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I am generally not a fan, but the extra warmth from the graphtech saddles seems to make it usable. Hard to rule out the quality of the pre-amp used too.
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Piezo = less good in general, marginally better at getting acoustic guitar sounds
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A necessary evil for performing live maybe, but no excuse for using it in a studio.
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Obviously it will never sound like a vintage Martin, but that isn't the point of it and no-one should reasonably expect it to.
I said maybe.....
I recognise my views are more militant than most though!
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
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Football is rubbish.
Very reliable, not much to go wrong.
Not particularly feedback prone.
Easy to set up in a basic form.
Cheap/VFM.
No battery/special cable etc.
Decent live sound in a band mix (particularly strummed rhythem).
Many modern acoustic guitars have that nasel hard new string sound already (IMHO).
Against:
Can sound Harsh.
Doesn't do the subtle 'Martin D' sound.
Not always suitable for pure acoustic/solo playing.
Takes a decent mixer chanel to contour the tone for many guitars.
Benefits from being plugged into a quality sound system (hey what doesn't)! That includes a suitable high impedence DI to load the pickup first.
If you've spent £2k+ on a working instrument then invest in a quality case, strap and Pickup solution.
I've loaned my old Epiphone acoustic with built in Piezo to players who play it through my big PA and it sounds OK and extra nice if there is a hint of Mic pointed at the sound hole mixed in. At that point I defy anyone thats not a real gear head to close there eyes and tell me what it is.
It was pretty close, you could tell that it was just modelling the guitar but I'm sure you could get even closer with a bit of reverb and some more tweaking.
If you're playing live it's definitely a good compromise.
On acoustic guitars there are better options but the issues can be mostly fixed with modern digital trickery.
If you have actually heard something and subsequently decided that, for you, it would be preferable to have the liquidized remains of every pet you've ever owned boiled and then poured into your ears then that's still not being blinkered or closed minded. It's making an informed choice.
In the '80s I loved the piezo sound, it was new and fresh sounding to me. I even fancied those solid body strat copies with acoustic bridges on them.
But I admit I find it all a bit bland these days - though not actually offensive.
[Nerd warning] There is a good reason why undersaddle pickups sound wrong. When you hear an acoustic guitar, the sound is produced by the *movement* of the strings, moving the soundboard. This means that the peak sound pressure comes when the string is moving fastest in the middle of its vibration cycle. This is also true of the signal waveform from a contact pickup, and even a magnetic - which respond to motion, not pressure - but is not true of a piezo trapped under the bridge saddle… that produces its peak signal at each end of the cycle when the string is exerting its maximum and minimum pressure on the pickup. Hence the odd overly-pronounced attack and weirdly hollow quality to the sound - because it's too sensitive to the sharp transient as the string is released, and is literally out of phase compared to the true acoustic sound, by 90º. That's also why blending one with another type of pickup sounds better, because you get the full frequency range of the piezo but with more of the correct phasing. [/Nerd warning]
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But it is absolutely awesome through filthy fuzz or distortion or both. It has a really weird attack then, almost like a "schlomp" sound, especially with a really floppy plectrum.