Like everyone else, over the years I have used many different sorts of equipment, strings, capos and picks. I have experimented with pickups and microphones, and I have borrowed various amps and speakers before buying my own. I have sat in front of a frightening array of in house equipment that has buzzed, screached and belched at me and then gone dead half way through a song.There was a time when I was younger, when there would just be a single microphone that you had to position yourself in front of so that it would pick up both voice and guitar. These days organisers just hand you a jack plug and seem amazed if you don't have somewhere on your guitar to plug it in. The fact is, I hate pickups with a passion that few other people seem to understand. Some are better than others, but most just don't sound like an acoustic guitar. All manner of people are prepared to give you advice on the subject, but it seems that even people who have been so called "professional sound engineers" don't know much about it. At best, they have found something that doesn't sound too bad. The best advice that I have had so far came from an American blues singer ( Brooks Williams ) who was touring the UK. He also had the best sounding setup that I have heard to date. His advice was, experiment to find what is best for you, try to be as self contained as possible, learn how to use your equipment properly and make sure you have some kind of backup for when it all goes wrong.
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