AC-GTR pickup with "Strat" sound?

[rickymix]

Hi y'all,
I'm looking for the opposite of what everybody else seems to want
in an acoustic guitar magnetic pickup; something that sounds like an
electric guitar, ideally the middle pickup of a Strat. I just got a
Seagull Grande parlour guitar which I plan to use in my
laptop/ProTools travel rig. It sounds great acoustically, so I'll
just mic it if I want that natural sound.
But I'd also like it to serve double duty for recording electric
guitar parts, and I don't want to use a piezo. I have an old Bill
Lawrence pop-in pickup which over the years has served this purpose
well in other, full-sized acoustic guitars. Unfortunately, it doesn't
even start to fit inside the 3.25" soundhole of the Seagull parlour.
Any suggestions for alternatives, ideally something with
adjustable pole pieces? Or should I just mount a real strat pickup in
the Seagull with some woodscrews? It's not an expensive guitar, but
it does sound wonderful.
There's a new Lace pickup called the "Blade" which is a
micro-humbucker made for acoustic guitar. It's a really interesting
design; less than 1/4" wide and it attaches to the end of the
fingerboard, and has rave reviews. Has anyone here heard it?
The alternative would be something like the DiMarzio "Virtual
Vintage" series; singlecoil-size humbuckers which supposedly emulate
various classic Strat pickups. Any good? Any recommendations for
ways to mount one of these in the soundhole without doing too much
damage?
Thanks as always for sharing your expertise!
Cheers, Rick Novak.

[Dan [ www.sleepwalkermusic.net ]]

I'd pick up a used Japanese strat for $250 and just lug it with you, but
that's just me.
Dan
www.sleepwalkermusic.net
"rickymix" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi y'all,
> I'm looking for the opposite of what everybody else seems to want
> in an acoustic guitar magnetic pickup; something that sounds like an
> electric guitar, ideally the middle pickup of a Strat. I just got a
> Seagull Grande parlour guitar which I plan to use in my
> laptop/ProTools travel rig. It sounds great acoustically, so I'll
> just mic it if I want that natural sound.
> But I'd also like it to serve double duty for recording electric
> guitar parts, and I don't want to use a piezo. I have an old Bill
> Lawrence pop-in pickup which over the years has served this purpose
> well in other, full-sized acoustic guitars. Unfortunately, it doesn't
> even start to fit inside the 3.25" soundhole of the Seagull parlour.
> Any suggestions for alternatives, ideally something with
> adjustable pole pieces? Or should I just mount a real strat pickup in
> the Seagull with some woodscrews? It's not an expensive guitar, but
> it does sound wonderful.
> There's a new Lace pickup called the "Blade" which is a
> micro-humbucker made for acoustic guitar. It's a really interesting
> design; less than 1/4" wide and it attaches to the end of the
> fingerboard, and has rave reviews. Has anyone here heard it?
> The alternative would be something like the DiMarzio "Virtual
> Vintage" series; singlecoil-size humbuckers which supposedly emulate
> various classic Strat pickups. Any good? Any recommendations for
> ways to mount one of these in the soundhole without doing too much
> damage?
> Thanks as always for sharing your expertise!
> Cheers, Rick Novak.

[hank alrich]

Dan wrote:

> I'd pick up a used Japanese strat for $250 and just lug it with you, but
> that's just me.

He won't have room for that much additional burden. Have you been
following his research here lately? He's off on an adventure, and he can
take that strat or he can take a surfboard. Guess which one wins? <g>

--
ha

[[email protected]]

Rick:

You might try Hank Harris ( www.hankharris.com ). I've seen him on
several shows and he's used an old Martin with some kind of pick-up
and efx that gives him all kinds of Strat type sounds. It's
definitely different, but it's pretty cool. Hank is a great writer
and player and a heckuva nice guy, too. I'm sure he'd share his
set-up info. Contact info is on his website. Good luck.

will


(rickymix) wrote in message >...
> Hi y'all,
> I'm looking for the opposite of what everybody else seems to want
> in an acoustic guitar magnetic pickup; something that sounds like an
> electric guitar, ideally the middle pickup of a Strat. I just got a
> Seagull Grande parlour guitar which I plan to use in my
> laptop/ProTools travel rig. It sounds great acoustically, so I'll
> just mic it if I want that natural sound.
> But I'd also like it to serve double duty for recording electric
> guitar parts, and I don't want to use a piezo. I have an old Bill
> Lawrence pop-in pickup which over the years has served this purpose
> well in other, full-sized acoustic guitars. Unfortunately, it doesn't
> even start to fit inside the 3.25" soundhole of the Seagull parlour.
> Any suggestions for alternatives, ideally something with
> adjustable pole pieces? Or should I just mount a real strat pickup in
> the Seagull with some woodscrews? It's not an expensive guitar, but
> it does sound wonderful.
> There's a new Lace pickup called the "Blade" which is a
> micro-humbucker made for acoustic guitar. It's a really interesting
> design; less than 1/4" wide and it attaches to the end of the
> fingerboard, and has rave reviews. Has anyone here heard it?
> The alternative would be something like the DiMarzio "Virtual
> Vintage" series; singlecoil-size humbuckers which supposedly emulate
> various classic Strat pickups. Any good? Any recommendations for
> ways to mount one of these in the soundhole without doing too much
> damage?
> Thanks as always for sharing your expertise!
> Cheers, Rick Novak.

