Technical notes on the pickup test:

Mics:

All mic recordings were done with a pair of Neumann TLM103s as spaced pairs, about 1 foot from the guitar, positioned at the 14th fret and just below the bridge. On tracks 1-29, the room is a 12 foot square with 10 foot sloped ceiling. Mics went directly to the mic channels of a Yamaha AW4416 multi-track hard disk recorder. Tracks were recorded as 16bit, 44.1Khz.  On tracks 30 and on, I recorded in my converted garage studio.

Although I attempted to capture a "good" sound on the mics, as a benchmark, I wasn't overly critical. I did not adjust the mic positions for each guitar, I recorded in my practice room, an area I rejected as not good enough when recording my recent CD for all kinds of reasons (see recording notes). If you listen closely you may detect planes flying by, my wife typing in the next room, or my son playing electric guitar in the garage below me. There were also two computers running in the room, and the Yamaha 4416 also has a fan and disk, all within feet of the mics. I didn't worry too much about this, as these are typical of the kinds of problems someone who wants to use pickups for home recording faces.

All tracks, both mics and pickups, were normalized, but no EQ, or other effects were added. I did slightly trim the length of all tracks, fading out the tails in the interest of space. Especially with the pickups, there was often a lot of sustain on the last notes of the examples.

Guitars and pickups:

Unless otherwise noted, all guitars were strung with GHS LJ40TM (true medium) strings, and recorded through a Raven Labs PMB-1 stereo preamp, into the Yamaha AW4416. Unless otherwise noted, stereo pickups were recorded with each side fully panned, so that each track is one of the two pickups, at equal volume. (Note: this may not be the optimal blend. However, this allows you to easily hear each aspect of the stereo setups, and you can feel free to download and experiment with any blend you like.) Strings were always "newish". That is, if I hadn't just changed them for this recording, they had very little playing time on them.

1. Taylor 914C: A 1985 Englemann Spruce, Indian Rosewood cutaway. B-Band Core 99 pickup with undersaddle pickup and B-Band Mic. The mic is installed in an alternate position, aimed at the soundboard behind the bridge. The mic roll-off switch was not activated in this test. My Installation.
    
2. Taylor 514C: A Cedar/Mahogany Taylor without any Taylor/Fishman electronics. The I-Beam was installed with the I-Beam tool, positioned under the bridge, but mounted with a piece of 3M double sided tape, suggested by the folks at More Music in Santa Cruz. My Installation.
    
3. Hamblin Concert:  A concert sized guitar by Kent Hamblin. Englemann spruce and Brazilian rosewood. The B-Band 1470 AST, mounted in the recommended location under the saddle. My Installation.
    
4. Collings OM3. Sitka and Indian Rosewood Collings OM. B-Band 1470 AST with the B-Band Mic, thru and A2 preamp. My Installation.
    
5. Collings OM3. Same guitar as #4. An unmodified Mag Mic, temporarily installed, withe mic mix control set so the mic is completely out of the mix. The first pass at this produced a lot of noise, which I eventually traced to the halogen lights/dimmer in my room. This is a re-recording without the lights on. My Installation.
    
6. Collings OM3. Same as #5, but with the mic at about 1/3 volume. My Installation.
    
7. Hamblin Concert: Same guitar as #3, but with a B-Band UST/AST A2 setup. This is one of the configurations I experimented with mixing and EQing. My Installation.
    
8. Goodall Concert Jumbo: A Sitka/Indian Rosewood Goodall. Standard I-Beam placement and installation using the supplied Jig and tape. My Installation.
    
9. Olson SJ: A 2000 Cedar/Indian Olson, with an Olson-installed LB6 pickup. Pickup installed by Jim Olson.
    
10. Martin OM18. A sitka/mahogany OM18V, with a PUTW Stealth, installed by Fran Guidry. This pickup was recorded via a PUTW Line Driver, bypassing the Raven Labs preamp. This guitar was strung with Elixer Nanoweb strings. My Installation.
     
