Roger Williams Guitars

Acoustic Pickup Systems

Introduction

Amplifying an acoustic instrument is not a task to be undertaken lightly.  No pickup or microphone in existence can truly and accurately  reproduce the natural acoustic sound of an instrument simply because there are too many variables and potential inaccuracies in the acoustic chain.

The sound that you hear is a combination of two components: the fundamental tone and it's overtones. On your guitar, the fundamental is the note that you get when you strike the string.  The overtones on the other hand, are all the other notes that you get as a by product of the string vibration.  The fundamental and the overtones combine to create what you hear as one sound. The quality of the instrument or it's "voice" is a direct function of all these overtones.  Hence the role of the amplification system is to accurately collect, distribute and amplify this extensive range of tones - not an easy task!

There are an enormous variety of devices for capturing the sound of an acoustic guitar and as many opinions on their acoustic performance as there are players!  One problem being that amplification of sound is very subjective.  Often the first and major difficulty for the luthier whose opinion is being sought is to find out what the player wants from amplification and why they want it.  Many factors can help determine the best choices; the players music and style, what the pickup system will connect to, the control required and the quality or fidelity of sound reproduction wanted being just a few.  Many experienced players already have their preferences and that is fine, but what of the less experienced?

Thousands of guitars have passed through my hands, many of them fitted with pickups of some sort and I have supplied and installed systems for many professional musicians who can be very demanding!  With the benefit of this experience I have reduced the number of pickup systems which I recommend to three "families" each of which are described in more detail below.  These systems have all been "road-tested" in the real-world of live stage performance and found to provide very satisfactory results.

I supply and fit mainly Highlander, B-Band and K&K System pickups, because after many years and hundreds of successful installations my customers have found that these produce the most authentic sound and reliable performance.   I do encourage you to study both the suppliers websites and seek user-reviews on your favourite forums before making a choice.  Please contact me for free advice and a quotation for your instrument, prices (2009) start from £150 UK Pounds supplied and fitted.

Highlander Musical Audio Products

The Highlander transducer is based around an ultra-sensitive coaxial cable which combined with a studio quality preamp provides a very neutral and realistic output when fitted under a saddle...  read more

B-Band

The B-Band pickup is based on electret  thin film technology similar to that used in high-quality condenser microphones.  It is fairly sensitive, well balanced and straightforward to install...  read more

K & K Sound

Since 1984, K&K Sound has manufactured top-quality pickups, microphones, and preamps for a variety of instruments including acoustic guitar, archtop/jazz guitar, resonator guitar..   read more

Other Makes

The Fishman Rare-Earth magnetic soundhole pickup specifically the Humbucker and the Blend (with internal mic) provide an easy and portable installation.  They give a clean, well balanced sound but many artists say it does need some equalisation to produce a more realistic "acoustic" sound.  The Fishman Rare-earth Blend is the preferred system of Gordon Giltrap and can be heard on many of his recordings.

LR Baggs make a large range of pickups and many artists use them successfully.   Although of high quality  I do not recommend them unless we can jointly identify a working combination of instrument, system and installation.

Many other systems are available and while many are of good quality, they are too numerous to mention here.  If you have a particular requirement then I will work with you to obtain the best installation and performance that the pickups can provide.

If you need more detail on the pickups themselves then I recommend that you visit the suppliers website (see my Links page).

For more practical information on choosing and using acoustic pickups read the article by Paul Abbot:  Zen and the Art of Acoustic Guitar Amplification which you should find illuminating.

All this said, I will fit any other pickup of your choice, but in this case I obviously cannot be responsible for the sound you will hear!