Gear Questions:
“Wow,
I’m kind of surprised that it was a pickup without an internal mic! You had a very warm and rich sound up there.
How much of the tone would you attribute to the LR Baggs DI? I’ve got a Tech 21 Acoustic DI, but it looks like the LR Baggs has more sound shaping capabilities.
So, since it’s just a beat up old Yamaha, how much of the guitar’s actual acoustic tone would you say comes through in a pick-up or dual source performance?
You wrote that saddle pickups in general sound hard and loud; would you classify the LB6 as a saddle pickup? Does its design absolve it from some of the pitfalls of its counterparts?
One last question: have you messed around with the Fishman Aura internal system? I have yet to hear it live, but I hear good things (and bad, of course) in reviews, as well as an embedded web video or 2.
Brother, I appreciate your thoroughness and attention to detail. Thanks for coming to our church to play, and for taking the time to respond beyond the call of duty!
God bless you and the gift He’s given you,”
Thanks so much for the question!
I have never played with the Sansamp, but it looks like a neat piece of gear. On the other hand, I’m not too fond of modeling stuff, or tube stuff if it’s not a very high end unit. I think my sound is very shaped by the para DI, but that only goes so far. You have to have a good input for the end result to be good.
The LB6 has less of the pitfalls of under saddle pickups, but it’s not totally dissimilar. By itself without a preamp it sounds incredibly thin and soft. Somehow the para DI preamp really brings out the full frequency range and you can find the warm spot and boost it, or cut the quacky areas. It does not look like you can do that with the Sansamp.
I think the warmth your heard from the Yamaha was mainly from the sound hole pickup. That little guitar actually sounds great! But what you heard was mostly the pickup, but the Fishman Rare Earth requires a lot of EQ to get rid of annoying midrange in the high end. That’s just the nature of sound hole pickups. On the other hand, I tried the M1, and it senses the top of the guitar. It worked very well. Sound hole pickups are just wonderful on the low end. I think a really cool set up would be the LB 6, or something like the Baggs ribbon transducers at the saddle, and a magnetic pickup in the sound hole with separate outputs to a blender such as the Rane AP13 (that’s an old piece of gear these days….). That way you could use the best frequencies from each source. Now we’re getting really geeky!
On stage these days I try, as I mentioned before, to put up a mic, and plug in. Then I use a little mixer on stage to mix the signals. I often roll off the low end on the mic, and roll off the high end from the pickup. It’s a great way to go if you don’t mind standing in one spot.
Really, the only way to figure this out is to try several things, which I know may not be feasible, but if you already have a pickup in your guitar, I would suggest just adding a sound hole pickup like the Baggs M1 or the Fishman Rare Earth Blend (I hope to try the Seymour Duncan SA6 sometime.). Then grab a blender of some sort. Baggs and others make them. I’d rather find one with eq, but they are hard to find. Another really cool setup would be the M1 with an ibeam with an imix system. That may be the best of both worlds….
Have fun with the never ending quest!
Peace to you,
nathan
Tagged as:
gear,
pickups,
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the gear info. I just picked up a Yamaha acoustic myself. The model name is a mouthful.. FGX730SCA, but man, I think it sounds great for the price. My main electric is also a Yamaha now, an AES420, also dirt cheap and plays great!
cya and let me know when you’re driving through KC again!
Cool! In general, I really like Yamaha guitars.
I’m headed to KS in mid to late May! I’m not sure of the venue yet, but I think I will be playing out that way… I’ll try to let you know.