11. Wingert E: A 2002 German Spruce/Cocabola Model 'E'. I temporarily installed a PUTW #27 directly under the saddle. I also added a mixed/EQ'd version of this setup. My Installation.
     
12. Wingert E. Same as #11, but with pickup moved to a position on the bridge plate, just behind the bridge pins. David Enke at PUTW suggested that this position had been found to work better on a WIngert guitar. There is also a mixed, EQd version of this recording. My Installation.
     
13. Taylor 514C: A 2000 Taylor with the stock Fishman blender. Recorded with just the pickup, pickup plus internal mic with a 50-50 blend, and just the internal fishman mic. All tone controls were set flat. Taylor Factory Installation.
     
14. Ovation: A 1985, with the Ovation pickup. Someone suggested via e-mail that Ovation was the "standard" for pickups, so I added this as a comparison point. A very different guitar than any of the others here. Ovation factory Installation.
     
15. McCollum. A Cedar top/Koa McCollum Grand Auditorium, with an L.R. Baggs Ribbon pickup combined with a Highlander Mic, with a Baggs Double Barrel internal preamp. . The electronics were installed by Lance McCollum. This guitar was strung with Elixer Polyweb Strings. Pickup and mic installed by Lance McCollum.
     
16. Tacoma DM-18. This guitar, a D-18 style guitar with D'Addario EJ-16 strings, has a passive K&K transducer with the K&K mic. Pickups were superglued directly to the guitar, and the installation was done by Dieter at K&K. Dieter is the designer of the K&K pickups. His comment on this recording was that it most resembled the sound he expected from his pickups. The recording was made thru a K&K Quantum Blender. The mic channel tones controls were set flat (completely counterclockwise) and all pickup tone controls were set at the 9 o'clock position. Also see example #25. Pickup installation and guitar selection by K&K Sound. The mic on this guitar was in a rather unusual position, parallel to the strings, near the base of the neck, as shown here:
    
     
17. Bourgeois OM: A 2002 Pantheon/Swan European Spruce/Brazilan Rosewood OM, as spec'd by Steve Swan. After hearing the Trinity, with it's soundboard transducer plus Mic setup, I wanted to try the PUTW #27 paired with a mic. Here I used a MiniFlex #136 mic, with a 1.5 volt battery attached to the mic support. Also see the EQd/Mixed example of this setup. My Installation.
     
18. Goodall Concert Jumbo: Same guitar as #8, but with a Baggs Dual Source, ribbon + mic. This is the model with the controls that mount on the guitar in the soundhole. The mic is in a small foam block, and was placed on the back, opposite  the sound hole. My Installation.
     
19. Sobell Model 1, Brazilian and European Spruce with the Highlander IP-1 undersaddle pickup. Sobell Installation.
     
20. Taylor 914C with a Baggs Active Element undersaddle pickup. Same guitar as #1. My Installation.
     
21. Bourgeois OM: Same guitar as #17, with a Joe Mills Mic paired with a PUTW #27. The Joe Mills was phantom powered from the Raven Labs PMB-1. The #27 was preamped with a PUTW Line Driver, then into the PMB-1. The line driver is something David Enke made for me that passes the second channel straight through, in this case allowing the phantom power from the PMB-1 to rech the mic as well. Slight bass cut on the mic, at the Raven Labs preamp. My Installation.
     
22. Bourgeois OM: A similar setup to #21, but with a McIntyre Acoustic Feather in the place of the PUTW #27. Both the feather and the Mic went directly to the Raven Labs PMB-1, which again provides phantom power for the mic. Slight bass cut on the mic, at the Raven Labs preamp. My Installation.
     
23. Taylor 914C: A Sunrise magnetic soundhole pickup, along and paired with a Mic. In this case, I used the K&K Mic, which is not normally something you'd use standalone, but it was already installed, so this provides some idea of the Sunrise paired with a mic. Both the pickup and the mic were directly into the Raven Labs PMB-1 preamp. Slight bass cut on the mic, at the Raven Labs preamp. My Installation.
     
24. Taylor 914C: A GFP undersaddle pickup from SC Laboratories. This is an active system, with an internal preamp in the end pin assembly. My Installation.
     
