Impressions of music and musical equipment from my point of view
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Aloha!
It can be a daunting task to figure out how to modify your acoustic instrument (guitar, violin, etc.) so that you can plug it into an amp or the mixing board. Many of the options on the market are expensive, and a lot of them require modifications to you axe that might not be easy to undo. On easy way I have found to make this happen is the Dean Markley Artist Transducer acoustic pickup.
Surely you have heard of Dean Markley before, as this company has been selling strings since 1972, and in the years since they have branched out into picks, strings, cables, DI boxes, tuners, and pickups. Markley started making these pickups in 1980, and they have been one of their more popular products.
The Dean Markley artist transducer acoustic pickup has to be the easiest pickups on the market to install. When you take it out of the box, there is a small puck with an integrated cable that has a ¼-inch male connector on the end. There is a gooey adhesive on the puck, which allows you to stick it wherever you need to on the top of the instrument, and it can be easily removed and stuck on something else if you wish. As the adhesive is re-usable, the pickup can be pulled off the top pretty easily, so it is a good idea to route the cable so that your guitar strap supports it so that the adhesive portion does not support the entire weight of the cord. A strip of gaffer’s tape might come in handy here.
The pickup itself is housed in a maple wood housing and through use of a lead differential weight, the piezo reacts through compression rather than just bending like all other Piezo pickups. The sound is passable, but it does not really have the pass the full character of whatever you are plugging it into. It is a good idea to try it in different location on the top to reduce feedback and to try to get the best sound. At some point you will find a passable sound, and you should probably not spend much more time on this, as it will probably not get very much better. As Voltaire said, the better is the enemy of the good.
In practice, I have tried out the Artist Transducer on my Takamine EF341 guitar and on my Kala SMHS soprano ukulele, and the results were mixed. The Tak has an amazing onboard pre-amp that is very transparent, so the crispness of the sound comes through it beautifully. With the Markley, the basic sound comes through, but the sound is similar to most any lower-end acoustic. The uke is a different story, as its nylon strings do not punch through quite as well, so it does not matter that the output with the transducer is a bit muddier. The overall output is adequate, but it is not terribly loud due to the nature of its construction.
Overall, I think the Dean Markley Artist Transducer acoustic pickup is pretty cool, and is a simple and cheap way to electrify your instrument. It installs in seconds and only costs around $25 (with a 5-year warranty), so it is a great way to plug in your guitar, mandolin, violin, or whatever. You would be hard-pressed to find an easier way to get your instrument into the gig, Check one out for yourself and see what you think!
Mahalo!
Howdy!
Well, I recently got a smoking deal on an old ESP P bass because the electronics were more dead than my dead mother. So I did what any self-respecting bass hack would do – I grabbed an EMG pickup and stuffed that bad boy in. It was as easy as pie, and I got exactly the results I expected. These are two things that do not happen very often for me!
EMG has been around since Rob Turner founded it in 1976 in Santa Rosa, California. This company has done a lot better than the metric system, which was launched in the US right around the same time. Though they started out making guitar pickups, bass pickups followed shortly thereafter, and have been a staple in the low-end world ever since. Besides making awesome replacement parts, many manufacturers install them as standard equipment – most notably Gibson, Steinberger and Spector.
The pickup itself has a ceramic magnet, and it is not wired in series (like passive pickups) so there is a lot more bottom end. The kit comes with pots, wiring, a battery connector and pretty good instructions. Everything is prewired and quick-connect connectors are used, so no soldering is required. It was a super-easy installation, particularly as I already had a control cavity to stuff the battery into.
This active pickup sounds like most every other EMG pickup I have had in a bass before. It is high fidelity with more bass than a passive pickup and it is clear as a bell with no hum. But the disadvantage is that is sounds like an EMG pickup so it is rather sterile without a lot of character or warmth, so you had better like the sound to start with. Fortunately, I do! These pickups cut through a loud mix like nobody’s business, and the bass will definitely be heard, with the advantage of a consistent tone an volume across all frequency ranges.
The EMG-P is not super cheap, with a list price of $129.99 and a street price of $95, but you will certainly save some money by being able to install it yourself. If you like the tone, or just need more power and clarity, give one a try. What could go wrong?
Mahalo!
Aloha!
I have a very nice Takemine acoustic guitar with a fantastic electronics package that really has me spoiled. But there are occasions when I would want to plug in my other nice acoustic, a Martin D-18 Golden Era, so I started looking around for a pickup I could install that would not change the appearance or structure of the instrument. I finally decided on the K&K Sound Pure Mini pickup. It was a good choice!
K&K Sound is originally from Germany, and they started building equipment back in 1984. They relocated to Coos Bay, Oregon in 1995, and they have created quite a reputation for selling first rate acoustic instrument transducers.
The K&K Pure Mini used to be called the Pure Western Mini. I guess they didn’t want to make people think this pickup is only good for country music. K&K recommends it for all types of steel string acoustic guitars.
The Pure Mini is a 3-head bridge plate transducer and it attaches easily with super glue gel to the underside of the top. It is also easy to remove without damaging the guitar if you are careful, but there is a chance you will break the pickup. I had mine professionally installed as it required that the end pin hole be enlarged to ½ inch. This does not bother me as there are oversized end pins available if I ever decide to go back to the stock configuration.
So, how does it sound? It has more output than any passive acoustic pickup I have ever used. This fullness of sound is evenly balanced from string to string and the tone is very woody and natural. It is quite a peach, and I do not find the lack of controls to be the least bit of a bother. I have mostly used it with my Fender Acoustasonic DSP 30 combo amplifier though I have also used it with my mixing board (with a DI box, of course). It works great in both of these situations.
If you are looking for a basic acoustic guitar pickup system the K&K Sound Pure Mini cannot be beat. It has a list price of $130 and a street price of $90. If you are unsure of how to install it, I recommend that you get your local luthier to help you out. Give one a try!
Mahalo!
