Help with Amplifying Acoustic Guitar

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peckhart

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In one of my bands the lead singer plays acoustic guitar for any songs requiring it. He has a Takamine with onboard electronics, but has said the input gets a bit flaky and crackles at times. So he ditched it and has been sticking one of those sound hole pickups in it. He plugs that right into a DI box fed into the PA.
I kinda think it doesn't sound great and at our show this past weekend there tone, volume and feedback issues. Perhaps some due to the people working the sound.

I have no experience with amplifying acoustics to try to help him. It would seem to me though that the better way to go is to get that onboard system running right so he has EQ and muting capability. It should sound better too no?

How are those pop em in the hole acoustic pickups really supposed to be used? Should they be able to work direct to the PA or is that more for feeding it into an acoustic amp?
 
Here's the deal. I've had every type of acoustic pickup you can imagine.

If you have a passive pickup, you must use an outboard preamp, like the LR Baggs Venue, which I use.
I use these pickups
http://www.jjb-electronics.com/SHC-200.html

They are called a SBT (soundboard transducer) and they go on the inside of the guitar, glued to the bridge plate in front of the pins. It's quite fun putting these in (NOT).
I've done about 6 guitars with these. They are a more natural sounding pickup than the typical quacky piezo that most guitars come with (Takamine included)

The pickup you have, or your friend has is a piezo pickup, with an onboard preamp. That, you can plug right into the board.

The best sounding pickup, if you are using acoustic in a loud band is a sound hole pickup, such as the Sunrise S2 sound hole pickup. It's a pro pickup and they cost a little under $400
The sound will be in between acoustic and electric, but it will have no feedback. The SBT pickups are more prone to feedback, if you are using them in a loud band.

Like the others have said, why not fix the jack? Could be a loose connection where the piezo plugs into the preamp It could probably be fixed easy.

As for the sound hole pickup and DI box. What type of soundhole pickup? There are many. Some use magnetics, like an electric, some use a mic, some use a combo of both.

The BEST sounding pickup is a dual source pickup such as a Sunrise pickup and a SBT transducer ran to a pendulum rack setup via a stereo cable. You can mix the pickups. Some guys use a mic in the guitar in conjunction with the SBT. There's a shit ton of options. This setup I describe above will cost you $1500 or more as the pendulum rack preamp is not cheap.
 
Not sure why he doesn't want to look into fixing it.
I think the pop in sound hole one is a Dean Markley. Nothing very expensive.
 
I had a Dean Markley Pro Mag sound hole pickup and it definately needed a preamp. There are many available. But I'd just fix the jack. Probably a lot cheaper. Just sayin'......
 
Alot of those Takamine preamps are interchangeable. He should look into fixing the issue, or replacing the preamp. It's hard to beat a good Takamine into a PA...
 
The pickup is a good place to start. I just purchased a Fishman Loudbox and he works really well. If you need to adjust tones its all there. Just a thought
 
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