25. Tacoma DM-18. Same setup as #16, but using the Raven Labs PMB-1 preamp. All controls were set to flat, except for a slight bass cut on the mic. Compare this sound with #16, which uses a K&K QUantum Blender preamp designed to best match the K&K pickups. Pickup installation and guitar selection by K&K Sound.
     
26. Olson SJ. Same guitar as #9, but I've replaced the LB6 saddle with a Bone Saddle. The pickups are Pickup The World #54, wired in stereo. This setup i basically 2 #27's, running along the X-brase on each side of the saddle. Run directly into the Raven Labs PMB-1.
     
27.  Collings OM3, with a Rare Earth Blend. The mic was in the lower 1/3 of the sound hold, pointing up toward the strings. The "pickup only" take was recoreed with the blend control all the way to the "mic off" position. The Mic Blend was with the blend control at it's center detente position.
     
28. Taylor 914C with K&K Trinity Pickup + Mic, TAPE Mounted. This is a non-approved installation, but I wanted to see how much was gained by gluing these pickup onto the guitar rather than using double stick tape. I used double-stick Scotch brand carpet tape. The preamp on this recording is the K&K Quantum.
     
29. "Big Mo", an old Kay flattop, with a mono PUTW #40 (dual #20s) with the onboard stealth preamp.
     
30. Martin 16 Series Dreadnaught/Baggs M1. Tests 30-32 were all done with the same guitar, provided by Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, CA. This guitar was loaded up by Mike Gold and company at Gryphon to demo multiple pickups. The guitar had Elixer Polyweb strings on it. If you have a chance to stop by Gryphon, you can try the guitar and its pickups out for yourself. As you can see in the photo below, all three systems are installed simultaneously. I originally intended to record all three at once, but discovered I didn't have enough inputs of the same type to be fair. I believe I ended up recording the M1 and the Trance System at the same time (along with the Mics), with the M1 running thru the Raven Labs PMB-1.
    
    
     
31. Martin 16 Series Dreadnaught/Highlander IP1/Mic. This is the stereo system, recorded into the Raven Labs PMB-1.
     
32. Martin 16 Series Dreadnaught/Trance Amulet. This is a stereo Trance Amulet system. The Amulet preamp provides line levels, which I ran directly into line inputs on the recorder.
     
33. Martin DM Dreadnaught/Baggs Active Element. This is a second guitar provided by Gryphon, and available to be played at the store. This one has 4 different pickups installed. This guitar also had Elixer Polyweb strings.
    
    
     
34. Martin DM Dreadnaught/IBeam. This was a passive IBeam, run directly into the Raven Labs PMB1
     
35. Martin DM Dreadnaught/Mag Mic. I put the mic about 1/3 of the way up for this test.
     
36. Martin DM Dreadnaught/Fishman SBT. The Fishman SBT is claimed to be for a classical guitar, but Mike has one installed in this dreadnaught.
     
37. McCollum Baritone/PUTW #54. The baritones were tuned to "DADGAD" in B. This one uses a stereo PUTW #54. My installation.
     
38. Ralph Bown Baritone/Highlander IP1 pickup. Also tuned to down to B. The Highlander IP1 undersaddle pickup was installed by Ralph Bown.
     
39. Hamblin Grand Concert/PUTW Dynamic Duo. This is a PUTW Stealth undersaddle pickup with a #27 wired together in parallel. My installation.
     
40. Olson SJ/Baggs M1. The Baggs M1 magnetic pickup.
     
41. Taylor 914/PUTW54 Stereo. Same setup as test 26, but installed in my Taylor 914C. My installation. The two pickups are panned hard left and hard right.
     
42. Taylor 314/ES. This new 314 had Elixer strings, all controls on the ES set to the detent position.
     
43. Bourgeois/Trance Amulet. Trance system recorded in stereo, panned full left and right. The pickup was installed at Gryphon Stringed Instruments. All the Trance recordings were done with the Amulet preamp running directly into line inputs on my recorder. Takes 43-46 were all done at once, they're just different combinations of the Trance and the Sunrise pickups.
     
