If you play the acoustic guitar in an area larger than your bedroom, you will probably be forced to amplify it. The good news is that there are a lot of pickups, preamps and amplifiers available today. The bad news is that it would take a lifetime for the average person to research all the options to make an informed decision on what to purchase.

I've searched for the "Holy Grail" of acoustic amplification for over thirty-five years. I worked for 17 years as a guitar tech, installing hundreds of pickups in other folks' guitars plus many of my own. I figure that since I've had a lot of experience in this area, perhaps I could help you in your quest to get the warm, natural sound of your acoustic guitar to come out of a speaker.

Pickups

My first word of advice is don't buy a guitar that already has a pickup in it. You limit the array of great acoustic guitars you have to choose from, and you're stuck with that particular pickup system, which may not be the best. By contrast, if you purchase your guitar and pickup separately, you adopt the "component system" concept whereby you have the ability to choose the instrument and the pickup, making your final outcome the best of both worlds. Now let's start with a little pickup history.

The first amplification development to come along was the microphone, which is still considered the best option for the recording studio. In live performance, however, there are so many problems concerning volume, tone, proximity effect and feedback that mics aren't widely used. Small mics have been used fairly successfully inside the guitar, but you have to remember that if you were to stick your head inside a guitar, it doesn't sound the same as it does outside, so you still have an obstacle to overcome in order to make the sound natural. The more you have to eq (equalize) or process the sound, the less natural it becomes. If I were to pick an internal mic, however, I like the Joe Mills mic about the best.

The next major development was the invention of magnetic pickups, like the ones used in a Les Paul or Strat. Soundhole pickups for acoustics work on the same principal and are "electric" sounding. Also, the first two strings of your guitar are steel and the rest are made mostly of non-magnetic material, making the treble strings louder than the bass strings. Although the latest designs in magnetic pickups are much better and sound quite warm and nice, for the purist, they still don't really sound like the guitar itself. Some people really like the sound of an EMG or Sunrise or whatever and I agree that while they have a good sound, it's just not a true acoustic sound. It's like the difference between a grand piano and a Fender Rhodes; I like the sound of the electric keyboard, but I just don't think of it as a piano.

Perhaps the biggest boost in getting a reasonably natural sound came with the development of under-saddle piezo transducers and impedance matching preamps. Although Fishman has historically been the big seller, I much prefer LR Baggs and RMC products. Under-saddle pickups generally have fewer feedback problems than just about anything around and they give a nice hot signal with the help of a preamp. The frequency range is huge as well, so much so that this type of pickup has gained the greatest popularity over the years. The downside of using this type of pickup is that the attack of each note is dynamically harder than the real-life acoustic sound, the bass frequencies are a little lacking (but can be compensated for with judicious eq), and the treble range is rather harsh and brittle. Still, when you hear professional live performances that use amplified acoustic guitars, under-saddle pickups are the most commonly heard systems.

In the last few years a number of new pickup types have cropped up such as the B-band under-saddle rig which works on a different principal than the others (and quite nicely, I might add). Several stick-on and glue-on internal units have surfaced as well. Most of these stick-on pickups are honky sounding and feed back easily, but the exceptions have been the LR Baggs "I-beam" and the K&K "Pure Western" http://www.kksound.com/. These have become my overall favorites. I personally use the K&K pickups because of personal taste in tone, combined with the ease of installation and the fact that I don't have to use a preamp or battery in my guitar at all. I like simplicity.

Before I leave the subject I have to mention that a lot of companies have developed multiple source systems, i.e. magnetic + mic, or piezo + mic, or magnetic + piezo, etc. The idea is that if one source sounds better on lows and another on highs, then combining the two sources should present the best of both worlds. The problem is that each source has a downside too, and you are also getting the worst of both worlds plus, now you have potential phase problems between the two sources. I'm personally not that nutty about dual sources, but they are worth a listen for sure.

So... for what my opinion is worth, I don't use mics, magnetic pickups or bridge pickups anymore and have opted for the simple, single-source K&K "Pure Western" system for a natural, woody, warm sound. This is just opinion, mind you, and mine isn't the end-all. Hopefully, however, this dissertation might be helpful as a guide when you are shopping for a pickup.

Once you have a good guitar with a good pickup in it, however, you're faced with the next set of decisions - what to do for a preamp and amplifier. First of all, let me say that most acoustic pickups require a preamp for the sake of boosting the signal and matching the pickup impedance to that of the amp.

