gilded said:
kostas,
First of all, thanks so much for your clear and cogent explanations of what the various types of pickups do. I am in your debt.
Secondly, do you have experience with the DTAR USTs and the DTAR Mama Bear, Solstice and Equinox preamps? If you do, I sure would like to hear about it.
Somehow the idea of the Mama Bear doesn't seem to do a lot for me. I would like for my UST-equipped guitar to sound as good as it can sound as opposed to using it as a blank canvas for 'other guitar sounds' (though maybe I am guilty of 'errant thinking' and don't get the Big Mama Bear Picture).
I do find myself drawn to the idea of the DTAR Equinox para/eq notch, but don't know if it would work any better with my DTAR Lock'n'Load system than my Baggs Paracoustic DI. Again, any experience you may have had or even heard about with these units would be appreciated.
Thanks, gilded
I worked with one of my luthier friends on helping him pick a pickup system that he could offer to his customers, most of which are very, very demanding bluegrass pickers. After about a year of research, mostly on the Internet, and having read a lot of Rick Turner's justification for the DTAR pickup line, and the throught processes behind the 18V preamp, I made the recommendation that he carry the DTAR line. While a lot of people seem to think that DTAR is full of hot air, the principles behind what Rick Turner has come up with are rock solid. I have witnessed the reaction of 3 installations of the DTAR first hand, and ALL were very impressed. In one case, this being the most difficult customer (in terms of demanding nothing but the best amplified tone possible), he had gone through Fishmans, iBeams, K & Ks, and Highlander pickup systems, and will now only play guitars with the DTAR system. He has DTARs in his Martin OM-45, D-28, D-18, and two Tippin handbuilts. Before he got the DTARs put into his Tippins, he actually called Bill Tippin, and was told that this was the recommended pickup for his handbuilts. He also ended up buying a Mama Bear, and will not perform without the DTAR pickup and Mama Bear. I personally believe that DTAR has made major strides in the elimination of piezo quack, and has made the UST a viable pickup choice.
I do also have first hand experience with the Mama Bear, but not with the Aura. To be honest, the effect is pretty astonishing. In my case, I have heard it played with a DTAR pickup system, a Takamine with its built in, unique pickup system (Palethetic, or something like that), and an Acoustic Bronze magnetic pickup. We hooked the guitars up to the Mama Bear, the 1/4" output of the Mama Bear going to a JBL Eon 15. We started by playing the guitar in bypass mode for a few songs, and then took some time to set up the Mama Bear. The input type should be set up properly, to get best effect. Then we played the same songs with the Mama Bear on, usually with the blend at 40-60%. Its sort of funny, but we didn't really notice a huge effect on the sound when the songs were playing. So we had the same songs playing while switching the Mama Bear on and off. We did notice it then. When the songs were played with the Mama Bear, it sounded very real, three dimensional, and very, very real. When the Mama Bear was switched off, the sound just sort of collapsed, or imploded. It went back to being a very two dimensional sound, and you could tell that is was an amplified acoustic. This happened with all pickups. The output models don't have a night and day effect, but you can hear differences between a small bodied parlor, and a rosewood dread. It is harded to hear the difference between a rosewood dread and a mahogany dread, and this did vary some with the guitar/pickup used. As DTAR goes out if its way to say, this isn't a modeler (although it can do some extremely good emulations, see below), it is designed to add back some of the wood/air resonances that are part of a normal acoustic guitar. I truly believe that anybody who wants to amplify their guitar, and get a good sound out if it, should try a Mama Bear. It may not be for everybody, but I'd be willing to bet that the majority of serious players will be very impressed, and wouldn't doubt that a lot of them would be buying their own unit.
I would have liked to have heard the Aura and the Mama Bear head to head, but I don't know anybody who owns an Aura (the original one, with the downloadable images), and the use of images by the Aura ( the original one, and the new Aura Spectrum DI) has both pros and cons, in my mind. The pro are that it potentially has the most accurate sound possible; the con is that you need to have an image for your guitar. Many have tried using an image of a gutar that is closest to the one their own guitar, and success varies, from what I have read. This may not be an issue if you own a Martin D-28, but probably will be if you own a Guild DV-6, as an example.
One of the most spectacular things to hear is the models for the Tri-Cone (Dobro). Set it to 100% Mama Bear, grab a slide, and you'd think you were playing a National Tri-Cone. The archtop and gypsy jazz emulations are also almost perfect.
I don't have any experience with the Solstice or Equinox, all of the reviews have been positive, but the DTAR pickup/Mama Bear combination I have heard in real life was going through the Bose L1, so the Solstice/Equinox was not required. The Mama Bear has both 1/4" (variable) and XLR (fixed) outs.
Kostas
