Dean Markley Pickup

Subject: Dean Markley Pickup
From: ganainm
Date: 07 Feb 02 - 05:04 AM

Hello to all guitar freaks out there,

I´m hoping to get some advice about my Dean Markley pickup which I recently purchased. The models is PROMAG PLUS- single coil and fits into the soundhole of the guitar. If I play this through my Fender guitar-amp, the sound is fine. However when I am playing through a P.A. system, I find I have to turn up the volume quite high and this obviously produces noise. I was told I should get a pre-amp, then I was told that a pre-amp will only amplify the noise as well, which sounds logical. Did I perhaps purchase the wrong type of pickup? I read some very positive reviews on this system previous to making my purchase. When I bought the guitar second-hand, it had a built-in amp with a copper-type strip under the bridge, but that just picked up every sound around the bridge of the guitar.

Would certainly appreciate any solid advice on this!

Thanks in advance.

JB

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 07 Feb 02 - 06:07 AM

Here you go...from the frets.com website, a treasure trove of fretted-instrument info (thanks, 'Spaw), (Almost) All You Need to Know about Acoustic Pickups.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 07 Feb 02 - 02:59 PM

We don't know what the PROMAG PLUS is. Is this something new? It's not shown in our most recent Elderly Instruments catalog. We've been using Dean Markley Pro-Mag pickups in our guitars for over 20 years and have always found that they are quite sensitive. We have to keep the gain on the guitar chnnels lower than the vocal channels to get a proper balance.

When we used the single coil type, we sometimes had trouble picking up a horrible buzz coming from some other piece of equipment in the venue (not ours). Since we switched to the double coil, humbucking type, we have had no problems. We love these pickups because we often play with no PA and can just pop them in and out at will.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: Arbuthnot
Date: 07 Feb 02 - 07:07 PM

This appears to be an impedence mismatch. The guitar pickup is a high impedence device, which when fed into a guitar amp is plugged into a high impedence input. The PA probably has low impedence inputs, as most microphones these days are low impedence. The simple answer is to play through the guitar amp with a microphone placed in front. But if the PA has a HI - LO switch associated with each input, switch it to HI and the problem should disappear.If this is not the case, and you wish to play through the PA, the easy answer is to use a pre-amp - not to increase the gain, but to give an impedence match. I have an MXR micro-amp which has a high impedence input and a low impedence output, which I use to match my guitar to my low impedence mixer inputs. I don't think they're made any more, but you should be able to find something similar second-hand.

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: 53
Date: 07 Feb 02 - 10:40 PM

What kind of guitar are you playing?

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: Lane
Date: 07 Feb 02 - 11:07 PM

Mark,

I cant get the link that you posted to work.....

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: 53
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 06:52 AM

Again, what kind of Guitar are you playing?

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: ganainm
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 05:12 PM

Thanks to all who have offered their advice,

I´m playing a Gibson Advanced Jumbo. I bought it second-hand. It´s about 5 years old, has a lovely sound, perhaps a little bright and light, but lovely action. As I said, it had a built-in pickup when I got it, but that was picking up every kind of external noises.

I actually find that the Dean Markley soundhole pickup reproduces a very natural sound, the only problem being that it seems to require a lot of gain. I can get a good sound at home on my own PA system, but as you musicians will know, you will often play through a house or pub PA system, and it´s not always so easy to get the sound you require.

Thanks again.

JB

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 05:36 PM

Hmmm...the link works for me. Try going to http://www.frets.com and click on "Go to Frets.com Big Index Page", then scroll down to the index and look for "A survey of acoustic guitar pickup types" under "Acoustic Guitar". In my opinion, this site is a must for any guitar player who doesn't have ready access to his or her own personal luthier.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 10:39 PM

We like the impedance mismatch theory. We had microphone once with that problem and the effect was similar. There exists an impedance transformer which will fix you right up but we don't know where to get one.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Help: Dean Markley Pickup
From: GUEST,Richard Bridge (cookie and format C)
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 08:09 AM

Matching transformers: Maplins (UK) or Radio Shack (USA) - about gbp 7 but you need to be able to solder to wire them up.

Transformers with plugs and sockets and cases, about GBP 10.