Shadow SH 145 Prestige Active ($188
street,
shadow-elecronics.com), L.R. Baggs
M80 ($250 street,
lrbaggs.com), Fishman
Blackstack ($250 street,
fishman.com),
Seymour Duncan Mag Mic ($229 street,
seymourduncan.com).
preamps (the control panel mounted on
the upper side), you may have wondered
how the heck the sound gets from the
strings and into that preamp. Most guitars
like this have either a passive or an active
undersaddle transducer—an “invisible”
pickup that is installed under the white
piece of bone or plastic (aka the saddle) in
your bridgeplate. Undersaddle transducers
are typically made of strips of tiny piezo
crystals that sense vibrations and transform
them into an electrical signal.
If you have an acoustic that sounds great,
having an undersaddle transducer installed
may be a worthwhile part of getting a satisfactory amplified tone. The procedure—which
should be performed by a qualified professional—requires drilling a tiny hole for the pickup
wire to pass through, as well as end-pin-jack
installation. Some more affordable options
(especially those that come in entry-level guitars) are prone to what guitarists often refer to
as piezo quack—an artificial-sounding tonal
artifact that often makes the guitar sound
Contact
Pickups
Perhaps the least-invasive pickups at your
disposal are contact pickups (aka
“bottlecaps”), small, passive units that
adhere to the top of your guitar with
a sticky tack material that won’t harm
your axe’s finish—and that comes off
easily. No muss, no fuss. These pickups
tend to be very microphonic, meaning they are more prone to generating
annoying, high-pitched feedback at high
volumes. For players who only perform
once in a while at lower-volume gigs,
these can work really well. Just be sure
you try them on your guitar before you
buy. Some can be rather thin and brittle sounding, so watch for that when
you’re auditioning them.
Another class of contact pickup
mounts inside the guitar with glue under
the bridgeplate (the dark piece of wood
surrounding the area where the strings
are anchored to your guitar’s body). One
of the best known is the K&K Sound
Pure Mini ($91 street,
kksound.com).
This passive system sounds terrific, creates very little feedback, and, if installed
properly, provides virtually trouble-free
use. Here are some others to try: Pick-up
the World PUTW #27 ($150, pick-
uptheworld.com), Schertler DYN-G
($608 street,
schertler.com), LR Baggs
iBeam (passive/$90 street, active/$140
street), B-Band Acoustic Soundboard
Transducer ($75 street,
b-band.com).
Undersaddle Piezo Transducers
If you’ve ever seen an acoustic guitar that
had one of the aforementioned built-in
