First, I know nothing about amps. I want to add some amplification to my fairly inexpensive weissie. Need a recommendation for a sound hole pickup and amp. Is the micro-cube acceptable for a pickup or is it better for a mic? I'm trying to decide between a pickup or maybe a SM-57 so I can use it with my reso also.
BTW I changed my bone/plastic (?) nut and saddle with brass that a luthier made for me. Sustain is very good and some increase in volume. It required some modification to fit, but worked out well for someone with zero mechanical ability.
14 Comments |
RobA says:
12/19/2013 4:00:16 PM
Fred, any good quality soundhole pickup will work well in a Weisseborn guitar. The most popular choices are Sunrise pickup, Seymour Duncan MagMic and the Baggs M1. One thing to keep in mind is that the Sunrise pickup and the Baggs require a preamp which adds to the cost. I've used both the Baggs and the Sunrise. Both work well, although I prefer the Sunrise
When it comes to amps the good news is that there's a wide variety of great choices available. I've had really good results with the newest Fishman Loudbox mini, with both my dobro and Weissenborn guitar. To my ears it sounds much, much better than the previous generation of Loudbox amps. Warmer and more detailed, plus the reverb sounds fantastic, almost as good as the effects unit in the AER Acousticube (which costs over $2000)
In my experience microphones do not work well with acoustic instrument amplifiers. You can only push the volume so far before the amp will start to feedback, in addition, acoustic amps are not capable of producing the full range of frequencies you'd get out of a P.A. system. The last thing I will mention is that Weissenborn guitars don't cut very well with microphones. Really limited low end response. Works 10x better with a good soundhole pickup
Hope this helps!
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 | bahilton says:
12/19/2013 4:06:59 PM
I am 100% sold on the K&K Twin Spot pickup. It has 2 transducers that you can place wherever you want, and they come in internal and external versions (depending whether or not you want to drill out a hole for the jack). The K&K has the truest sound I've ever heard, better than a saddle or sound hole pickup, in my opinion. And they're only 50-60 bucks.
A few weeks ago I did a comparison (or "shootout") between the McIntyre pickup in my Lazy River Weiss, and a K&K Twin Spot external. Now, the McIntyre is a great pickup, and I wouldn't call this a landslide by any means. In fact, you may have a different preference than me. I found the McIntyre to have a mid-range bump (to my ears). The K&K sounded more like what I hear acoustically. I also used an SE3000 condenser mic for comparison. I recorded all 3 tracks simultaneously during the same performance, to remove a lot of variables.
Here is a link to the tracks, so you can decide for yourself;
soundcloud.com/the-digbees/set...-shootout
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RobA says:
12/19/2013 5:14:16 PM
Bruce
Curious, have you done the a/b comparing the K&K pickup with a specific soundhole pickup? If so, which pickup and what were the sonic differences? I've never done so myself but one of my closest friends installed the a transducer pickup - Pick up the world - in one of his Weissenborn's a few years back. He really liked the results but as I recall he eventually went back to the Sunrise pickup and/or the Seymour Duncan MagMic because it gave superior low end response compared with a transducer.
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| bahilton says:
12/19/2013 7:00:54 PM
Rob, I have a Baggs M1 in my acoustic guitar, but I've never tried it in my Weiss. I find it has a "plastic-ey" tone, compared to the K&K. My son has the K&K on his mandolin, and it sounds just like the instrument, no coloration . I've never tried a Sunrise.
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RobA says:
12/19/2013 7:39:19 PM
Fair enough Bruce. I was just curious to see if you had ever done the a/b on your Weissenborn. I'm sure the K&K sounds great, but I'm also willing to bet that it doesn't have the other worldly low end response and fundamental tone that characterizes soundhole pickups in Weissenborn guitars. I seem to recall that someone in the group had recently installed a transducer and soundhole pickup in their Weissenborn in order to get the best of both worlds. I'm not ready to go that far - yet - but it'd be great to hear back from someone who has done so
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 | yeti says:
12/19/2013 7:44:54 PM
I' m new to the weissenborn but have used a K&K pure mini in my Martin D-18 for years and love it. So I had my luthier put a pure mini into my original style one (not an easy thing to do considering the guitar is only 3" deep) . The placement of the 3 transducers is a little different on a weiss but after contacting Dieter from K&K I felt assured that it'd be okay, and it turned out great. By itself the pickup sounds very good, more natural than a Duncan or sunrise (I have friends with those PU's in their original weissenborns) but at least as punchy and strong in the bass. I usually add a Sennheiser MD 421 very close to the soundhole, with the bass rolled off (that handy little 5way selector on the mic is great) and get plenty of gain before feedback. The key for my setup is to use a good powered PA speaker rather than an acoustic guitar amp. It's a much more versatile, full bandwidth and powerful solution, especially with a woofer added. I'm very happy with my amplified sound.
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| yeti says:
12/19/2013 7:46:23 PM
forgot to mention that the PU is invisible, so is the 1/8th" vintage jack so the guitar doesn't look like it has a PU at all, this is also important to me.
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RobA says:
12/19/2013 7:59:33 PM
Cool! Thanks for sharing! I recently sold my Mackie active powered P.A. speakers and bought QSC K12s which feature 2 independent line level/xlr inputs. So I've been using one speaker as a makeshift acoustic instrument amplifier. Very full sounding with truly impressive bass response. If I was in the market for an acoustic amplifier I'd think seriously about looking at either the K10 or K8.
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| yeti says:
12/19/2013 8:35:43 PM
I like the QSC K-10, it's what I've been using for a few years now, not just for guitar but also as a stand alone PA system, with a good vocal mic (MD421 for example) I don't need EQ and verb is not necessary in my view. For the money it's a better value than most combo amps for guitar.
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| yeti says:
12/19/2013 8:37:59 PM
just make sure you have a preamp/ DI with good EQ when using the QSC.
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 | Oldpiper73 says:
12/20/2013 12:00:48 PM
Bruce,
Took your advice and ordered the K&K. Thanks.
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 | Liz Williams says:
12/31/2013 5:11:41 PM
Just looking at this thread. Thanks for the advice about using P.A. speakers, and naming the ones you like.
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| yeti says:
1/22/2014 10:25:50 PM
Just did some recording of what is a pretty good approximation of my amplified sound. the K&K is very upfront in this recording with an XY pair of ADK mics and some reverb providing the ambience. My playing hasn't gotten much better since I started six months ago but it's a lot of fun nonetheless and I get to gig my rig quite often.
soundcloud.com/yeti64/weissenborn-k-k-adk
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 | resorick says:
3/5/2014 5:18:20 AM
Love my Fishman Loudbox Mini.Amazing tone and great size and price.My deep body Weissie sounds magnificent ,plenty of deep bass and the reverd rocks
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