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Mic or pickup?


Chris

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I bought a new acoustic the other week and I'm looking at the best ways to use it in a live situation.  There's no onboard electronics, which is fine. So I'm really looking at microphones or possibly a soundhole pickup.

 

My preference is for a microphone as I'd like the sound to be an accurate representation of what's coming out of the soundhole rather than what vibration the pickups getting.

 

Just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for systems they've tried?  Price seems to vary a lot.

 

Thomann do this one:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_ovid_system_cc_100.htm

 

Gets good reviews on there but suspect the build quality won't be great for the price and not sure about it's ability to restrict feedback. But for recording and solo purposes that might not be an issue so maybe it's worth a punt.

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Would you likely play sitting down or standing up?  If you're going to be stationary, you're probably as well mic-ing up with an SM57 or something, especially for recording.  I imagine a wee microphone like the Thomann one would be a feedback nightmare, and probably not noticeably better than a soundhole unit.

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Personally I like to use both as a blend. Pickup and a mic. Mic wise place the mic at the 12th fret, normally the sweet spot rather than the sound hole. Whenever I have worked with someone like Martin Taylor he always uses both. Adds more dynamics. But I couldn't go for the pickup in the link. Wait and buy something of a much higher quality and same goes for the mic. 57s are fine but something like a 414 would make a huge difference. If you have 2 mics then try get 12th fret and some body.

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Would you likely play sitting down or standing up?  If you're going to be stationary, you're probably as well mic-ing up with an SM57 or something, especially for recording.  I imagine a wee microphone like the Thomann one would be a feedback nightmare, and probably not noticeably better than a soundhole unit.

 

Mostly sitting down. I've got an SM58 I was planning to use for home recording, just wondering if there was a better solution and one that would be easy to set up and take with me to know I'm covered and the sound is consistent.  It's not something I'm looking to buy straight away so might be best to leave it for a few months and see how I get on.

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Personally I like to use both as a blend. Pickup and a mic. Mic wise place the mic at the 12th fret, normally the sweet spot rather than the sound hole. Whenever I have worked with someone like Martin Taylor he always uses both. Adds more dynamics. But I couldn't go for the pickup in the link. Wait and buy something of a much higher quality and same goes for the mic. 57s are fine but something like a 414 would make a huge difference. If you have 2 mics then try get 12th fret and some body.

 

*looks up 414 microphones*

 

That costs more than the guitar... it's not a cheap guitar...

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Unfortunately yeah. So go with a 57

 

Sounds like a plan for now. Cheers for the suggestions about the sweet spot and using a blend though, worth bearing in mind to try some different recording setups. I'd just stick it over the soundhole otherwise.

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No problem. A sound hole can get too boomy where up the neck and be too high. 12th is normally know as sweet spot as it is where the body generally meets the neck so works well for dynamics. On my main acoustic I use a mic, plus the guitar has a jack out going via preamp and a Di out that misses the preamp so use all 3. Experiment. That's what it is all about.

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Personally I'd go for a LR Baggs M1A..     Best move I ever did for an acoustic in a band situation.      you get no feedback, and it cuts through perfectly, and sounds great in a band situation.  Plus no permanent damage to your guitar apart from if you take it out you'd need a slightly larger endpin.

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