Sound Check Pickups: Sunrise for Fleets
posted by on April 10 at 12:41 PM
A pickup is what captures vibrations from stringed instruments and converts them into an electrical signal that can be amplified and recorded and slayed like a beast if you solo in a particular way.
There are two basic pickup types, magnetic and piezoelectric. Piezoelectric work for all kinds of strings. Magnetic pickups work only with steel strings, and are made of magnets and coils. Single coil pickups are so sensitive, they’ll hum with interference from transformers and fluorescent lamps. Dual coil or “humbucking” pickups use two out of phase coils to cancel this interference.
Acoustic pickups are tricky. Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes talks about the trickiness:
What kind of pickup do you use for your acoustic guitar? What are your pickup thoughts?
Robin: I think all acoustic pickups sound pretty bad. I’ve never heard one that sounds anything close to the natural sound of a guitar. So much of an acoustic guitar’s sound is dependent on the room you are in and the resonance of the guitar’s wood and most pickups seem to just capture this rubbery weird Dave Matthews Band sound. Also when you are playing an acoustic guitar live, with some bad sounding pickup, and then running it through a thin sounding DI box straight into the main speakers, there’s really no way in my opinion to make that sound good.
So what do you do to get a decent acoustic sound?
The best way would be to just put a nice microphone on the guitar but that is never loud enough if you are playing with a band. I am currently using a Sunrise brand pickup that you attach inside the sound hole. I bought it because I didn’t want to drill a hole in my guitar like most other pickups. They also sell this Sunrise brand pre-amp that you plug the guitar into which seems to make it sound a little better or maybe just makes it louder. Then instead of running the guitar into a DI box, I run it into this 1967 Twin Reverb that I got for really cheap because it was non-operational and needed to be fully rebuilt. It still doesn’t sound like a normal acoustic guitar, but it gives it a lot more depth and “bigness,” and you can adjust the settings on the amp to better suit whatever room you are in. It’s not a perfect solution but I don’t think there is one, that’s why the invented the electric guitar!!
all acoustic guitar pickups are evil- it's just a matter of what degree you want to sound like shit. the one that robin uses is less on the evil side. something like the fishman rare earth blend is the best way to go, because it combines an actual mic with the piezo. while still sounding like shit, you can eliminate some of that sterile dave mathews direct sound. running it through an amp, like robin is doing, is also a great idea. while it colors the sound, anything is better than an acoustic ran straight up through a d.i. box.
Sunrise is far and away the best for a soundhole magnetic pickup but it still doesnt sound like an acoustic guitar. The K&K pickups (little discs that are installed under the bridge-NOT piezos but transducers) are pretty good and a bit more natural sounding than the sunrise but if you're playing in a high-volume situation they feedback a LOT quicker than the sunrise. I think you'll find most professional acoustic players use a blend of pickups...I haven't tried that myself but many swear by a mag soundhole and a piezo, or a internal mic and a transducer into some kind of direct box like Robin suggests. It's very frustrating for an acoustic guitarist because even with all the fancy shit out there for musicians there's still no really great solution for amplifying an acoustic guitar. I use the K&K in my taylor into a holy grail reverb pedal into my original 1962 fender princeton. And although the sound is pretty good it's still not perfect. Even amps specifically designed for acoustic guitar tend to really suck which is why most go direct to the P.A. But like Robin suggests I like amping the acoustic up through a tube amp to give it a bit more warmth and fatness...otherwise, espeically piezos, sound way too thin. Anyone know of a better solution? I doubt it...
The Sunrise is a good pickup. I know several players that love the L.R.Baggs pickups also. The best acoustic sound I have ever had live was Pete Droge's set up. He used a Pendulum Audio SPS-1 pre amp which is set up for a pickup/mike combo. I loved the sound I got with that. I don't play my acoustic out enough to need a pick up the only time I did I used a Dean Markley $40 dollar special that made my guitar sound like a cigar box with strings.
I use a weird old Schaller pickup that I got off ebay for $40, and which I have never seen another one of since. I really like how it sounds, and I often get people asking "what is that?" - in a good way.
I often play through an amp as well, but sometimes I just want to take the bus to a gig so I just bring my guitars and leave myself at the mercy of the p.a.
But yeah, I agree that acoustic pickups are a "least worst" sort of situation. Being able to use a mic would be great, but even playing solo there can be issues (feedback, whacking the mic, etc.). And I use a looper so that's really not an option.
I try hard for you guys to make pretty songs that people will enjoy. I practice hard and get up in the morning and try. I can't help it if acoustic guitars sound like crap.
Ok, maybe I use the word 'Love' too much in my songs. That is something I can do something about.
And wine, I know I sing too much about wine. Just please, don't hate on me so much.
God! Gear is hot. Seriously. Coils and holes and bigness? Piezoelectric even turns me on. Humbuck me.
The Highlander bridge pickup/internal goose-neck mike. The pickup signal is much hotter and the internal mike, being pointed out at the monitors, does feed back, so some kind of pre-amp is needed for the mike signal. The pre-amp should have a sweepable notch, so you can find and block the squealing frequencies while sweetening the overall tone and adding back in elements like pick sound and other "acoustic guitar" audio cues that the pickup eliminates.
The internal mike is pretty mid-rangey so it's also a good idea to EQ the pickup signal with some variant of the "smiley-face" so as to accentuate its superior bass and high treble response.
Your results may vary.
Radial makes great DIs.
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