Magnetic Pickups

Magnetic pickups have come a far way since its humble beginnings back in the 1920's. The earliest pickups were no different than those found on archtops, or later solid body electric guitars. Today, manufactures are more aware of the tonal needs of acoustic instruments, producing magnetics that have strong bass response and clear trebles. Magnetic pickups are great alternatives to other technologies due to ease of use, and lack of modifications to the instrument. Like piezo pickups, they have little feedback due to the fact that they produce sound by monitoring fluctuations in the magnetic field the pickup emits. Magnetic pickups can have a more "electric" sound than their counter parts if not used properly. One can achieve proper tone by using a dedicated acoustic amplifier or a PA, as opposed to an electric guitar amp which has more mids and less treble and bass than an acoustic amp. Magnetic pickups can also suffer from RF interference which produces the nasty hums and buzzes that electric players regularly have to deal with. A good signal path and proper electrical wiring can alleviate these problems. Dean Markley and Fishman produce two of the most widely used acoustic magnetic pickups available. The Dean Markley Pro-Mag is a low cost amplifying solution, while the Fishman Rare Earth is designed to accommodate the different string materials used for guitar strings (bronze versus steel), balancing treble and bass string response.

Combination Systems

While all of these pickups can produce great tone, they each have their short comings mentioned early. In the search for great amplified acoustic tone, many manufactures have turned towards combining these systems within the same guitar. By utilizing a piezo with a microphone, as with the L.R. Baggs Dual Source system and the Fishman Blender system, one can have the louder volume afforded to piezo pickups with the more natural tone and attack of a microphone. Fishman also offers their Rare Earth magnetic pickup with an attached gooseneck microphone for similar effect. Godin guitars have taken to using the L.R. Baggs piezo transducer and the I-Beam contact pickup within the same guitar, again providing high volumes with natural attack and tone. B-Band now offers all of their technologies separately, so one could combine Their soundboard transducer with a microphone or piezo. Virtually any combination is possible. The signal is outputted to either a stereo jack, with each kind of pickup on a different channel, or is adjustably blended before the output jack.

Sound for the Masses

As one can see, there is a multitude of options for amplifying your acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, or sitar. Once you have a pickup system installed, or temporarily mounted, you will be prepared to play with even the loudest of drummers, horn sections, or even pipe organs. Soon, we will describe the various ways one can process the signal via preamps and acoustic amplification to achieve the ideal tone.

If you have any further questions regarding pickups for any instruments, please call us or email us.