A preamp can be an internal device that works on a battery (or phantom power) or an external box that hooks up between the guitar and amp. Internal preamps are regarded as having the edge because every foot of cable between the pickup and preamp diminishes the signal. Once the signal passes through the impedance matching preamp, cable length on out to the amp isn't an issue. A lot of preamps are actually packaged with pickups so that you don't need to look further than what came with the pickup, but many pickups are sold separately, so here's the lowdown on what to look for.

When selecting a preamp it's important to properly match impedance with the amp and keep the sound clean, quiet, and as close to flat response as possible. Most preamps also have volume and tone controls and can even have feedback circuitry or phase switches for dual source pickup systems. These controls are nice to have but of secondary importance. Some companies put a lot of gadgets on their preamps but the quality remains just so-so. Others make really good gear, but with very few knobs and switches, so it's important to listen carefully.

Some of my favorite preamps (in ascending pricing order) are the LR Baggs internal & external preamps, the K&K dual source preamp, the Raven Labs external box, and the Rane stereo rack-mount preamp/eq. Some pickups don't require a preamp though, such as magnetic pickups and the K&K that I use. Preamps can still help shape the sounds of these pickups but most amps have enough controls on them that the extra preamp becomes redundant. OK, so let's say you've figured out what general kind of pickup you want and what features you're looking for in a preamp. Now what do you plug it all into?

Amplifiers

Hmmm. First, let me say that the last thing you want to plug an acoustic guitar into is an electric guitar amp. Amps designed for magnetic pickups have a totally weird frequency curve to them that is designed for magnetic pickups and even the speakers themselves can't produce a full-spectrum sound. Oh, and the words 'clean' and 'quiet' aren't even in their vocabulary. In addition, just about every major electric amplifier company has come out with their own token acoustic amp. Many of these are barely more than electric guitar amps with a piezo tweeter hooked up to them, for example the acoustic amplifiers made by Crate. Some are better though. Fender and particularly SWR make pretty darned good acoustic amps, but if you're a purist you may still want to look further.

By the way, I know that many of you will be playing at church or in stage groups where your acoustic guitar is plugged into a direct box and run straight to the PA system. The signal is then processed by a 'sound' man and returned to you (pre-eq) through a monitor. IF you have a great sound system and someone who really knows how to run it, this if fine. My experience is that you can't count on anything like that in most cases, so for the sake of my sanity I tote my own amp around with me everywhere I go. That way, I have my own nice-sounding monitor, retain control over my sound, and about all the sound guy has to do is to take a line out of the amp into the snake¹ and turn it up in the house. Besides, you'll end up needing an amp anyway for playing in smaller venues where there isn't a PA system.

So, what are some good acoustic amps? Well, here are a few of my favorites to track down (in alphabetic order): Acoustic Image, AER, David & Ultrasound. Here's where opinion kicks into the picture. I like the AER when certain players are using them, but they're not for me. I like the Acoustic Image a lot, but it has no reverb or effects and is pretty expensive. The David amp is great for being relatively inexpensive, small and powerful. Overall though, my favorite for years has been Ultrasound amps. I use the AG50DS3. Price-wise, the amp lists for $795 and the street price is around $600. It is stereo and bi-amped, has nice digital reverb (and other effects), has a "shape" control, feedback elimination and most importantly, it really sounds good. To my ear it is the most natural, smooth, warm-sounding amp I've heard to date. I've been touting them for so long that the Ultrasound Company has actually made me a dealer.

The purpose of this article, by the way, is not to sell you an amp. In fact, if you have an Ultrasound dealer in your area, listen to it there and buy it from the guy who showed it to you. If you don't know of a dealer though, or have heard mine when I was in your area, I'd be happy to sell you one at a competitive price. My purpose here though is to simply write an opinion column to help you in your search for a great overall acoustic amplified sound.

I hope this article proves useful to you, or at least has gotten you to think about looking further into amplified sound for your guitar. Nothing inspires you to play like having a great sound. Until next time, keep pickin'!

JS

To learn more about John Standefer, his music and his gear, please visit his website at: www.praiseguitar.com.

¹ - A snake is the wiring harness that runs from the stage to the PA mixer in the back of the room. It's usually around 100 feet long, accommodates 12, 16 or 24 channels and is connected on one end to the mic inputs on the mixer and on the other end has mic input boxes. It's like a big multi-channel extension cord. In permanent installations it's all wired under the floor but in temporary situations it is strung out in full view.