Under saddle acoustic pickup

[RobA]

I'm looking for recommendations for under saddle acoustic pickups. All of the nice looking pickups I've seen come with preamps and I don't want/can't use a standard acoustic preamp setup on this guitar. The guitar originally had an under saddle pickup in it that really sucked, so I replaced it with one of the Schatten soundboard transducers. I'm actually really happy with the sound of the transducer as it is now, but I'd like to experiment with adding in an under saddle that didn't suck and making a preamp to mix the two.

I see tons of them on Amazon and Ebay, but I have no idea if any of them are any good or not, so I'm hoping someone here has had some direct experience, good or bad, with some of them.

Thanks,
Rob 

[pryde]

The K&K pickups are highly regarded overall. I have installed a couple under saddle (with k&k preamps) in customer guitars and thought they sounded very nice. Customers report they continue to impress.

http://kksound.com/products/fantastick.php

[HailToTheBlues]

My electro-acoustic from lag guitars, has a Nanoflex Piezo Pickup under the saddle and many people like the sound of those pickups, for me, i just think that the pre-amp that came, the studio lag plus made by Shadow, is a little limited, since it doens't have EQ, just 5 presets on a rotary switch 

[lars]

B.Band electret film UST's sound incredible when they are working correctly. The system functions on the same principles as electret microphones, so they tend to have a much more natural sound compared to any piezo-based system; no "quacking". Unfortunately the film can loose it's charge over time, and you end up with a dead UST. B.Band's customer support is outstanding though, and they sent me a brand-new UST free of charge. You do have to use their preamp with the UST, so it might not be the best option for your guitar, but it's worth looking into. They do have some pretty non-invasive preamp options that don't require you to hack a huge hole in the side (I hate that look).

[RobA]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check into all of them.

I've been wanting to play with the Shadow NanoMag for a while now, but getting hold of just the pickup has been impossible whenever I get motivated to look at doing it again.

The B.Band looks really interesting and Amazon has the bare pickups. If I can find the specs on powering the thing, I might be able to rig up a preamp to do just what I want with it.

[thesameage]

Dave Wendler has an interesting approach to the whole idea. He's got a system that blends a piezo and magnetic signal: http://www.electrocoustic.com/

[RobA]

Dave Wendler has an interesting approach to the whole idea. He's got a system that blends a piezo and magnetic signal: http://www.electrocoustic.com/

Thanks for the link. Those are some pretty nice looking guitars.

The guitar I'm doing this on is a Godin A6 Ultra. It came with a mag pickup and a piezo UST. I didn't like the sound of the UST very much, so I changed it out for the Schatten transducer which is dead cheap and very nice really. I changed out the pickup to one of the Benedetto A6's. I changed out the preamp to one I etched that just buffers the pickups and then amplifies the piezo to match the mag's level. After that, it just runs them out as independent signals on a stereo cable, which I split and run to two different amps.

I'm pretty satisfied with this setup and I do really like the sound of the mag with the piezo transducer, but I wanted to explore using a high quality UST that I can mix with the piezo or use in place of the piezo when I'm in a situation that gets too much feedback. After some more reading and pricing things out, the B.Band UST is looking pretty attractive right now.

[jkokura]

I have a Fishman Matrix 2 in one of my guitars and like it quite well. The K&K is probably what I'd go for if I were to get a new one.

Jacob

[bela1961]

Check out "Fishman" pickups. They've just come out with some new tech, instead of using wire to make pick up coils, they've found away to compile circuit boards (I'm sure this is not an accurate description) together and come out with the equivalent perfect amount of wire wraps. In this way they can dial in just about any sound someone might desire. Forgive my lame description of the how's, although I'm gaining knowledge in this area I've got a long way to go. To find out more go to Fishmans web site. Also "Premier Guitar had an article/interview which was pretty cool a few months back and if you go their web site you can read, download, any back issue you want.

[RobA]

I have a Fishman Matrix 2 in one of my guitars and like it quite well. The K&K is probably what I'd go for if I were to get a new one.

Jacob

All the K&K stuff gets great reviews. I was really tempted by their soundboard transducers when I added that part on. Eventually I'll have to try their stuff but they are a bit pricey for the experimental stage I'm at. They do look good though.

Check out "Fishman" pickups. They've just come out with some new tech, instead of using wire to make pick up coils, they've found away to compile circuit boards (I'm sure this is not an accurate description) together and come out with the equivalent perfect amount of wire wraps. In this way they can dial in just about any sound someone might desire. Forgive my lame description of the how's, although I'm gaining knowledge in this area I've got a long way to go. To find out more go to Fishmans web site. Also "Premier Guitar had an article/interview which was pretty cool a few months back and if you go their web site you can read, download, any back issue you want.

I thought the Fishman stacked PCB PU's were just for magnetic pickups. There's a thread on here somewhere from the point when they were introduced. They look really interesting and I like the concepts behind what they are doing, but I don't think they'll work for this particular thing I'm trying to do.