The tone is excellent and acoustic-sounding, the output was a little low but at the same time it did not overdrive my amp like other soundhole pickups have. The only control is a small lever switch mounted on the body of the pickup and is reached by poking your finger into the soundhole between the edge of the soundhole and the 6th string. The pickup features a built-in preamp that runs off of watch batteries. In an upcoming video compression review you will see that this was the only soundhole pickup that did not project unwanted body noise or low end hum. The highs had sparkle without the feedback you receive from an under-saddle setup, and the warmth of the bottom end held true to the guitar. The first thing I noticed is that there was no damping of acoustic response, and the balance from string to string was dead on. I find that your typical soundhole pickup is just an electric guitar pickup with a new cover not so in this case. I definitely want to hear the M80, although I have my concerns about feedback resistance.I am not one for acoustic guitar soundhole magnetic pickups but I was impressed. I have a Baggs M1A that I use for band volumes and it has worked quite well. I used the old version of the Lawrence pickups in the 80's and they didn't sound half bad, especially for the money. Most of the best acoustic amplification results come from at least two sources. If you want to get a more natural sound, blend in a little soundboard transducer. All magnetics will be a compromise, but at stage volumes they work extremely well. They are also lighter weight which can result in less wear on the guitar top. Good thing about these pickups is that they are a heck of a lot easier to dial in, easily available, and simple to mount.
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Honestly, it's a 1970's design that has never been meaningfully upgraded.įor every Sunrise you'll see on big stages, you'll see a couple dozen or more Baggs and Fishmans, used by folks with good ears and resources to use whatever sounds best. It's an oddly compressed tone, a little plasticky, and it makes me nuts. I've heard that tone with the pickup being used by Bonny Raitt, Richard Thompson, Leo Kottke and most recently - and damned if I didn't hear it before I could see what he was using - Jeff Tweedy. It can sound pretty good, but it's a lot fussier to match with a pre-amp, and there's a certain tone with strumming that is unmistakable. While it's a good pickup, I think a lot of the Sunrise mystique is based on its history when the pickup came out, there was nothing else like it on the market so a lot of big name players were seen using it. I know a lot of folks are Sunrise officianados, and let me start by saying that I used them exclusively for several years. If they're an audience of guitar players some will laud you on your sound and others will pony up critiques they too have cast stones on behalf of at one time or another. They're listening for chops and sincerity from the player.
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This led to Gibson sticking on the little black 'Patent Applied For' decals on the back of those early humbuckers (from late '57 till mid/late.
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However - the patent wasn't fully granted until July 28, 1959. And by 1957 the humbucker was standard issue on most of Gibson's products. The audience would be a mass of rolling eyes and facepalms if you took two seconds of their time to describe to them why you prefer one method of amplification over the other. Gibson filed their patent for the pickup design on June 22, 1955. And, while it is a decent sound and completely non-invasive, for all the hype I thought I'd be getting something more than it really is - just another SBT with huge feedback. I can get a balanced sound but it requires EQ'ing back on the mid and low more than a little.
![rare earth pickup single coil vs humbucker rare earth pickup single coil vs humbucker](https://www.bluestarmusic.com/assets/images/f/fishman_neo-buster_soundhole.jpg)
Bypassing the onboard preamp, I went straight out to a belt-clip preamp they make and no change - the treble side was weak. The instructions were followed and the unit properly installed. Initially I thought the p'up bug for the treble side wasn't installed correctly but it was. I have the K&K PWM into K&K's onboard preamp on a Goodall RCJC and was disappointed with the treble side performance.