# Adding a pickup after the fact - good/bad/ugly?



## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

I'm curious to hear stories from folks who have added a pickup to an acoustic guitar, specifically an under-saddle pickup.

I'm shopping for a guitar in the sub-$500 range, and it's beginning to dawn on me that my desire for onboard electronics is sucking up a massive chunk of that budget - maybe $150-200-ish?

It's been very hard to find anything appealing that comes from the factory with a pickup, in my budget.

I've played pretty much everything I can find that has a pickup, up to $499 range, and haven't found more than one or two guitars that I really liked.

In contrast, I am staggered by the quality and musicality of some very inexpensive non-pickup models that I've tried along the way.

e.g. I recently spent some quality time with a Yamaha FG700MS. This guitar has a solid sitka top, the rest is nato, I believe. It's incredibly responsive and dynamic, comfortable, nicely set up, good job on the frets, nice matte finish. Responds to the lightest touch of my pick or my fret hand, and gets frighteningly loud when I strum it hard, but no buzziness or tinny screech or anything. Full and round, nice balance of highs and lows. For a retail price of ~ $259, I am completely astonished by this guitar. But it doesn't have a pickup.

I know I can potentially get into a passive under-saddle pickup for something like $60+ (e.g. Martin Thinline 332) and then the rest is all about convenience, really - what would I use for a preamp?, do I want to put it on my pedal board or hang it from my guitar strap?, embed it in the side of the guitar? All those things cost money, but I could potentially chip away at that incrementally over time; that makes it easier.

Anybody had good or bad luck adding a pickup?
What did you install? 
Did you do the work yourself, or take it to a tech? 
Was it hard to do? 
Would you do it again?
How did it turn out? Sound ok?

Thanks


----------



## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

I played a few of the Chinese Martins and Guilds last time I was in North Bay. They were quite good - without pickups. I'd definitely consider adding electronics after the fact. Something like the L.R. Baggs magnetic soundhole pickup, mainly because I don't have cause to play acoustic "plugged in" all that often. Schatten design, a Canadian company, has a wide range of aftermarket acoustic pickups and preamps for any budget.

Buy LR Baggs M1 Soundhole Pickup | Acoustic Guitar Pickups & Preamps | Musician's Friend

Schatten Design - Pickups, Transducers, Tools, Technical materials for the string instrument repair trade


----------



## ronmac (Sep 22, 2006)

It's the only way to go, IMO. Electronics add a hefty price to the cost of an instrument and you may be stuck with something you don't like.

I add electronics to my acoustic and experiment often with newer styles and placements. My current favourite setup is a Fishman Rare Earth humbucker magnetic combined with a K&K PWM soundboard transducer. Each signal is sent to a separate preamp for buffering and EQ and then summed at the PA. This is a very versatile and great sounding combo.

For a simple plug and play system that will cost you about $100 I would recommend the K&K PWM. It is easy to install, and can always be removed and put in another instrument if you upgrade.


----------



## Mike MacLeod (Nov 27, 2006)

I don't believe it is a good idea to buy any guitar with a factory pick-up. They are often years behind the technology. Besides, at a $500 guitar, you are giving up a lot of your budget for the electronics. You can buy a better guitar and add the electronics later and be happier. 

A great sounding pick-up for "cheap" is the K&K Pure Western. Arguably better than any "installed" pick-up system on the market.


----------



## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

Add another person who is a fan of K&K. I have the PWM installed in three different guitars and use their stuff on my mando, banjo and bodhran. Easy to install and sound fantastic.


----------



## pughwilliam (Nov 21, 2009)

I added a Baggs I-beam active to my Seagull MJM6. Relatively easy to do and a bit fun too. I've been satisfied with it, but had to take some time to install it in different positions.

I also helped a guy install a K&K Pure Western in his guitar. The pickup sounds just like his guitar. The problem is that I think his guitar sounds like crap. Oh well. Only so much I can do for others. He's very satisfied and I like it better than just about any piezo model, unless there's a couple of hundred dollars of equipement behind it.


----------



## leblanc74 (Sep 14, 2008)

I have added a K&K pure mini western in my Martin OM28V and never looked back, now I have that same Martin sound, except it can be louder... I recommend the K&K pure mini western


----------



## dug dog (Feb 7, 2010)

Another vote for adding a pickup. I just put an LR Baggs Element into mine. Sounds great (in my opinion) and not too tricky to install.

For those who favour the K&K, I've heard some pretty good feedback about a similar, less expensive system from JJB Electronics- might be worth checking out.

Our Products


----------



## itf? (May 27, 2009)

*LR Baggs M1*

Adding a pickup is definitely the way to go. Personally, I find most of the pickups put in at the factory are sub-par anyway. I've recently converted all my acoustics over to using LR Baggs M1 Actives and I'll never look back.


----------



## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Thanks everyone - very helpful feedback.

I see a lot of chatter in the forums about the 1M output impedance on the K&K being troublesome, because it doesn't really match with the 10M or so that most acoustic preamps are expecting.

I've seen a few suggestions that standard electric gear might be used, or you could plug straight into an amp, but that doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me (my biggest humbucker puts out about 18K, and that's a freak of nature - most electric guitar pickups are under 10K).

For those of you using the bridge plate transducers like the K&K Pure Mini Western - what is your signal chain?
Did you install an end-pin preamp, or is the guitar completely passive?
Are you using some sort of preamp between the guitar and amp? Which one?
Are you ultimately feeding a PA mixer, or an acoustic guitar amp, or an electric guitar amp, or what?

Thanks again


----------



## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

A lot of used Seagulls with factory electronics are in that price range.


----------



## ronmac (Sep 22, 2006)

> For those of you using the bridge plate transducers like the K&K Pure Mini Western - what is your signal chain?


In most situations I plug the K&K PWM into a K&K Pure XLR preamp and send that off to the PA. This makes sense, as the company matches the characteristics of the preamp input impedance and EQ center frequencies to those of the pick up. I have also plugged directly into a UA Solo 610, Pendulum SPS-1 and Yamaha 01V96VCM. As you would expect, the higher quality preamps offer excellent buffering and eq control.

The 1K impedance of the K&K can be problematic for some folks, especially if you have limited eq sweep to tame the exaggerated low end that can result from plugging into very high impedance products.


----------



## IBANEZ/MILLER (Sep 5, 2008)

I've put in the Piezio pre-amp and acoustic package in 12 of my acoustics and it works beautifully. , For a snmall price of 125.00 per it's a no brainer to me.

I/M


----------



## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

I use the Pure XLR preamp, or I go into a Behringer acoustic pedal or a small behringer mixer then into the pa, or I go into a Yorkville bass amp combo that works fantastic for acoustic use when I don't have a PA to plug into. I've never had a problem with the K&K stuff.

The stock electronics in the Norman, S&P, Seagull line is very good as well.


----------

