Undersaddle Pickups/

[needsmorecowbel]

My brain it totally fried from work today So I apologise for this potentially silly question...Can you wire an under saddle pickup to go directly to an input jack (skipping your average acoustic guitar preamp ala fishman presys 201) and then run it through an external DI / External valve preamp? Or is it more complicated than that?

Stu

[Bob Connor]

You most certainly can do that.

Regards

[demonx]

Look into K&K pure mini and the matching pre amp.

A top shelf pickup designed to do exactly as you are wanting

[needsmorecowbel]

Thanks guys! I know the K & K are meant to be the bees knees but I picked up some valve mic pres that double as DI-s so just messing around with different options and configurations.

Stu

[jeffhigh]

Besides any issues with EQ, there are two main issues, signal strength and impedance.
And then it depends on what you want to run it into and how long a cable.
Undersaddle piezos are generally very high impedance. They may work OK direct into a guitar amp input if you have a short cable but will benefit from an external preamp, A long cable will be quite detrimental, and plugging into the line level input on a mixer will not be very successful. A passive DI is not the best solution. I use a cheap Behinger ADI 21 with my undersaddle equipped Uke. and with my K&K equipped guitars.
The Mic pre's you have may be suitable for low impedance mics and may not be ideal, try them and see

[Bob Connor]

The K&K Fantastick under saddle pickup is great. Much better sounding than the EMG's that I had been previously using.

Regards

[slowlearner]

Look into K&K pure mini and the matching pre amp.

A top shelf pickup designed to do exactly as you are wanting

After agonizing for months over piezos VS mic VS mag PUs I finally bought one of these. It is as Mr Searl says. I'm using an LRBaggs para-acoustic DI, but the effect is all the same.

I've also got this setup in a resonator and a bass and it's proven pretty awesome too. Although you can't use undersaddle piezo elements and Kansas is not Australia...

http://www.electrocoustic.com/magpi.html