My Acoustic Guitar Pickups and Effects Setup | Why Is Acoustic Guitar So Hard to Amplify?

Why Is Acoustic Guitar Pickup So Important?

I've always been particular about choosing the right pickup because it directly affects my tone during live performances. The ultimate goal of a pickup is to amplify the original acoustic sound, but it's much easier said than done.

The biggest difference between acoustic and electric guitars is that electric guitars are electronic instruments by nature, while acoustic guitars are purely acoustic instruments. When I convert the acoustic signal into an electronic signal through a pickup, the sound becomes very different from what our ears normally hear. Honestly, once the sound captured by a pickup comes out through a speaker, it's essentially a different instrument altogether. So our goal isn't 100% accuracy—it's to preserve as much of the acoustic guitar's natural character as possible while amplifying it significantly.

Why Not Just Use a Microphone?

You might wonder why we don't just use a microphone to capture the sound, since microphones also pick up vibrations through the air. But it's not that simple.

Microphones are extremely sensitive in their pickup range. During live performances, we need to amplify the sound for many people to hear, which means the volume gets turned up very loud.
Because microphones are so sensitive, the massive sound pressure from the speakers can easily be picked up by the microphone again, creating a feedback loop that produces howling.
Minor feedback causes resonance at certain frequencies, and severe feedback can make speakers squeal or even get damaged. This is extremely unstable and dangerous during live performances.

In comparison, pickups like undersaddle and soundhole models may have flatter tone and less dynamic range, but they're remarkably stable when amplified to high volumes.

My Pickup Configuration: Undersaddle Plus Adhesive

After years of experience, my favorite setup is a multi-system approach combining undersaddle and adhesive pickups.

I use the American Sunrise S2 undersaddle pickup, which is beloved by many renowned fingerstyle guitarists in Asia. Its strength is that at very high volumes, it delivers an impressive, powerful sound that makes the acoustic guitar sound massive. My other pickup is a SASNiE adhesive pickup from Taiwan—I've been using it since the year before last and find its sound incredibly natural, pairing beautifully with the undersaddle.

The system works simply:
The undersaddle captures string vibrations, while the adhesive pickup captures spatial ambience, including tapping and strumming sounds.
What's special about the adhesive pickup is that it can pick up tapping, percussion, and even the low-frequency sound when you place your hand on the strings.
In contrast, microphones are so sensitive that they typically have low frequencies cut to preserve only highs and spatial information, so tapping sounds don't come through as powerfully.
This is the biggest difference I see between the two pickup types.

My approach is:

Undersaddle → stable string sound + Adhesive → overall spatial character
Then I adjust the balance between these two sounds based on the performance volume and amplification level.

My Effects Processor Setup

My effects board has four processors total. First is the preamp from M-Factory, a Japanese handmade brand. Though it looks like a plain metal box, it's the most expensive piece on my board. It mixes the volume ratio between the undersaddle and adhesive pickups, with two EQs each and one master volume. Since my pickups are passive with no power supply, the signal is very weak and needs to be boosted to a healthy level through this preamp.

Next is the black EAE digital mixer. I send the dry signal into it, where I can apply EQ, Filter, Gate, Compressor, and more.
It can also store parameters for different songs, and the unit has a small screen—very compact and convenient.

Then I send a dry signal to UAD's Golden Reverb, which sounds fantastic. I feed the dry signal in and turn the Mixer to maximum, sending out completely wet Reverb sound that returns to the Mixer. This way the Mixer has both the dry guitar sound and wet Reverb sound, which combine and go to the Loop Station, then finally to the main mixer.

The Sound Difference Between Undersaddle and Adhesive

Undersaddle: The sound is closer and more direct, with less dynamic range, and doesn't pick up tapping sounds.
Adhesive alone sounds like microphone-captured sound with lots of detail.
But since adhesive pickups still encounter feedback issues in live settings, they need the undersaddle to complement them. This way the live sound is safer and more complete.

Experiment: Adding a Microphone as a Third System

During live performances, I often wish the guitar sound could be closer to its natural acoustic character, especially in the high-frequency spatial details.
When recording at home, I blend a microphone with the acoustic guitar pickups. Since the studio doesn't require simultaneous recording and amplification, feedback isn't an issue.

Out of curiosity, I borrowed the new CloudVocal Sono Flex microphone from the Taiwanese microphone brand to experiment. It's a clip-on condenser microphone requiring 48V phantom power. I clipped it to the guitar's side to capture spatial ambience and connected it directly to my mixer.

But even with the microphone added, feedback remained an issue. So after the signal reaches the Mixer, I apply a High-Pass Filter—a Low Cut—to the microphone signal, removing the low frequencies. This way the microphone preserves only the high-frequency spatial character and woody tone, since the undersaddle and adhesive already provide plenty of bass, and this also prevents feedback problems.

Conclusion

Pickup applications are actually quite diverse. I use them for live performances amplified to very high volumes, but perhaps you just want to hear an enhanced sound at home. Your use case determines what pickup combination you should choose.

Acoustic guitar amplification technology matured relatively late because the acoustic nature of the instrument makes it inherently difficult to capture naturally. But now there are many excellent solutions, like the multi-system approach I've discussed in this video. The equipment I use, including SASNiE and CloudVocal, are professional Taiwanese brands with long-standing expertise in pickup and microphone technology. If you're interested in these devices, I encourage you to check out their official websites.