"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. Older piezo rigs are quite brittle-sounding, and often uneven in response.
"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.
"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 (undersaddle) 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.
However, undersaddle pickups can be tricky. 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 would be easier to install than the Element, providing that there is room to get inside the guitar. The Baggs I-Beam is the easiest to install, but only if the guitar has a conventional pin bridge- it comes with a clever jig that ensures a perfect install, but 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. 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 stuck 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. Of course, an onboard volume control is out.
I would rate The K&K half-way between the Element and the
I-Beam as a stage pickup, soundwise.
It's 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 acoustic guitar preamp for impedance matching. Doug's used Para DI would be an excellent way to deal with that little dilemma...
So. A few things to think about!
--- On Tue, 10/13/09, klsluder <klsluder@hpcisp.com> wrote:
My main instrument will remain the Parker. The Ecoustic is my occasional guitar. I think it listed for $650 when new. My wife bought it for me for $350 with case. Not an expensive instrument but nice. I could easily get the money back out of it if I wanted to sell but won't.
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 don't mean exactly like one just a fuller more even sound. I just don't know enough about these things to know if it is a good move.
Thanks for the
help.
Peace
Kevin
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