS0

I did this with mine (downloaded acoustic guitar IRs), in conjunction with a JJB acoustic pickup (like the KK Pure Mini).

shufflebeat

No love for the Tonedexter round these parts?

I did the sound for Billy Bragg at a benefit gig a few years ago. I can't remember much of the detail but if there had been anything in his sound that stood out as being hard to deal with that's the kind of thing that tends to stick in the mind.

Nice guy, very pro.

Lewy

shufflebeat said:

No love for the Tonedexter round these parts?

I like the idea but I haven’t liked any of the clips/demos I’ve heard...there’s this weird honky quality to the sound. I had one of those cheap iRig Acoustic clip on mics (for a few days) and that had the same thing going on. 

LR Baggs have just come out with something in a similar vein too... https://www.lrbaggs.com/soundscape-acoustic-guitar-impulse-response-pedal.

shufflebeat

That does look like an interesting project. At first glance looks like it does it's "compare the pickup to the mic" processing in real time, which would be an interesting difference between that and the TD.

If you get the chance to hear the TD in the wild I would recommend it.