Pickup for acustic is preamp needed?

[Finn Bjerke]

My old Bozo guitar needs a new PU, I was thinking about K&K og LR Baggs. Now the M1 active claims to work with no preamp. I like my live setting simple (the KISS principle)

 

Any suggestions?

 

[S~R~O]

That M1 is a fine one,

you will have to adjust the poles on it to suit your guitar

I would also get the LR Baggs DI Box to keep it as a matched

as possible as a Set

 

just my $0.02 worth

 

I had one on,

one of my guitars and thatis what I did....

[guitarist21]

Most soundhole-style pickups are made to work just fine without any separate pre-amp. You can putz with the poles like SteveO said, but if you're like things simple, you probably won't have to.

 

And now I have to ask, what's a Bozo guitar?

 

Ellen

[Rick]

I know this is a late response but I took out my EMG soundhole pickup and replaced it with an LR Baggs Ribbon Transducer. I wanted this one because it didn't have a preamp and sounded very natural. If I wanted a hotter sound or more volume I'd run it through a preamp I have from Fishman. The Baggs RT System is the same Ribbon Transducer but with a preamp and everything I read about it said it had a hot sound which is not what I wanted. So far I've been very satisified with it. Good luck in your search

[Terry Allan Hall]

Most soundhole-style pickups are made to work just fine without any separate pre-amp. You can putz with the poles like SteveO said, but if you're like things simple, you probably won't have to. And now I have to ask, what's a Bozo guitar? Ellen

 

 

http://guitars.net/bozo.htm

[sdelsolray]

 

My old Bozo guitar needs a new PU, I was thinking about K&K og LR Baggs. Now the M1 active claims to work with no preamp. I like my live setting simple (the KISS principle) Any suggestions?

 

 

All pickups need a preamp, it's just a matter of where it is located. The Baggs M-1 Active has a small preamp builit into the pickup assembly. It doesn't need another one, but it is likely the signal will be fed into another preamp in your acoustic amp or at the mixing board, which is OK too.

[DeepEnd]

 

All pickups need a preamp, it's just a matter of where it is located. The Baggs M-1 Active has a small preamp builit into the pickup assembly. It doesn't need another one, but it is likely the signal will be fed into another preamp in your acoustic amp or at the mixing board, which is OK too.

 

This is at least misleading if not outright wrong. The question was whether the pickup needs a built-in preamp. The purpose of a built-in preamp is to boost the signal coming out of the pickup to a level at which it's usable by the amp. Most magnetic pickups don't need a built-in preamp and some others can get by without one as well. Dean Markley even makes an under saddle piezo that can get by without a preamp.

[J.]

I have an M-1 active and it requires no preamp. I have an acoustic amp as well with decent eq options so having a preamp between the guitar and the amplifier would be redundant. I think the LR Baggs PARA DI would be good if you had a passive piezo device. The K&K Pure Western and Pure Mini don't require a preamp either but they'd probably benefit from one. If you have an all-passive UST wired directly to the jack I'd definitely get a preamp for it.

[sdelsolray]

 

This is at least misleading if not outright wrong. The question was whether the pickup needs a built-in preamp. The purpose of a built-in preamp is to boost the signal coming out of the pickup to a level at which it's usable by the amp. Most magnetic pickups don't need a built-in preamp and some others can get by without one as well. Dean Markley even makes an under saddle piezo that can get by without a preamp.

 

 

 

It seems your understanding of the word "preamp" is different than mine. I stand by what I said. Try plugging that magnetic pickup or DM's UST directly into a power amp (i.e., no preamp in the signal chain), and listen to what happens (or what doesn't happen).

 

All of these pickups need a preamp. It's just a matter of where it is located, whether it is builit into the pickup assembly, in the guitar, plugged into the endpin, on the floor, or as the first gain stage for any acoustic guitar amp or mixing board (except line level mixers). To say a pickup does not need a preamp is simply not correct. Now, if there's a preamp already there (as in the Baggs M-1 active), then yes, that pickup doesn't need a preamp because it already has one built in.

[Terry Allan Hall]

 

This is at least misleading if not outright wrong. The question was whether the pickup needs a built-in preamp. The purpose of a built-in preamp is to boost the signal coming out of the pickup to a level at which it's usable by the amp. Most magnetic pickups don't need a built-in preamp and some others can get by without one as well. Dean Markley even makes an under saddle piezo that can get by without a preamp.

 

 

Well, this is pretty much true, but even the Dean Markley "Sweet Spot" (the UST you referred to) is vastly improved by using a preamp of some sort...

[DeepEnd]

 

Well, this is pretty much true, but even the Dean Markley "Sweet Spot" (the UST you referred to) is vastly improved by using a preamp of some sort...

 

Agreed. Note that I said the Sweet Spot can "get by" without a preamp, not that it sounds best without one.

[J.]

 

It seems your understanding of the word "preamp" is different than mine. I stand by what I said. Try plugging that magnetic pickup or DM's UST directly into a power amp (i.e., no preamp in the signal chain), and listen to what happens (or what doesn't happen). All of these pickups need a preamp. It's just a matter of where it is located, whether it is builit into the pickup assembly, in the guitar, plugged into the endpin, on the floor, or as the first gain stage for any acoustic guitar amp or mixing board (except line level mixers). To say a pickup does not need a preamp is simply not correct. Now, if there's a preamp already there (as in the Baggs M-1 active), then yes, that pickup doesn't need a preamp because it already has one built in.

 

 

Yep. I think the schism lies in the fact that we have two definitions of "preamp" floating around when it comes to acoustic guitars. Pretty much everything has a preamp in the general sense. My Genz Benz combo amp has a preamp, just like every other instrument amp. A mixing board has several preamps, usually one for each channel. A signal always needs to be preamped in some way before it hits the power stage, whether it's a power amp or the power section in a combo amp or whatnot. Preamps are pretty much universal.

 

However, when talking about acoustic guitars, we usually use the term "preamp" selectively, meaning only onboard preamps for acoustic pickups (a barn door in the side or some type of battery-requiring device) or outboard preamps like the LR Baggs PARA DI. In that sense we generally exclude the preamps in combo amplifiers or mixing boards. When someone says "do I need a preamp with this" they're usually referring to some type of onboard or in-line preamp between the guitar itself and the device it will eventually be plugged into.