Which non-intrusive pickup?

Bidley

So I'm having an acoustic built for me, and I'll need a pickup for it. The pinch is, I want something completely removable. So something I can take off and still have a hole-less acoustic left.

Would one of those undersaddle Fishman transducers do? What's the accepted wisdom on endpin jacks? I've heard all sorts of horror stories about those going wrong, and being a PITA to fix.

I'll be using a separate pre-amp so something simple and passive is the order of the day.

ICBM

A Fishman passive undersaddle transducer and an endpin jack is as reliable as it gets without drilling holes elsewhere. The jack that comes with these is the best of an admittedly not ideal design.

You can make the jack much more reliable by making sure you connect all the unused terminals - the ring contact, or with recent ones both the ring and the extra battery contact - to ground. That essentially eliminates failure in the ground connection, so halving the chance of any failure.

A simple Switchcraft open-frame jack is much more reliable, but that means drilling a hole in the side and I wouldn't do that on a nice acoustic.

crunchman

Other option is K&K Pure Mini.  It's passive so you don't need to go fitting batteries, pre-amps etc.  It's got enough oomph to go straight to PA.  To me it sounds a bit more natural than an undersaddle transducer.  It could possibly be a bit more feedback prone than a UST but I've not personally had any problems with that.

You'd still need an end pin jack, but as ICBM said that is less bad than drilling a hole in the side of the guitar.

Bidley

Thanks gents.

@crunchman have you gigged with the K&K? These seem to get a good write-up and are slightly less intrusive than a UST, but feedback seems to be an issue.

crunchman

I've used it in church on several occasions.  By church standards we are loud - to the point where we've had noise complaints from neighbours in the past.  Unlike a lot of churches we have unscreened acoustic drums and I'm normally the nearest one to the drummer so I need a decent level of guitar in my monitor just to be able to hear what I'm playing.  I've not had any problems with feedback.  That is with an OM sized guitar.  It may be more of an issue on a dreadnought or jumbo sized guitar but I've got other pickups in my 2 dreadnoughts so I can't really give an informed opinion on that.

Bidley

Thanks dude. My guitar is definitely smaller than a big old dread or jumbo, so that might be the way to go.

english_bob

If you're resigned to having an endpin jack (which is about as minimally invasive as you'll get) you could also consider soundhole pickups.

The cheaper magnetic-only ones probably aren't worth your time if you're looking at spending a fair bit of cash, but I really like my LR Baggs M1a (sounds enough like an acoustic guitar for rock and roll, no feedback issues), and I imagine the high end Baggs and Fishman hybrid mic/magnetic units are well worth a look. They attach with screw clamps that shouldn't damage your guitar finish (although the usual disclaimers apply if it's a nitro finish) and are completely removable, leaving just the endpin jack hole which you'd need for any other pickup system anyway.

ICBM

english_bob said:

If you're resigned to having an endpin jack (which is about as minimally invasive as you'll get) you could also consider soundhole pickups.

The cheaper magnetic-only ones probably aren't worth your time if you're looking at spending a fair bit of cash, but I really like my LR Baggs M1a (sounds enough like an acoustic guitar for rock and roll, no feedback issues), and I imagine the high end Baggs and Fishman hybrid mic/magnetic units are well worth a look. They attach with screw clamps that shouldn't damage your guitar finish (although the usual disclaimers apply if it's a nitro finish) and are completely removable, leaving just the endpin jack hole which you'd need for any other pickup system anyway.

If you're going to use a soundhole pickup you don't even need the endpin jack - almost all of them come with a trailing cable, which on the better ones is detachable at the pickup even if you don't want to take the pickup out.

OK, it's a little bit of a faff to connect - you have to fiddle around through the soundhole with the strings in place - but not too bad.

stickyfiddle

+1 on the Baggs M1A. Great little pickup and can be used without even adding a jack if you really want to.

english_bob

ICBM said:

If you're going to use a soundhole pickup you don't even need the endpin jack - almost all of them come with a trailing cable, which on the better ones is detachable at the pickup even if you don't want to take the pickup out.

OK, it's a little bit of a faff to connect - you have to fiddle around through the soundhole with the strings in place - but not too bad.

Yep, you could do that if you wanted to. It looks a mess IMO, and I'd worry about damaging the guitar or the pickup, but it can be done.

IMO, you pretty much need an endpin jack for any acoustic pickup that's up to the job of a live gig, so by all means get someone competent to do it for you, but get one fitted. 

erky32

The Seymour Duncan WOODY series are great, they can be pushed into soundhole on their felt pads with a trailing lead uninvasively, ....I have connected mine with an endpin so it is neater. I have tried LR Baggs M1 and all 3 WOODY pups, single coil, Hmbucker and the XL humbucker with adjustable polepieces which I have stuck with. The Baggs was really good, really clean acoustic but I prefered the SDs for my style ...they give good response, NO feedback, and poles can be altered to match string selection. I'm into JBTrio style acoustic also and the HBs will take some drive and effects nicely. My friend has their top of the range "mag-mic" I think its called (as used by John Butler I believe) and that really is the best for my needs with total versatity in my opinion, but I think the latter may be an installation, but I would definitely choose that next time.

thomasross20

Bump - need to read this thread later

mgaw

I use K@K in my Tippin OM which does the job no problem even better with an external pre amp Headway make a good one as for the end pin jack there is one on the market designed to fit the whole the strap nut makes, theeby eradicating the need for a large whole. 

http://www.tapastring.com/vintagejack.htm  hope that helps

MattFGBI

K&K pure mini. Just sticks under the top. And sounds great.