Soundhole pick-up for acoustic guitar?

sarkozy

OK, so I play John Fahey-style finger picking stuff on acoustic steel string. I'm looking for a soundhole pick-up. I've not heard any, but I've heard wither Fishman or LR Baggs are good. I've also heard that you'd really need a pre-amp/EQ so you can control those frequencies. I may need to make a purchase soon, so great if you can help me out.

punchdrunk

Hi I have a fishman rare earth in my Gibson,like this one

http://www.fishman.com/product/rare-earth-single-coil

It sounds pretty good,and via a preamp can achieve perfectly acceptable live results but I would never in a million years try to use it without some form of preamp or EQ I have one from roger linn which I use

eoin5

I'm using a Seymour Duncan Woody, nice and wasn't mad expensive. I'm getting a good sound with just DI and eq on the desk but I think a good preamp would help a lot with any of them.

sarkozy

Is there a difference between an EQ box/pedal and a pre-amp. One guitar with built-in Fishman Sonitone has a pre-amp. It'd be nice to have more control over sound myself. I also will need this soundhole pick-up, and not sure if I should get passive/active and invest in some EQ/pre-amp. Very counfused.

eoin5

sarkozy wrote: »

Is there a difference between an EQ box/pedal and a pre-amp. One guitar with built-in Fishman Sonitone has a pre-amp. It'd be nice to have more control over sound myself. I also will need this soundhole pick-up, and not sure if I should get passive/active and invest in some EQ/pre-amp. Very counfused.

Preamps sort out things like impedance issues whereas an EQ pedal probably won't. After that they're just more engineered for acoustic instrument treatment than a standard pedal, what bands they use in the eq etc.

Soundhole pickups like the Woody and Rare Earth are magnetic and so don't need a particular type of preamp as much, depending on the sound you want to get an EQ pedal might do you fine. Most built in pickups are piezo undersaddle jobs, you really should have a proper preamp for those and most have one built into the guitar just like the Sonitone.

sarkozy

Hmm, I'm wondering if these LR Baggs ones are good, and if so, what affordable pre-amp I could buy. Or if a pickup is active, what's the difference there? I'd rather not waste money at the start, and this is a steep learning curve for me, coming from only pure acoustic playing (and microphoned guitars) or electric (Fender tele).

eoin5

Active just means the preamp is built in.