Acoustic Pre Amp recommendations

[Sonic Mountain]

Hey All,

So I recently did some work on a bunch of acoustic guitars, mostly just freshen up and minor repairs. All went well but one of the guitars was an Epiphone Ej200 that he really wants to gig with. It has some kind of on board mic, but its sounds pretty rubbish. Very thin and cold.

I've just been googling around and it looks like some of these guitars did come with an on board pickups/preamp, but its totally different to what was on this guitar. All it had was basically a volume knob in the sound hole. No control panel/battery pack like on most other guitars. So I'm thinking its been added after market at some point.

So because I'm not really into acoustics much, my questions is, what are some good recommendations for on board pickups and pre-amps that can be added without too much chopping up of the guitar?

[kuanjb]

Could switch to an under bridge rod piezo. Or a soundboard piezo. Or combination. Or there are magnetic pickups which can be mounted in the sound hole.
From what I've read the main problem with gigging is feedback. There are sound hole plugs which can help with that but obviously won't work with any sound hole mounted pickups or controls. Although I haven't tried, I have read that acoustic guitar foot pedals can be better than on board controls. EQ, compression, preamp, and now they have modelling similar to the Fender Tele acoustic, and the onboard units on Taylor and the like from Fishman. Those onboard units cost $600+ and can then only be used with a single guitar. The equivalent Fishman pedal is cheaper, you get more controls, and you can then use it for all your guitars.

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[kuanjb]

https://www.musicradar.com/tuition/g...ve-gigs-643271

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[blinddrew]

Best thing I've heard recently is the ToneDexter pedal. Worth a Google to see if it's available where you are.

[TZK321]

LR Baggs makes top quality electronics. I'm not sure how easy the install would be.

[Sonic Mountain]

Thanks for the replies. I'm across the different ways to do it, what I was mostly hoping for is some specific makes and models people have experience with as there are a lot of options.

It currently appears to have just a mic, no piezo. I'll get him to bring it around and we'll pull it out and see if we can work out what it is exactly.

At the moment we are considering either the Fishman Matrix Infinitely or the LR Baggs iBeam Active system as replacements as they are both completely in guitar and don't require any mods to the body.

That's kind of at the upper range of what he wants to spend. We are also considering a sound hole pickup and external pre-amp. He's suggested the Boss pedal preamp as he likes the Boss stuff and it's affordable. That Tone Dexter one does look excellent, but certainly pricey and I can only find it in the states at the moment.

Specific models of Sound hole pickup that people have had good experiences with would be helpful. Also experiences of Piezo vs Pickup vs mic I'd be interested in.