For years, I’ve been on a personal quest, a deep dive into the world of amplified acoustic guitar sound. Like many acoustic guitar players, the pure, resonant tone of my guitar unplugged on the couch is my benchmark. It’s the sound I love, the sound that inspires my playing and singing. However, the moment I plugged in for a performance, that warm, inviting sound vanished, replaced by something harsh, metallic, and frankly, discouraging. This experience, I know, is shared by many, and it spurred me on a journey to find the holy grail: the Best Amplified Acoustic Guitar tone.
My Acoustic Guitar Journey: From Disappointment to Discovery
My journey began, as many do, with readily available and affordable instruments. Each guitar I owned taught me something new about acoustic tone, both natural and amplified, and brought me closer, albeit circuitously, to my ideal sound.
Early Stages and Unsatisfactory Plugged-in Sounds
My first foray into amplification was with a Washburn D10, equipped with a passive pickup. The less said about its amplified tone, the better. The guitar itself was decent for a beginner, but plugged in, it was simply unpleasant. Seeking improvement, I soon acquired a Yamaha APX5A, which I still own. The Yamaha offered a somewhat balanced live sound, a step up from the Washburn, but it lacked the rich, full tone I enjoyed acoustically. At that early stage of my playing, and with relatively untrained ears, I was somewhat satisfied. However, as my playing progressed, and more importantly, as my ear for tone developed, the thin, “quacky” sound of the Yamaha’s pickup no longer met my growing expectations.
This dissatisfaction led me to a Taylor 114CE, featuring the then-renowned Taylor Expression System. For several years, I was genuinely pleased. The ES system was balanced, and with some judicious EQ adjustments, it produced a sound that was recognizably guitar-like when amplified. It also captured the dynamics of my playing well. Yet, as time went on, my ears and my standards evolved again. The magnetic tone inherent in the Taylor ES system, while good, no longer satisfied my increasingly refined ear. I yearned for something more natural, more acoustic.
The Larrivee OM-5E and LR Baggs Stagepro Dual-Source: High Hopes, Mixed Results
Then came an opportunity to purchase a Larrivee OM. I had long admired smaller body guitars, feeling they were a better fit for my physical size. After extensive research, including countless hours spent on guitar forums like this one, I became convinced that a Larrivee OM was the answer. The OM-5E model I found was equipped with an LR Baggs Stagepro dual-source pickup. “This,” I thought, “will be my best plugged-in sound ever.”
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While the Larrivee OM-5E was indeed magical as an acoustic instrument, the amplified tone with the LR Baggs Stagepro dual-source fell short of my expectations. The guitar itself was transformative; it inspired better playing and offered a tone that was sublime – balanced, dynamic, and visually stunning. I became, and remain, a devoted Larrivee enthusiast. However, the amplified sound of the Stagepro was a persistent disappointment. The system allowed blending between a piezo element and an internal microphone (excluding the lowest frequencies from the mic). Experimenting with every blend imaginable, from full piezo to full mic, yielded no satisfying results. The piezo, on its own, was as harsh and brittle as any inexpensive piezo I had encountered. The microphone, on its own, was muddy and indistinct. Blending the two only seemed to combine the worst aspects of both. Furthermore, the piezo output was unbalanced, with the low E string being noticeably louder than the others. Despite seeking help from three different luthiers, this imbalance was never fully resolved. Adding to the frustration was a significant amount of hiss emanating from the pickup system.
Disappointed but determined, I contacted LR Baggs directly. To their immense credit, and highlighting their exceptional customer service, LR Baggs sent me a completely new Stagepro pickup system, free of charge. This outstanding customer support deserves significant praise. Unfortunately, even with the replacement system, the core issues persisted. The tone remained harsh with piezo dominance and muddy with mic dominance, and the balance issue, while perhaps slightly improved, was still noticeable. At this point, I suspected the imbalance might be related to the guitar’s saddle or bridge rather than solely the pickup itself, although the luthiers had been unable to completely rectify it.
Starting from Scratch: Guitars and Pickups
The persistent issues with the amplified sound of the Larrivee OM-5E and my earlier Taylor 114CE led me to a radical decision. I sold both guitars. It was time for a new approach, a “ground-up” strategy. My new plan was to select guitars based purely on their unamplified acoustic qualities and then find the optimal amplification solution to complement their natural tone. This led me to acquire two new guitars: a Larrivee OM-40 (whose bracing pattern gives it a richer low-end response compared to the OM-03 and OM-05 models) and an Eastman E1-OM (intended as a more robust “campfire” guitar, sparing my Larrivee from potential damage).
