The best live sound ultimately comes, I think, from a combination of undersaddle transducers and miniature condenser microphone into a blender pre-amp of some kind. (THE best acoustic D.I.) on the way to the board. With all of these guitars, I've found passive pickups superior to active models, and all go through a Baggs Para D.I. It's got am M1 positioned in the sound hole, which works quite will for more aggressive strumming in a mix of other instruments.

It's fitted with a Baggs I-Beam (passive), which is wonderful for solo work, but in the context of a band (doing the country/pop/rock thing), it's not so hot-and almost invariably requires a feedback buster (which are GREAT, IMHO, by the way).ДЄnother guitar, a Lakewook M-32, is more versatile for live work, see a lot of 'strum' parts in bands, and is outfitted with a K&K Pure Passive, a great undersaddle transducer tha provides a lot of the natural sound of the guitar (as transducers go) and is not at all 'thwappy' in tone.ДЇinally, there's an old Guild D-28 cherry that's sort of the 'beater' in the bunch and is often set-up in Nashville (high-strung) tuning. It's cedar top makes it particularly suceptible to feedback, as it's very thin and resonant.

One guitar, a Goodall Concert Jumbo, is mostly a fingerstyle and light-strumming instrument. All have different pickups geared to different uses and sounds. We have a bunch of nice acoustics in our studio, some of which also get used by folks playing out. That is, if you're playing solo fingerstyle on a small-body instrument in a coffee shop or small club, your needs are different than if you're playing agressive stumming on a dreadnaught in an arena. The question of which pick-up to use live depends overwhelmingly on the guitar you've got, the style of music you're playing, and the context (the size and type of the band and the size of the venue). or mic pre-can add a different flavor if the track calls for it. As has been stated, my sense is that pickups are less useful, as a general rule, in a recording context, though a good one-paired with a good D.I.

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