Yet another pickup thread...
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 9:00 am
Hello all...
I'm doing a large number of gigs at the moment, with my Headway Piezo-equipped Fylde Alchemist. This I run into a GG10 (very old-school...), and the sound is pretty good. A little, dare I say, 'dry' occasionally, but it does pick up dynamic changes well...
I've noticed most people we play with/alongside have Fishman humbuckers - usually into the ubiquitous Martin 00-15. Similarly, the Simpsons, Thompsons, Giltraps of this world seem to favour soundhole blend pickups rather than the piezo system.
Question is, with the current combination of things I have at the moment, would there be any benefit at all to swapping from saddle mounted piezo to fishman blend, if I'm already starting from a good guitar and going into a decent preamp? I know it's horses for courses, but wondered what the reasons for using one system over another are, if (to my ears) it all sounds reasonably good. £200 is a lot of beans to find out whether the mic/hb blend is better for my particular use...
Side thought - does anyone have any opinion on fitting a piezo to an old archtop? I have a late 1930's Gibson L30, which sounds great acoustically, and I've no intention of cutting and holes in it - but asking a sound engineer to (shock horror) place an sm57 in front of an acoustic guitar on stage, and they generally run a mile...!!
Thanks!
Ben
I'm doing a large number of gigs at the moment, with my Headway Piezo-equipped Fylde Alchemist. This I run into a GG10 (very old-school...), and the sound is pretty good. A little, dare I say, 'dry' occasionally, but it does pick up dynamic changes well...
I've noticed most people we play with/alongside have Fishman humbuckers - usually into the ubiquitous Martin 00-15. Similarly, the Simpsons, Thompsons, Giltraps of this world seem to favour soundhole blend pickups rather than the piezo system.
Question is, with the current combination of things I have at the moment, would there be any benefit at all to swapping from saddle mounted piezo to fishman blend, if I'm already starting from a good guitar and going into a decent preamp? I know it's horses for courses, but wondered what the reasons for using one system over another are, if (to my ears) it all sounds reasonably good. £200 is a lot of beans to find out whether the mic/hb blend is better for my particular use...
Side thought - does anyone have any opinion on fitting a piezo to an old archtop? I have a late 1930's Gibson L30, which sounds great acoustically, and I've no intention of cutting and holes in it - but asking a sound engineer to (shock horror) place an sm57 in front of an acoustic guitar on stage, and they generally run a mile...!!
Thanks!
Ben