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In the midst of my earlier amplification struggles, I had also experimented with various preamp and effects pedals, hoping to polish the less-than-ideal tones I was getting. These included the Fishman Aura Sixteen, Fishman ToneDEQ, and Behringer ADI21. While these pedals offered some tonal shaping capabilities, none of them truly transformed the fundamental sound in the way I was seeking. These experiments reinforced my belief that achieving excellent amplified acoustic tone begins with a great guitar and, crucially, the right pickup system.
The K&K Pure Mini Revelation
Through years of lurking in online guitar communities, particularly forums like this one, the K&K Pure Mini pickup had consistently emerged as a highly recommended option. Despite its popularity, I remained skeptical for a long time. How could such a simple, passive, and relatively inexpensive pickup deliver truly exceptional sound? To address my skepticism, I immersed myself in online reviews, particularly on YouTube, watching countless comparisons of the K&K Pure Mini against other popular pickups like the Anthem, Lyric, Fishman systems, and the Schatten HFN. The channels of reviewers like Aaron Short (Aaron Short Music) were particularly helpful and informative in this process. Ultimately, my research narrowed my choices to the K&K Pure Mini and the Schatten HFN. I leaned towards the K&K due to the consistently positive real-world experiences reported by users and its higher output level, which seemed advantageous.
Finally, I decided to take the plunge. I installed a K&K Pure Mini pickup in my Eastman E1-OM myself. Plugging directly into an impedance-matched preamp, with no EQ or additional processing, I was immediately and utterly impressed. The sound was warm, woody, and remarkably balanced – qualities I had never before experienced from an unprocessed pickup. It exceeded my highest expectations. For my playing style and capabilities, it was, at that moment, the best amplified acoustic sound I had ever heard. While some perceive the K&K as bass-heavy, I didn’t find this to be overly pronounced, perhaps due to the OM body size of the guitar, or simply my personal preference. In any case, any perceived bass emphasis could easily be addressed with simple EQ adjustments. This was undeniably the core sound I had been searching for, the foundation upon which I wanted to build and refine my amplified tone.
The Tonedexter Game Changer
Just as I was reveling in the excellent sound of the K&K Pure Mini, the Tonedexter preamp was brought to my attention. I was already familiar with the concept of acoustic imaging, having previously experimented with the Fishman Aura Sixteen. I was also aware of Baggs’ equivalent technology, Voiceprint, but as an Android user, the Tonedexter, with its broader compatibility, seemed like the more accessible option. I acquired a Tonedexter unit, again opting for a second-hand purchase to manage costs.
To fully utilize the Tonedexter, I purchased a Slate ML2 microphone for the wavemap training process. Training wavemaps, the process of capturing the acoustic signature of your guitar with a microphone, is surprisingly straightforward. However, microphone positioning proved to be a significant learning curve. My initial attempts at wavemap training, resulting in the first five or six wavemaps, were largely disappointing. The resulting tones were hollow, muddy, and often worse than the unprocessed K&K pickup sound or even the pre-recorded images in the Fishman Aura Sixteen. Frustrated, I decided to deviate from some of the microphone positioning recommendations in the Tonedexter manual. While still placing the Slate ML2 microphone near the neck joint (between the 12th and 14th frets), as suggested, I drastically reduced the distance from the guitar, moving from the recommended 10-15 inches to a much closer 3-6 inches. This change yielded a dramatic improvement. The resulting wavemaps captured a much tighter, more focused tone with less room ambience.
Conclusion: The Best Amplified Acoustic Sound Found
After extensive A/B testing of various Tonedexter wavemaps and blend settings, comparing them to both mic’d acoustic recordings and the raw K&K pickup sound, I arrived at my conclusion. The combination of the K&K Pure Mini pickup, enhanced by a Tonedexter wavemap at around a 70% blend, delivers the amplified acoustic guitar tone I have been pursuing for two decades. It effectively transforms the already excellent K&K pickup signal into an amplified representation of my guitar’s natural “couch sound,” only louder. For anyone on a similar quest for the best amplified acoustic guitar tone, exploring the K&K Pure Mini and Tonedexter combination is, in my experience, an incredibly worthwhile endeavor. This journey, spanning many years and numerous guitars and pickups, has finally led me to a place of complete satisfaction with my amplified acoustic sound.
