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I just install one of the JJB pickups that appear to be from the same source as the ones in the original post. $49.00, free shipping and have a very balance tone even without a pre-amp. Fast shipping and at 1/2 the price of K&K it is a good deal for a customer wanting a reasonable priced natural sounding pickup.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

No, the JJB's are heavier like the K&K's...

I don't have a lot of experience amplifying acoustics. Why does everyone seem to put the pick up part under the bridge? I played around with a cheap pickup several years back and the spot I liked the best was on the less responsive upper bout area.

Because it seems, through several thousand SBT installs by hundreds of installers, to be the best spot.

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https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13

You know, that actually does make a lot of sense in the case of microphone type pickups. Seems like you'd want it on the most stationary part of the inner box (the headblock), so the mic can hear the sound waves going around as clearly possible, rather than sound waves + the motion of whatever wood surface it's stuck to. Especially if the Anthem/Lyric foam tape is intended to isolate from those wood vibrations.

Right if it's a mic it would seem that placement would be less critical. I have a hunch that it's not though and would be very surprised if folks such as LR Baggs have not tried other locations as well.

Nonetheless there is not much other than cord length.... stopping any one of use from doing some controlled testing with say a Lyric. Since the mic's cord is too short to reach the neck block if the input jack in installed in the tail block the testing could be done with spectrum analysis in two modes. With the cord, the input cord through the sound hole to harmonize both tests mount the mic on the neck block and see what you get. They again with the cord through the sound hole position the Lyric mic as per the manufacturer's recommendation in front of the pin holes on the bridge plate. In both cases use the same thick, double sided tape.

To be fair we should have an automated geetar picker with repeatable results which rules me out... Something mechanical perhaps with a cam drive might do.

My hunch is that the balance would be very different in the two locations but it's admittedly a hunch. Seems to me... that the bass response though the mic would be superior/greater in the traditional location over the neck block location but who knows.

One way to find out though and looks like Audacity may be back in my future....

I believe the Lyric design concept, physical and electronic is to capture the original wave off the sound board and to reject reflections off the back and sides -- to me the upper bout placement seems the opposite, picking up all the in phase and out of phase noise going on inside and out in and area that is not even producing the desired output.

Just my thoughts

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Could very well be. On the other hand when I put my ear to the sound port in the upper bout it sure does sound good. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I don't think listening to a guitar at different vantage points is the issue --- its capturing the output and converting it to an electronic feedback resistant signal for amplification, that is the challenge.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Also, its my understanding that the best acoustic sound can be picked up with a directional studio microphone 12 or so inches away from the guitar pointed at the about the 12th fret. So I guess there is a sweet spot, but obviously this is not practical for stage performance.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

But when all is said and done -- there are no laws or acoustic guitar police, you can position and attach microphones and pick-ups where ever you please.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/