Carthy does get a great sound and it can be done. Often I find (and yes I've been gigging for twenty years so I've been there done that) that I encounter sound guys that have run rock and roll or Country Western and think the nasty twangy sound is what everyone wants. I also think buying a top dollar guitar and running it through a pick-up is a kind of useless thing. I had a $200 buck Acoustic/Electric Rogue guitar that had great electronics and sounded quite good if tweaked just right....so why bring out the Goodall or Froggy Bottom and stick a pick-up in it? I have noticed that Tony Rice will not plug in. Neumann mics and leave the sound system EQ at unity and he'll get the tone himself thank you. I also just won't play rowdy bars or stadiums where the sound sucks to begin with. It's just not worth the sacrifice to me. I now always mic with my own condensers and get the sound of the guitars I own and not the sound of electronics that have been tweaked all down the line to get back to the original sound to begin with. Why bother?