Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everyone,
I placed a post about 3 weeks ago regarding a ziricote drednaught my father and I are constructing. I mentioned that I purchased a pickup from Grizzly to install on it, an Artec mic/undersaddle combo (model H6066). I am in a bit of a dilemma right now though. The preamp is designed to be installed on the upper bout of the guitar and follow the contour down toward the neck. Thats fine, however I want to rout soundports on my guitar and every one of the soundports that I have seen have been right where that preamp sits. I would like to know if anyone has done any work with placing soundports on the lower bout of the guitar, just below where your arm would rest. To me, it would make sense that that would be a sensible place to put a soundport, but as a budding, teenaged luthier, I could easily (and probably am) wrong. Any words of advice or experience on the said project would be great.
Back to the pickup. I bought the pickup because it was what I was looking for, standard onboard controls, gooseneck mic, undersaddle unit also, and the price was right, just at $70.00. However it seems that NO ONE else carries the said pickup besides Grizzly. I have found one and only one review on the pickup and it was nothing but positive. However, I am someone who likes to research thier buys, and that was the one review I read before I bought it, for it was the only one I found. I am curious if anyone here has used or knows of someone who has used that pickup (Artec H6066 Preamp Mic-Pickup combo). If so, I would really appreciate feedback, good, bad or otherwise. Much thanks everyone!!!

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Jake Archer
~~Make a joyful noise unto the Lord~~

My suggestion would be to dump the pickup. Obviously you have other plans that it seems to conflict with, and in my opinion you would be permanently compromising your instrument for the sake of what honestly is a very cheap and mediocre pickup system.

My personal opinion - internal mics are useless in guitars to begin with. The only time I've ever heard them in a positive way is with a very good mic like a Crown GLM or similar, and controlled separately to supplement another pickup, controlled by a good sound engineer through a good sound system. Internal mics in combo units can't be used 90% of the time due to feedback, and in the 10% of environments where they can be used they sound hollow and mid-rangey. It sounds about as good to me as singing would with a mic stuck to the roof of your mouth.

Plus that Artec is a really cheap and poor quality system, with an economy preamp, and sometimes bearable saddle transducer, and a $0.39 condenser mic. Grizzly probably had them made with Artec as their own brand, but I'm sure the same package is released under dozens of other names and used on many cheaper import guitars. It would be quite a shame to do irreversible damage and have to alter your ideal design, all for a cheap pickup system like this. I would return it if possible, or if not then put it up on eBay.

Better pickup makers have thankfully moved away from cut-in preamps in favor of soundhole adjustable volumes. I think you would be much better just getting a good single saddle transducer like a Baggs Element or DTAR Wavelength. That single pickup will sound much better than the pickup and mic combined in the Artec system. They cost a little more, but not too much, and it's certainly worth it. Plus, these systems are entirely non-committal. If five years down the road you decide to upgrade to some other system, you pull the old one out and the endpin hole is there for whatever new one you choose. Put in an Artec like that, and you are committed to that system (or another from the same cheap maker) for the life of the instrument. If you plan on keeping this guitar, do you really want to be stuck with that (and a compromised sound port) 30 years from now?

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

"My personal opinion - internal mics are useless in guitars to begin with. The only time I've ever heard them in a positive way is with a very good mic like a Crown GLM or similar, and controlled separately to supplement another pickup, controlled by a good sound engineer through a good sound system. Internal mics in combo units can't be used 90% of the time due to feedback, and in the 10% of environments where they can be used they sound hollow and mid-rangey. It sounds about as good to me as singing would with a mic stuck to the roof of your mouth."

I agree--most internal mics are feedback machines, and sound like a mic inside a box. We hear, and enjoy, what's OUTside the box.

"Plus that Artec is a really cheap and poor quality system, with an economy preamp, and sometimes bearable saddle transducer, and a $0.39 condenser mic. Grizzly probably had them made with Artec as their own brand, but I'm sure the same package is released under dozens of other names and used on many cheaper import guitars. It would be quite a shame to do irreversible damage and have to alter your ideal design, all for a cheap pickup system like this. I would return it if possible, or if not then put it up on eBay."

Dean Markeley had some systems packed in round cans, goldplated screws and their name on them, extremely overpriced, and dreadful sounding, Artecs. (IMHO) I had installed one of the 3 source systems for a music store to demo them, and each source was just awful.

"Better pickup makers have thankfully moved away from cut-in preamps in favor of soundhole adjustable volumes. I think you would be much better just getting a good single saddle transducer like a Baggs Element or DTAR Wavelength. That single pickup will sound much better than the pickup and mic combined in the Artec system. They cost a little more, but not too much, and it's certainly worth it. Plus, these systems are entirely non-committal. If five years down the road you decide to upgrade to some other system, you pull the old one out and the endpin hole is there for whatever new one you choose. Put in an Artec like that, and you are committed to that system (or another from the same cheap maker) for the life of the instrument. If you plan on keeping this guitar, do you really want to be stuck with that (and a compromised sound port) 30 years from now?"

Or an SBT system like a K&K.

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https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13