FIshman Acoustic Pups.

Gassage

I have always found virtually every single pre-installed bloody acoustic pup to be utter shite - but when I bought @crunchman 's old 000-28EC with the soundhole Fishman I really totally got why people love this arrangement. It's an epically great pickup, it sings, it's clear, it don't feedback

I give it 5* Gassage stars.

Very impressed.

I know they're a tad unsightly but they really do the trick.

crunchman

I prefer the Fishman Ellipse Blender in the Martin I've still got. 

crunchman

By the way, the battery has been in that one for years.  If you are going to take it out to play live I'd put a new one in.

Gassage

@crunchman

Where, exactly is the batt?!

God I love that Martin AND I got the scratches out from your 'Al loves Harley Davidson's' belt buckle!

crunchman

It's underneath.  It's a button type.

There is a user guide here with a diagram.

http://www.fishman.com/product/rare-earth-humbucking

It's supposed to be good for 240 hours.

The rash on the back was from a security pass that I had to wear somewhere I was playing.  I made the mistake of wearing it on my belt and clip for the pass scratched it up something horrible.  It looked worse when the scratches were new.

ICBM

I also prefer magnetic soundhole pickups to piezos, usually. They sound somehow more 'natural' even though they don't sound any more 'like' an acoustic than a piezo does, if that makes sense. Just the inherent quality of the tone itself rather than what it sounds like.

That said, I think the Fishman Aura system driven by an undersaddle piezo sounds better still - that has both the tone and the likeness to a real acoustic, but you're hearing more of the modelled sound rather than the pickup itself if you have the blend above halfway. And it is a very fussy, non-intuitive system to set up, whereas the Rare Earth is plug and go.

The Rare Earth also sounds much better with distortion .

crunchman

I always found the rare-earth sounded ok with brand new zingy strings, but was a bit mid heavy and lacking top end otherwise.

I don't know how much of that is the PA at the church I normally play at though.  I set up some sounds on my Kemper at home with my studio monitors, and then took it into church and they sounded really mid heavy to the point of being nasty.  I had to set up a completely different set of rigs for use there.  I may have been experiencing something similar with the rare earth and blaming the pickup for it.  When I have used it other places I still think the Ellipse Blend sounds better though.

I did try a guitar with a rare-earth blend a while back and that sounded really nice.  The mic seemed to add in some of the detail that the pickup misses.  I think that blending in a small amount of mic helps a lot whether you have a soundhole or undersaddle.