#149461  by Lephty
 
I have a Santa Cruz dreadnought with a K&K pickup in it. Sounds great plugged straight into the PA if it's a decent system with a competent sound engineer (which seems like less than half of the gigs I play, to be honest, but that's a different subject). But even on a good rig, I don't like leaving the control of my sound in someone else's hands.

In the way of preamps, I used to have a Fishman Aura, wasn't too crazy about it--a big list of presets, all useless IMO (but I know quite a few people who have them and like them). I switched to an LR Baggs Venue, and have been quite happy with it. Good EQ, including 2 separate notch filters to kill the feedback. It also has 2 separate outputs, so you can bring your own monitor so that you don't have to count on the house system to hear yourself.

Honestly, plugged-in acoustic gigs (especially w/ drummers) have always been a sore spot for me...just never been 100% happy with my sound.
 #149464  by JDB30
 
williamsaut wrote:This will be MY next acoustic guitar related purchase:

Fishman Aura Spectrum DI
I have the Aura Spectrum and it's great. You have to know how to use it to get the most out of it but it really takes the buzz off the piezo pickups. I have Fishman piezo's in nearly all of my acoustic guitars. I also have the TC Electronics G-Natural acoustic multi effects board and that has a few really nice acoustic-oriented effects.
 #149468  by tcsned
 
another one to consider is Headway. Their preamps are pretty awesome. The other guitarist in my Dead band uses one (the EDB-1 I think). My buddy Scott (the guy who hooked me up with the Schertler stuff) recommends these now.

http://www.headwaymusicaudio.com/
 #149524  by Dwarf Rat
 
I use the Bagga Anthem in my Santa Cruz Dread and a K&K in my Brondel. The K&K preamp is used for both. The Bagga has a better microphone sound. The K&K has less feedback.
 #160474  by moHuggi
 
I was fortunate to see some shows in the early '90's. It was at Copps coliseum in Hamilton '92...errr''93 my brain...anyway...they had Hornsby playing keyboards...wicked...and a rarely played Dark Star....

o.k. to the point....Jerry wasn't playing D-28 Martin... he was playing Takamine EF 340c... His went up for auction a couple ago ....I don't see many that close that match his serial number except the one I have...anyhoo....that's too bad...because....I wish there were more heads out there that had this guitar...cause I don't want to be the only standing on the moon.....sometimes I think I am getting close to the sound quality...

wondering if there is any dead tech thoughts on this ponder? tks.
 #160476  by Jon S.
 
The Aura has long been a fave of many. These days, the players I'm hearing from are raving about the Fire Eye Red Eye.

https://www.fire-eye.com/red-eye-1/

Their clean boost/buffer also looks interesting (this one I've not hear about specifically).

https://www.fire-eye.com/brighteye