These are all installed systems, Ted, so I can certainly understand if you'd prefer a magnetic pickup. Let anyone really interested find him from the info above.) It's LeVan's Guitar Repair on 17th Ave., Nashville. If you want the opinion of a luthier with an A-list clientel, give him a call. His early experiences with it suggested it required a bit more expertise in installation than the ads suggest. John likes it, but feels it still needs to be carefully positioned. If I'm going to use a mic, it'll be on a mic stand. (BTW - He installed the preamp/eq onboard, similar to the Tak and many other installed systems.) (It possesses plenty of body overtones) Not like any piezo I've auditioned. Not harsh and definitely not overly fundamental. In fact, far better than the Tak ever did. The Blueridge sounds great (With his expert setup, of course!) and the Baggs ribbon sounds great too. That's when I learned John's a good guy who looks out for his customers best interests. Baggs ribbon pickup in it, for less than it would cost to fix the Tak's neck. When that guitar was damaged, John LeVan, a luthier from LA who'd relocated to Nashville convinced me to buy an inexpensive Blueridge acoustic and he'd install an L.R. It was beautiful and I constantly received great comments about it. I owned a Takamine FP360-SC back when Tak was THE shit, plugged in. Well, as a Baggs afficianado, I should point out I'm a bit biased. I have to engage the 20db cut switch on my PA or I have feedback that's impossible to control. Oh, I should mention the Fishman Rare Earth is very HOT. There are a couple of dual units too but I think they'll all be mic and piezo and to the best of my knowledge will require some modificatioins to the guitar too. I usually route it back and behind the strap but it's still kind of in the way. I also use a clip in Dean Markley that works and sounds pretty good but you have to fight the cord hanging down and often in the way. I thought the thing crapped out but it works fine plugged in at home so I'm sure that's a venue issue. It does sound very acoustic too but there are some venues I've played in that it sounded really weak and trebly. I have a Dean Markley Sweet Spot in my Yamaha FG-150 but it takes some modifications to the bridge insert and you'll have to drill a small hole in the bridge channel as well as drill out the end pin hole. It's an easy install if you can solder & if you can't you can leave the whole internal wiring bundled up you won't have to un-solder and re-solder the wires. It's a powered active system and you'll need to drill out the end pin hole to accept the 1/4' guitar plug connector.

It's a nice sounding pickup that uses clamps to mount into the hole. That being said, I have a Fishman Rare Earth in my D4 Guild. He's the guy that builds those sweet, acoustic sounding solid bodies. He said his arm can still be twisted to build one. He was building some very nice pickup systems for acoustics.

Piezo pickups sound terrible