Acoustic guitar pickup woes and advice ...

thomasross20

I bet it'll play like a dream soon enough once ICBM is done with it

revdick

I have an Armstrong 12-string, played mostly in church, and have the LR Baggs I-Mix pickup system which I installed myself. It has a bridge transducer and an underbridge element.  It works extraordinarily well and sounds great; and I've tried a few, including Fishman. I think maybe the Anthem was either badly fitted or the wrong choice.

thomasross20

Thanks to @ICBM for sorting my acoustic out. 
Regarding the action, a little more groove needed to be made on the nut for the B & high E strings only. 
Mainly, though... there was a 0.5mm shim under the saddle which he simply removed and has helped the action a fair bit!! 
How about that!

Lewy

thomasross20 said:

Mainly, though... there was a 0.5mm shim under the saddle which he simply removed and has helped the action a fair bit!! 
How about that!

It wasn't a sort of pinky orange colour by any chance was it? I found one under the saddle of a
D09 I used to have....

thomasross20

I think t's more brown. Seems a popular thing to do!

ICBM

This one was rosewood.

Pinky-orange is 'Paxolin' usually - a hard resinous composite material.

thomasross20

Amazing the difference it makes!

revdick

and that shim probably affected the sound from the pickup quite badly.

ICBM

revdick said:

and that shim probably affected the sound from the pickup quite badly.

Unlikely, since firstly it was rosewood and secondly it's not an undersaddle pickup.

I didn't notice any change in sound when I took it out. That isn't always true, sometimes cardboard or thin plastic shims seem to, but in general a well-made hard shim doesn't make any difference.

camf

Despite having played for nearly forty years, I'm incredibly uninformed regarding acoustic set ups.

My guitar is nearly thirty years old and pre-velco so has a tricky battery holder clip thing to navigate that I know I'd struggle with in any live situation. I have a dread of a battery dying on me at the worst possible time so I'm thinking of installing a passive pickup (probably the K&K mini unless anyone has a better suggestion). Is the K&K preamp the best long-term solution for connecting to a desk or would I need that (or an alternative) and a DI?

Using the guitar's current onboard pre-amp, I'm using a Behringer ADI-21 which seems a neat little thing although I'm not sure how robust it will be. Is there a good single unit preamp/DI that would work well with the K&K mini?

Thanks.

cam f

Lewy

camf said:

Is there a good single unit preamp/DI that would work well with the K&K mini?

Either the K&K Pure XLR preamp/DI or an Orchid DI would work. K&K Pure Minis like to see a 1 Meg Ohm or lower input otherwise you can get excessive bass muddying up the sound.

camf

Yes, the Muting Orchid seems like a neat solution. I found this thread on another site that suggested the Orchid might even do away with the need for a preamp with the K&K Pure Mini. http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.yuku.com/topic/70201#.V7x7ko7RM_U

thomasross20

I've got the cheap non-muting orchid. Workrs a treat and cheap as chips. Fancied the muting one but it is too big to fit into the guitar case.

camf

Hi @thomasross20 ; And you're just using that without a preamp, yes?

thomasross20

Yeah I just go straight into PA - do all the EQ on the mixer. For all the time I'll be playing acoustic I don't need some million dollar setup. Anyway, the orchid stuff is really high quality.

camf

Cool. That sounds like it should work for me too. I might spring for the version with the mute though.

thomasross20

Yeah that's probably the better option - let us know how it works out!

crunchman

I've used a K&K straight into the PA with an active DI box - normally an Orchid but I've probably used one or two others as well.

Bidley

I've got a K&K Mini in my acoustic, run through a Tonebone PZ-PRE, and the preamp isn't needed at all!