Another pickup help thread

FelineGuitars

we keep the JJB transducer system which seems all but identical to the K&K but a fair bit more affordable which is good for players who are on a tighter budget. exactly the same to install.

BillDL

You always have the option of a magnetic soundhole pickup and you can channel the cable through an endpin jack with no need for a preamp, but you would be best using a graphic equaliser or you could use a "pedal" designed to tailor the sound to make it more acoustic sounding.  There are a variety of styles and prices, but Seymour Duncan "Woody" active and passive magnetic soundhole pickups are pretty good:

https://www.seymourduncan.com/product-category/products/pickups/acoustic/steel-strings

Thread about soundhole pickups here:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/3656689/

For what it's worth, I still love the sound of my very old Schaller Western III magnetic soundhole pickup, but the spring on it is very strong and you end up with scraping and chipping around the edges of the soundhole.  The same will happen after repeated use of most soundhole pickups though, so it's best to just leave them fitted. It's not a "woody" naturally acoustic sound, but when mixed with a microphone or with an under-saddle strip it's a great sound.

LR Baggs have a range of products including bridge plate stick-on transducers (Hi Fi), magnetic soundhole pickups, and internally mounted microphone systems like The Lyric, but they are at the upper end of the price scale:

https://www.lrbaggs.com/acoustic-guitar-pickup-systems

You have contact transducer options like the Kremona steel string transducer that relies on string pressure between the saddle and the bridge pins to keep it wedged in place:

https://www.londonguitarstudio.com/p/kna-wood-piezo-pickup-for-steel-strung-guitar-sg-1

https://www.knapickups.com/en/guitar/uke/sg-1-kna

Kremona also make some nice looking wooden housed magnetic soundhole pickups:

https://www.knapickups.com/en/steel-string-guitar-pickups/magnetic-pickups

Stick-on "bugs" like the Schaller Oyster, the Kremona and numerous cheaper and more expensive versions of the same piezo-ceramic contact transducer concept.  I wouldn't stick anything to the soundboard of your guitar or it would probably pull off some of the crackled / crazed lacquer when you removed it, but it is possible to stick them to the inside of the soundboard, in which case you are just doing what K&K are doing with only one or two transducers.

Discussions about improvised piezo-ceramic disc transducers here:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/222777/experiments-with-piezo-discs/p1

Good observation about the justification of the K&K price against what it actually is:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/3191463/#Comment_3191463

The way your saddle was originally designed to fit in an open ended saddle slot precludes the installation of an under-saddle piezo strip, even one of the very thin ones, so your only viable options are contact (internal or external), magnetic soundhole, or internal microphone (or sensor as mentioned by ICBM).  It's just a case of budget and ease of application.  Loads of people swear by the K&K systems.

TDubs

Thanks for the input and suggestion guys. Cost isn't a huge factor in my choice of pickup. it’s more important I find something that sounds good, without fundamentally affecting the unamplifed acoustic tone  of the guitar. Would also prefer something that is discrete, so not a fan of the sound hole pickups.

ICBM

For what it's worth, a friend of mine has a '53 (I think) LG-2, and it's a wonderful little guitar. When she got it, it had been stored in a loft for decades, and the bridge was lifting and a couple of braces were coming off - I think BillDL is right about that one. It's fixed now, and sounds great... but the absolute last thing I think it needs is any kind of pickup system. This kind of guitar has a very distinctive natural acoustic tone, and simply picking up the strings with an undersaddle strip won't sound right at all - some kind of body transducer will give you a better representation of it (although still not close to mic'ing it).

After checking for loose braces I would prioritise getting the bridge properly repaired - cut the infill pieces out, if necessary deepen the slot slightly, and fit a new saddle. Get rid of all the internal wiring - that will get it back to as close to original as possible. Unfortunately if the battery clip has been screwed to the endblock there will be a couple of small holes there. You could even choose to fill the endpin hole, although it will always show. If you don't want to do that, any simple internal body transducer with the wire going straight to the endpin jack and not touching the guitar anywhere - avoid those nasty plastic clips, they often come off when the glue dries out - is the least invasive.

BillDL

You mentioned in an earlier comment with regard to mods / restoring of the guitar:

"Given the age, relative fragility of the guitar I don't think i'll be trying any mods myself. One for Feline".

Assuming you will opt to ask @FelineGuitars to check out the guitar, fix any issues, and install a pickup system for you, I would take Jon's advice about the JJB piezo contact transducers vs K&K if you decide on the bridge plate mounted "discs".  While the LR Baggs "Lyric" internally mounted microphone is well regarded by some people that do know what they are talking about, it would appear that the signal strength is a bit lower than contact transducers including the LR Baggs "Hi Fi" stick-on bugs that seem to give a much more natural acoustic sound than most other stick-on bugs, and that in some instances it can take more EQ tweaking with the Lyric system to filter out feedback frequencies.

Aaaron Short has reviewed a lot of acoustic guitar pickup systems and these are well worth a look on his YouTube channel.  In one he directly compares the LR Baggs HiFi with the KKK Mini.

@ICBM spoke earlier about the LR Baggs i-Beam Passive system.  Although retailers seem to still be selling the Passive version, ther LR Baggs website only shows the Active version.  It's possible that the passive version may now be discontinued.

TDubs

Thanks @BillDL Will take a look through the links and videos and make a call on
the pickup before it’s goes off to Feline.

MikeP

Money no object would be the trance audio amulet. 

Christeafur

I went to the nth degree to get a good sound. I found the following combination to be excellent although very cumbersome.

fishman matrix installed - already there
foshman rare earth Humbucker sound hole pickup wire out of sound hole
prodipe lanel mic attached to the sound hole. 

Matrix went into a boss oc3 tuned to octave just the a and e strings
then all into a mixer. I could then blend according to the situation.

Outboard reverb etc

sounded incredible but a real mess and pain not exactly easy to setup or particularly portable.

possibly a bit of a pointless post