[Francis]

Anyone have any recommendations? I want to get a nice reliable pickup for my nylon string guitar so I can record with it.

O crap I put this in the wrong forum.
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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

[Lunatique]

Any reason why you'd want a pickup instead of mic'ing it?

[Francis]

Hm, I guess not - got any recommendations for that?

Actually, one thing that made me think of a pickup first is that I'm using the Line6 GuitarPort thing to record. It's only got the 1/4" instrument input.
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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

[Lunatique]

To be honest, I don't think a pickup on a classical guitar is the best approach--a good mic would probably be a better idea--especially if you would want to record other instruments or vocals, then spending the money on a good mic is more practical/flexible. Mic choices are highly subjective, but if you have a decent condenser mic, you can use it for a lot of different things. Hell, even a warhorse dynamic mic like Shure SM58 can be surprisingly effective for recording just about everything (and easy on your wallet too. Buy a few and do creative mic spacing). I really think good production quality has far more to do with a pair of good ears than expensive gears--recording level, EQ, compression, adding very subtle effects to make the sound "sparkle," the right amount of reverb...etc. I've heard recordings done entirely with the SM58 and a 4-track cassette recorder, going through some cheap mixer with onboard effects...etc, and sounded far better than you'd think possible with such modest setup. (But of course, you can't expect the same kind of magical analog summing sound from a $50,000 mixing console.)

BTW, these might help you:
http://www.humbuckermusic.com/acguitrectec.html
http://www.edmontonclassicalguitarsociety.org/art009.htm

[watmough]

Pick-up +mic seems to work best.

[Gort]

Nylon? I second the motion on not using a pickup. Look for a good mic and stand and joila - should do it.
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[watmough]

Here's why a pickup AND a mic seems to work best for me....alot of the bass sound from my nylon string actually seems to come from the sound reverberating of of me physically,from my mid-section,really.
Just using a mic doesnt seem to reproduce those bass tones as well as an internal pickup and a mic.

[Francis]

thanks for the info guys -

Man there's a lot of research on microphones to do. Thanks for the links Rob.

I was also looking into the pickup options, and it seems most of them involve drilling into your guitar. My guitar isn't exactly a valuable antique, but I'm still not into the idea of taking a drill to it.
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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

[[Shizo]]