Bill, even good players can sound lousy with lousy guitars (or pick ups). I tried the Martin (Barcus-Berry)pickup on a D 18 a number of years ago and it sounded tinny and just plain awful. I took the guitar to my regular repairman to have it removed and he told me that the original instalation had been very badly done (at the Martin factory). He re-routed it, making sure that the contact was even, and it sounded a hundred times better . Still not as good as the ol' SM 57 though. As to my old Ovation... the biggest drawback was it's slightly convex body and my slightly convex body. Sort of like this: )( !