This has been a great discussion.

I agree that the Fishman Rare Earth pick-up has a great sound. It does sound a bit electric to me, but it has such a good sound it's OK. My rare Earth does not have a mic blender.

I have a Larrivee Jumbo with a factory installed Fishman Matrix, and it sounds great. I don't know why it sounds much better then most pick-ups, but it does. Maybe the combination of the guitar's characteristics and the pick-ups strengths just work well together. But ever since I started using that guitar on-stage, every guitar player I meet comments on how great the guitar/pick-up sounds.

I understand the comments about a guitar's sweet spot. When I was in the studio, the recording engineer spent some time figuring out where his mic placements worked best. In fact he used several mic/tracks for each guitar track. When I used my Larrivee he also captured the output from the pick-up. Typically he used either four or five inputs (the fifth being the pick-up).

I have gone back to using a mic on stage for banjo and for my high strung guitar. That makes it possible for me to use both pick-up and mic on my Larrivee when I am playing it. I also find that it is very difficult to run the sound from the stage when there is more then one performing. It is possible, but distracting. Good sound is so important to the success of a performance, and if I am concerned about the sound, I am not giving my best effort to the performance.