44. Bourgeois/Trance. Same system as above, but panned as Trance recommends, about 10 and 2 o'clock. This slightly violates my "no mixes" rule, but it seems useful since this is Trance's recommended way to use the pickup in stereo.
     
45. Bourgeois/Trance/Sunrise. This is "Michael Hedge's style setup" as I understand it, a Sunrise magnetic, and the treble Trance Pickup. I panned them hard left and right.
     
46. Bourgeois/Stereo Trance/Sunrise. This also violates my rule of "no mix", but I wanted to see how the Sunrise would combine with the stereo Trance pickups. The Sunrise is dead center, the Trance pickups panned hard left and right. The volume was approximately equal between the two systems.
     
47. Taylor 914/PUTW 54 Mono. Same setup as #41, but with the pickups wired as mono.
     
48. Taylor 914/Sunrise/PUTW. I wanted to see how the PUTW with a magnetic compared to the Sunrise/Trance combination. This is a similar arrangement to #45, but using one side of a PUTW #54 pair, panned hard left, with the Sunrise panned hard right.
     
49. Taylor 914/Sunrise/PUTW54 Stereo. This is similar to #46, but using the PUTW #54 instead of the Trance pickup. The Sunrise is mixed in the center, the PUTW #54 pickup pair is panned left and right, with the two systems at approximately equal volumes between all three pickups.
     
50. Taylor 914C/Schatten HFN Artist Series This is a new "soundboard transducer" type pickup installed in my Taylor 914. My installation.
     
51. Taylor 914C/Fishman NeoD. Fishman's Passive Magnetic pickup. Installed this and recorded it in the same take as the Schatten HFN recording
     
52. Fishman Aura With a Hamlin Grand Concert and a Fishman Rare Earth. I recorded the rare earth dry, using the Aura as a preamp, but bypassed. Then I recorded the default program 15, which is for a rosewood OM with a magnetic pickup. The default program is 75% Aura, 25% dry pickup. The Aura manual recommends 100% Aura for recording, so the second Aura sample is 100% Aura.
     
53. Fishman Aura with a Taylor 514/Fishman Blender undersaddle, pickup only. This is a "reamp" track, where I simply replayed the previously recorded track thru the Aura, and re-recorded the output. This is using the Aura factory program 9, which is a Grand Auditorium with an undersaddle.
     
54. Fishman Aura with a Taylor 514/Sunrise magnetic pickup. This is a "reamp" track. This is using the Aura factory program 15, which is a OM with an magnetic.
     
55. Fishman Aura with a Taylor 914/Fishman NeoD magnetic pickup. This is a "reamp" track. This is using the Aura factory program 14, which is a grand Auditorium with an magnetic.
     
56. Hamblin Concert/SC Laboratories TriMode Transducer, a soundboard transducer system. Installed with the double sticky tape supplied with the pickup.
     
57. Hamblin Concert with a Schertler DynG, mounted with putty to the treble side of the bridge.
     
58. Taylor 914  with a Schertler DynG, mounted with putty to the treble side of the bridge. This pickup/mic really seems to need some EQ, check out the EQ'd page for an example of how it can sound with a bit of adjustment.
     
59. Hamblin/Radio Shack lapel mic. $24 at Radio Shack, clipped to the edge of the sound hole below the strings. I seem to get about a question a day about these tracks! Note that this "lapel mic", is not a pickup, it's a condenser (electret) microphone, just a very, very cheap mic, so it's not too surprising that it sounds a lot more "mic-like" that many pickups without a microphone. It's not terribly practical for live use because it's cheaply made, has a short cord with a battery in it, isn't very convenient to mount on the guitar, and is feedback prone. In spite that, some people do use it, reportedly, for live use as a replacement for a pickup, which is why I added it here. I just walked into my local Radio Shack and asked for their lapel mic. I now see it online here: http://www.radioshack.com/sm-hands-free-tie-clip-omnidirectional-electret--pi-2102927_tb-techSpecs.html
     
60. Hamblin/Fishman Rare Earth, with the mic blend set in the middle detent position.