[rickymix]

Thanks, Hank.
Dan, I'll be doing excessive amounts of lugging as it is. 2
surfboards in a bag, a backpack, a shoulderbag with my laptop and
recording gear, and the parlour guitar. It's already the heaviest
I've ever traveled. Maybe I could carry the Strat with my
dick.......... nah, I'm not that talented. :>)

Acoustics question; what would happen to the sound of my Seagull
if I made the soundhole bigger, from 3.25" to 3.5". There's plenty of
room between the braces to do that, but I'm afraid of destroying the
tone. As I understand port theory, the bigger hole would let through
more bass volume but at a higher frequency. I'm not sure what the end
result would be. My thinking is that if I do permanently mount one of
the DiMarzio strat size pickups, it'll block at least 25% of the
soundhole, and I might need to regain that area to keep the same tone.
Or would the bass frequencies pass right through the pickup?
Cheers, Rick.

>> Dan wrote:
> > I'd pick up a used Japanese strat for $250 and just lug it with you, but
> > that's just me.
>
> hank alrich wrote:
> He won't have room for that much additional burden. Have you been
> following his research here lately? He's off on an adventure, and he can
> take that strat or he can take a surfboard. Guess which one wins? <g>

[Graham Duncan]

You could always try a Roland VG-8 or VG-88 with their hex pickup to emulate
a strat, tele or anything you want to create. This might be too heavy,
though.

Regards,

Graham

"rickymix" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi y'all,
> I'm looking for the opposite of what everybody else seems to want
> in an acoustic guitar magnetic pickup; something that sounds like an
> electric guitar, ideally the middle pickup of a Strat. I just got a
> Seagull Grande parlour guitar which I plan to use in my
> laptop/ProTools travel rig. It sounds great acoustically, so I'll
> just mic it if I want that natural sound.
> But I'd also like it to serve double duty for recording electric
> guitar parts, and I don't want to use a piezo. I have an old Bill
> Lawrence pop-in pickup which over the years has served this purpose
> well in other, full-sized acoustic guitars. Unfortunately, it doesn't
> even start to fit inside the 3.25" soundhole of the Seagull parlour.
> Any suggestions for alternatives, ideally something with
> adjustable pole pieces? Or should I just mount a real strat pickup in
> the Seagull with some woodscrews? It's not an expensive guitar, but
> it does sound wonderful.
> There's a new Lace pickup called the "Blade" which is a
> micro-humbucker made for acoustic guitar. It's a really interesting
> design; less than 1/4" wide and it attaches to the end of the
> fingerboard, and has rave reviews. Has anyone here heard it?
> The alternative would be something like the DiMarzio "Virtual
> Vintage" series; singlecoil-size humbuckers which supposedly emulate
> various classic Strat pickups. Any good? Any recommendations for
> ways to mount one of these in the soundhole without doing too much
> damage?
> Thanks as always for sharing your expertise!
> Cheers, Rick Novak.

[Geoff Wood]

wrote:
> Rick:
>
> You might try Hank Harris ( www.hankharris.com ). I've seen him on
> several shows and he's used an old Martin with some kind of pick-up
> and efx that gives him all kinds of Strat type sounds. It's
> definitely different, but it's pretty cool. Hank is a great writer
> and player and a heckuva nice guy, too. I'm sure he'd share his
> set-up info. Contact info is on his website. Good luck.


In the DVD 'extras' on DAvid Gilmours Meltdown, he is shown doing a
convincing "Comfortably Numb' lead solo on acoustic. Not sure what guitar,
but I would imagine most of it would be in the amping .

geoff

[hank alrich]

rickymix wrote:

> Acoustics question; what would happen to the sound of my Seagull
> if I made the soundhole bigger, from 3.25" to 3.5". There's plenty of
> room between the braces to do that, but I'm afraid of destroying the
> tone. As I understand port theory, the bigger hole would let through
> more bass volume but at a higher frequency. I'm not sure what the end
> result would be. My thinking is that if I do permanently mount one of
> the DiMarzio strat size pickups, it'll block at least 25% of the
> soundhole, and I might need to regain that area to keep the same tone.
> Or would the bass frequencies pass right through the pickup?

Over in RMMGA there might be some cogent info about some of this. If I
had a question like that reamin' one I'd call Lance McCollum and ask
him.

--
ha

[rickymix]

"Graham Duncan wrote:
> You could always try a Roland VG-8 or VG-88 with their hex pickup....This
> might be too heavy, though.

I sure wish someone would make a Protools plug-in that would do what
the VG-8 does, perhaps via USB? The technology is totally there, plus
it could auto-correct the time-lag problem which Midi-Guitar has
always been cursed with.
There's just no perceived market. But I bet when someone finally
does it, it'll be a hot item and everyone will say, "Gee, why hasn't
anyone done this before?" Too bad, meanwhile. Are there any plug-in
programmers on this newgroup?
Cheers, Rick Novak.

[ScotFraser]

<< I sure wish someone would make a Protools plug-in that would do what
the VG-8 does, perhaps via USB? >>

Not PT compatible, but isn't that basically what a G Port is (not the
modelling, but the USB entry into the computer)?


Scott Fraser

[rickymix]

> << I sure wish someone would make a Protools plug-in that would do what
> the VG-8 does, perhaps via USB? >>
>
scotfraser wrote:
> Not PT compatible, but isn't that basically what a G Port is (not the
> modelling, but the USB entry into the computer)?

Hi Scott, long time no see!
My bad, I was thinking the Roland "GK " guitar to Midi
translators, not the "VG" stuff. The G Port doesn't spit out Midi,
does it?
Cheers, Rick.