Acoustic Guitar on Microphone VS Acoustic pickups?

[sanzo]

Hey. just asking, any idea which one sounds better?

putting a microphone near the hole of the guitar
or installing acoustic pickups to the guitar?

 

[slowth]

depends on your application

a mic will always be more accurate than what your pickup can give you. But mics are very sensitive to placement and if you don't have a good ear, u can easily make it sound worse than a pickup.

It's also very prone to feedback esp in large band situations...
also, it aint very mobile, so u'll have to stay in that 1 position when u play.. imagine a 1 hr set where u can't move the guitar!!

so.. yeah.. describing what you intend to do would help us help you

 

[blueprintstudios]

mike : has more umph, real body punch but stiff.
pickups : more skinny/clear, no feedback/flexible

 

[dudelove]

slowth basically covered all the points already. Mic'd up acoustic guitars are more common in the studio. On a live set, its more convenient when the guitar has a pickup.

 

[sanzo]

lol i see... well, thanks everyone =) but i think a pickup is more convenient.. less likely to get feedback.. and freedom to walk around. lol.

 

[EugeneSmasher]

I prefer a pickup. Less feedback, and I'm not too concerned about whether the tone is similar to my guitar's actual tone. As long as I like the sound, I'm fine.

Another thing about microphones is that you won't be able to move around much.

 

[rocky_acoustics]

I've read about the Fishman Rare Earth. They come in both humbucker and single coil. Anyone tried them before? Apparently you can install them for the live gig and remove them afterwards. The reviews have been fantastic for these pickups.

Personally I like my guitar pure, without all the electronics. But if one gets to play on a live gig often enough, it may be more convenient to get a pickup like that.

Cheers.

 

[Schon]

There is a sort of a mic clamp that u could clip on the guitar soundhole, isnt it?
& how 'bout in a nylon string situation?

 

[EugeneSmasher]

For classical, you can't use a magnetic soundhole pickup like the Seymour Duncan Woody, Dean Markley Promag or Fishman Rare Earth. These use a magnetic field, while the classical guitar's lower three nylon strings are nylon and won't generate any magnetic field (not sure how to put it, I'm not an electronics student).

It's either UST (Under-saddle transducer) or microphone direct. I've seen microphones that can be clipped to the sides of the soundhole, but they are microphones and thus have the same drawbacks as microphones placed near the soundhole, but at least you can move around as much as you want.