What's are some good soundhole pickups?

Charlie Bernstein

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I have internal K&K and JJB pickups and like 'em. But I'm thinking of getting a second dread and putting a soundhole pickup in it.

What are some natural-sounding soundhole pickups?

I'd prefer passive but am willing to listen to reason.

Thanks!
 

mavuser

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+1 on the passive soundhole pickups. i like the Baggs M-1 but some Guilds have small soundholes like the Hoboken F-20 and F-30, and in those guitars that pickup just barely fits- its not something u would want to take out all the time, with those models. the Fishman rare eath passive also sounds great. im sure there are many, many other options (duncan, dean markley etc)

edit: now that I think about it, there are some that dont fit that Hoboken F-20/F-30/M-20/F-112 soundhole at all, and I belive the Fishman rare earth might be one of them. definitley do your homework if u have one of those Guilds
 
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fronobulax

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Pay attention to how it is mounted. I have seen several damaged rosettes and soundholes because the owner did not like having the PU in place all of the time and so was swapping it in and out.
 

mavuser

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i edited my post above. some Guilds have a very small soundhole and there are some pickups that will not fit at all
 

MLBob

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K & K makes a passive acoustic soundhole pickup called the Double Helix. You can check out the specifics & videos on their website. I have one installed in the soundhole of my Guild Studio 24.
Can be used in combination with a pure mini or as a stand alone.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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K & K makes a passive acoustic soundhole pickup called the Double Helix. You can check out the specifics & videos on their website. I have one installed in the soundhole of my Guild Studio 24.
Can be used in combination with a pure mini or as a stand alone.
Pricey, but I'll bet it's the best of the passives.
 

fronobulax

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Just curious, why a passive pickup?
No battery, for one.

I was at a performance over the weekend. Guitarist accompanying his singing. He ended his first song early because the battery for his active pickup died. He had no spare so pulled one out of a pedal. That made it through the first set but he took a longer than expected intermission to go buy a battery or two. It was not his night. He also broke a string and misplaced the bridge pin and had to improvise that so he could continue. Luckily it was a friendly audience :)
 

portsider

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No battery, for one.

I was at a performance over the weekend. Guitarist accompanying his singing. He ended his first song early because the battery for his active pickup died. He had no spare so pulled one out of a pedal. That made it through the first set but he took a longer than expected intermission to go buy a battery or two. It was not his night. He also broke a string and misplaced the bridge pin and had to improvise that so he could continue. Luckily it was a friendly audience :)
Sounds familiar. You need to be prepared when you do a gig.
 

MLBob

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Just curious, why a passive pickup?
No battery to have to get to is a definite plus. And I have always preferred to add my own pickups rather than have factory electronics.
When I am amplifying my acoustics, I am always going through a quality pre-amp first. ( either a K&K dual source blendbox on a “grab & go“ board or a Radial PZ Pro on my larger board, so all controls are outside the guitar to begin with. Powering with a battery would be redundant. Both pre-amps have been EQ’d to get the cleanest acoustic sound possible, and all I usually need to do is hand the guitar cable to whoever is running sound and have him set everything flat.
 

mavuser

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Just curious, why a passive pickup?
get a nice external preamp and dont limit yourself to those little volume wheels in the soundhole. also, i wouldnt want a battery in my nice acoustic guitar, but thats just me. passive all the way
 

plaidseason

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I have Fishman Rare Earth humbuckers in my two primary live guitars and have yet to find something I like better.

My signal path is a Rare Earth into a Fishman Platinum for EQ and compression.

I like the single-coil as well, but obviously the humbucker is quieter
 

Neal

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I have used a Baggs M-1 with great success. The passive pickup sounds so much better than Baggs M-1A or M-80, which you cannot EQ the “electric guitar” sound out of.

As stated earlier, early Westerly sound holes are small, and it takes a real contortionist to get a Baggs to fit. But it can be done, jjuuusssttt barely!
 
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