Pickups and Acoustic Recording.

[jkhuri44]

Just a general question about studio recording and acoustic pickups.

Interested to see if anyone here combines acoustic pickups (of a guitar for example) along with mics when recording in studio, or these are typically only used live?

I've had my eyes on an Ehrlund Pickup for a while now, and pretty close to dropping cash on it, seeing as it has shitloads of other creative sound design uses....

[wez]

it's pretty normal to record the pickup as well as mic the guitar. it usually doesn't sound great of course, but is a good backup in case of excessive spill or other problems with the mic track.

can also be useful for beefing up the bottom end... give it some LPF, compress hard, blend a little back in with the mic (check the phase of course).

having said that, when i get a mix with a guitar DI track i usually just get rid of it.

[jkhuri44]

yeah, thats what i do too. just interested to get other people's thoughts.

[The Tasmanian]

The best pick-ups i find are ones you can remove and put on anything.
Then I get to move the pick-up around the body of the instrument until I get the tome I am looking for - when they are stuck on a bridge - that's the sound and that's it (and I too usually don't use or like it)
For eg - when you move away from the bridge up to where the neck meets the body its amazing how many different sounds and warmer tones you can get by just moving a bit, You get to EQ by moving - just like a mic.

[jkhuri44]

^ yep, thats what the Ehrlunds are....triangular contact mics...

[GlennS]

I have done it on occassion (blending DI & mic), usually for better isolation, sometimes for the sound. Also sometimes recorded through a guitar amp. I'm pretty sure the acoustic guitar sound of Alice in Chains' "Jar OF Flies" EP was either DI'd or through an amp. It sounds really good. Mostly I prefer a natural guitar sound & just use mics.

[Chinagraf]

I've done it occasionally with a woody pickup and an LR Baggs preamp. Blended it with a 57 mic for some jangly rhthm stuff.
The best sounding pickup/nylon string I've ever heard was a Baggs Elements bridge pickup in a guitar made by Jack Spira - www.jackspiraguitars.com - it sounded just like a mic. I think it had more to do with the builder than the pickup.

[jkhuri44]

nice, the reports of the Ehrlund pickup are the same, very microphone like. the website examples are great.