Get the latest Fishman Matrix Infinity price and reviews at Word of caution though, hitting the strings hard will produce an unwanted 'quacking' sound. The reward however is appreciable as the pickup system works great for fingerstyle or strumming. Because of where the pickup is positioned, it will usually require modifications on your guitar. As the name implies, a thin film or string like device called a piezo pickup is put under the saddle, getting the sound through the vibrations rather than basic miking. Most of the acoustic-electric guitars that we have today come with undersaddle transducers, this type of pickup is preferred by many players because of its feedback resistance, sonic flexibility and organic sound.
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Investing in multiple pickups is recommended if you're looking to do professional gigs and recording, they will give you a broader tonal range to work with, and will help minimize the weaknesses of each type. See the list below:įor best results, you'll want to blend different types, professionals have been doing this to achieve higher fidelity and flexibility. Each one links to an explanation of how the pickup types work, along with highly recommended examples that are available in the market today.
There are four types of acoustic guitar pickups and they are listed below for your convenience.
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There are only a few good quality passive acoustic guitar pickups in the market, but they can be a great option if you want full control over your sound via an external preamp. This is the design that majority of manufacturers use because they get more control over the resulting sound via the preamp. If you want a more reliable and "fixed" solution, then you'll want to consider undersaddle transducers, just know that they may require permanent modifications to the body.Īctive pickups require batteries to power the preamp which is built-into the pickup design.
The disadvantage of these non-invasive pickups is reliability and consistency, since they are not permanently and precisely positioned, they can move around or worse be detached while performing. These pickups temporarily attach themselves to the guitar, be it on the body or inside the soundhole, and they are easy to remove when you want them to. If you don't want to make any modifications to your precious acoustic guitar, then you'll want to go for non-invasive pickups. Some of these popular pickups will also work with nylon strings, but it is much better to go for specialized pickups that are tweaked to handle the nuances of classical/flamenco guitars. These days, most of the pickups available on the market are meant for, or at least tested on steel string guitars, which means that you'll have a lot of options for your acoustic guitar. Steel string and nylon string guitars have different tonalities and work in different ways (you can't use a magnetic pickup on nylon strings), as such, you'll want pickups that are specialized for the particular instrument that you are going to use it on. It will also be easier to do body modifications because you won't be worrying too much about value depreciation. For cheaper guitars, you'll want the pickup to be of good quality without being more expensive than the actual instrument. If you're planning to add a pickup to an expensive acoustic guitar, we would recommend that you invest in a premium non-invasive pickup because the value of the guitar will drop when the body is modified. These days, acoustic guitars with no electronics are mostly either entry-level models, or uber expensive ones. Saving on the cost of having to buy a separate pickup is one of the main reasons why acoustic-electric guitars became popular. Things to Consider when Buying Acoustic Guitar Pickups This page is sponsored by Sweetwater so you can click through to get the full specifications, the latest price, and purchase any of the Acoustic Guitar Pickups stocked by Sweetwater that we have recommended.