| Sorry, I hit send by accident, before I was finished editing.
"I am mostly a strummer but admit the stock piezo &
preamp on the Ecoustic can be pretty boomy on the low end and often
harsh and brittle on the upper. I have no clue if that is due to the
preamp or the DI or both."
Both.
But the pickup and onboard electronics are probably dominant in terms of tone problems. Older
piezo rigs are quite brittle-sounding, and often uneven in response.
"Still working on convincing myself to put as much into it as was
originally paid. After I got the set up to my liking it does play as
easily as any acoustic guitar I have tried. If it sounded more like a
Taylor afterwards then this would be a bargain."
I think you'd be very favourably impressed by the sound of your guitar with a new pickup system. If it feels good to you, why not invest a little money in it? I've done a number of these types of transformations, and never had a dissatisfied customer yet.
The Baggs Element comes with all the electronics, and is only about $100-110 online. The I-Beam is in the same bracket. How much the K&K costs you, depends on what you decide to use for a preamp.
"If I decide to bypass as suggested - and for the sake of making this
affordable - my understanding of what has been said thus far is I can
continue to use my 'nasty sounding passive DI' and use the soundboard
EQ (or my amp when playing outdoors). Correct?"
Yep.
And the nice thing about this project, is that you can start small, and
stop whenever you want. Preamp bypass and a new pickup are the first
order of business. A new DI isn't absolutely required, unless you go with the K&K.
"Of the bypass options listed which is less likely to get me in trouble trying to do it myself? Or is that highly discouraged?"
First, you need to answer some questions:
1.
Are you "crafty", with good hands and a history of successful fine
projects, like model-making or artistic woodwork? Or are you one of
those people who can never figure out why that last screw stripped as
you tightened it?
2. Do you like to read, and are you good at following written instructions?
3. Do you have a decent selection of hand tools, and are you comfortable using them?
4. What is the situation inside the Ecoustic?
- Does it have a conventional soundhole?
- Does it have a a conventional x-brace setup, with a
bridge plate in the crotch of the "X"?
- Does it have a conventional pin bridge?
- Can you get at the underside of the bridge?
- Is there enough room to get a hand in there?
- Does it have an endpin jack, or a side jack?
- If it doesn't have an endpin jack, is there much room in the jack area?
If
you're good at handwork, a piezo install is do-able, especially if
you've done other guitar mods and repairs. The scariest part of the job
would be drilling for an endpin jack, if one is needed. That takes a
steady hand, and some special tools and knowledge.
The Element is probably the best choice for a stage instrument,
sonically speaking. It's also a simple install, provided that there are
no complications. An 1/8th inch hole is drilled at one end of the
bridge slot, under the saddle, and the wire is fed into the body
through the hole. The Element is the least sensitive to imperfections
in the bridge slot, of any piezo I've installed. A truly great pickup.
However, there can still be some pitfalls. The bottom of the slot needs to be
perfectly flat. The saddle has to be cut down, to maintain the action
at the correct height. If the Ecoustic bridge has piezo elements built
into the saddle, you might have to make a new saddle altogether. If
that sounds like fun, go for it. If it sounds scary, then hire a tech.
An
under-bridge pickup could be a safer bet to install than the Element,
providing that there is room to get inside the guitar. The Baggs I-Beam
is the easiest- it comes with a clever jig that ensures a perfect install, but only if the guitar has a conventional
pin bridge- it indexes off the bridge plate and the pin holes.
The Baggs
have a small wafer containing a volume control that sits inside the
edge of the soundhole. The K&K can be ordered with one, as well. It's really nice to have a volume control on the
guitar if possible. Of course, having a soundhole helps...
Both
of the Baggs pickups have their main electronics in a big, fat endpin
jack. If you didn't want to use an endpin jack, it could be stored
inside the body, and wired out to an external jack. But if there isn't
enough room inside, then the Baggs are out.
The
K&K Pure Western is an excellent fallback position. Three small,
round piezo
dots are glued underneath the bridge, so it can be adapted to just
about anything. It's completely passive, so you don't need any
electronics in the guitar at all.
I would rate The K&K #2 as a stage pickup, with the I-Beam bringing up the rear. The K&K is more expensive to install, though, because you have to shell out for an
external
preamp. K&K claim that it can be used passively, but you don't get
anything like the full tone it's capable of, without a good preamp for impedance matching.
Shoreline sells the K&K for $86. If Doug cut you a killer deal on
his used Para DI, that could be a very nice way to upgrade everything
at once. Here's their K&K page, with some useful info on it:
www.shorelinemusic.com/amplification/kk.shtml
Here is Shoreline's Baggs page:
www.shorelinemusic.com/amplification/baggs.shtml
So. A few things to think about!
|
