Dean Markley DM3000 Artist Acoustic Pickup Transducer, Maple Wood Design Transducer Acoustic Guitar Pickup that Produces Natural Sound with Great Reliability for Studio Recording, and Live Performance

Ive had the pickup now for about 8 months - I love this little unit - it works great on my 12 string Guild.About 3 months ago I picked up an old Zither and tried it out on that too.It sounds fantastic and I am able to move the pickup around to different locations on the Zither body. I've spent hours testing different positions finding a new sound every time (depending on the pickup location).Lately - I am running this pickup into a BOSS Guitar Multi Effect Pedal - the combo is very cool and fun to experiment with.I recommend this product to anyone with an acoustic guitar (or zither).

I ordered the Dean Markley Artist Transducer Pickup from 8th Street Music through Amazon.com. It was supposed to be new. The box looked as though it had been opened. The pickup had no protective film over the adhesive that is supposed to attach it to the guitar -- the adhesive itself was scratched and dried out. (Another indication that it may have been returned by another customer.) The pickup doesn't hold onto the guitar. What's more, even if held in place the sound is terrible and the quality of the item very poor. (Even if it had been new and had functional adhesive.) I have returned it and am waiting for a refund.

I would consider this a 3 star product based on its performance, but it gets the 4th star for value.Got this to amp an acoustic ukulele for a festival performance. About an hour and a half of trial and error finding just the right placement on the soundboard. Since it picks up top vibration, it amps any contact with the top by the player. When placed directly on the bridge, it was way too noisy. When placed on top near the bridge, it required additional preamp boosting, but the sound is very natural with minimal pickup noise. By moving the pickup higher up the face of the sound board (in a playing pisition) will add more bass to the tone, and concersly, moving it down will make the tone brighter.You will have to secure the chord somehow so it’s out of the way and immobile. If you hit the chord or let it rub on the instrument top while playing, it will amp a banging and or scratching noise.By the time I got all this figured out, the sticky goop on the pickup couldn’t hold it in place on the instrument by itself. So I used a brown sharpie to color some painter’s tape and taped down the pickup and chord in place. Now it sounded great amped through a professional system, or my keyboard amp that has a preamp boost setting. It also works nicely with a microphone preamp. Played through a basic monitor or practice amp, the volume is very weak.Yes, a big pain to set up, but ultimately it worked at a small fraction of the cost for any option to get a comparable result, without a trip to the shop for installation. Now that I’ve figured it out, I can hook it up in about the same amount of time it takes to tune the instrument, and it’s stage ready.As an added bonus, it will amp an acoustic guitar or classical in a pinch. On a steal string guitar, the low volume problem is less of an issue, but the tone is less pleasant than on the ukulele or classical.Final analysis, if you want a versital pickup that can be installed and unistalled easily for a few bucks, this will do the job. But if you’re not willing to be patient with the initial setup, or want to plug it into any amp, you’re going to be disappointed (and probably need to spend at least $100+ to get a similar result). Just don’t forget to take the painter’s tspe off AS SOON AS you’re done playing it, or it will leave a mark if left on the finish too long.

It was easy to apply to the guitar top and very portable but had limited sound quality reproduction.Certainly wish I would have had a better sound engineer at the live event that I had to use it at. Was at a wedding in Mexico and just didn't get the sound dialed in for the song that was performed.

Much better than expected. I use it on a cheap plywood mandolin. I'm just a hobbyist so I have low requirements, for instance I don't need high volume etc. In addition to the usual experimenting with pickup location on the instrument itself, I found it to be of even greater importance to spend some time to find the optimal settings on whatever *amplifier* you're using - that can be a big part of the final sound. I use a small portable Roland Micro Cube which has various sound-modeling settings, in addition to the usual gain/tone/reverb/etc., and also a cheap Mackie mixer which has additional settings for tone/level/etc. At *first* I just plugged the pickup into the amp and I was using the same settings as for electric guitar (with an acoustic sound), but that sounded harsh and tinny. But after fiddling with the various amp and mixer knobs for a while, I finally got this pickup to make a $50 cheap mandolin sound *better* than it does acoustically... which maybe isn't saying much but it's an improvement. :)As others have said, the *adhesive* that comes with the pickup, can leave marks on the instrument's finish if you remove the pickup to relocate it elsewhere on the instrument - and such trial and error is pretty much required to find the best location. So I did what some other people do and bought a little package of "Loctite Fun-Tak Mounting Tabs" from a local store's office-supply aisle (also looks like they're at Amazon link: Loctite Home and Office 2-ounce Pack Fun-tak Mounting Putty Tabs ) and at least on my instrument, that seems to work fine.I made an effort to secure the wires in such a way that they hopefully won't get all bent and stressed at the two endpoints (where the wire comes out of the pickup, and the other end where the wire goes to the plug). I'd like for this thing to last a while without breaking any wires or getting loose connections or whatever. Been using it about a month now.Also pointed out by others, this pickup doesn't have a whole lot of output, but it's adequate for my uses. And some locations on the instrument's top are louder than others. It's kind of a balance to find the spot that has the best sound, vs the spot that has the most volume.

This pickup works fine, it is easy to use, and works fine - I have used it successfully with guitar, ukulele and mandolin. However the transducer pickup is difficult to keep attached (stuck) to the instrument and tends to fall off or become detached during performances - this means having to use masking tape, or gaffer (duct) tape which may mark instruments. Also there is only one very small piece of adhesive supplied.

Sounds great

Non mi sarei mai aspettato una qualità di suono a questo livello !Io ho una Larrive acustica non amplificata (già così mi è costata un occhio ma ha un suono fantastico) e temevo in un decadimento qualitativo del suono amplificandola...Invece questo pick up mi ha stupito !Consigliato a tutti quelli che con una modica cifra vogliono un pick up di qualità per la propria acustica !Inoltre è semplicissimo da utilizzare e molto più comodo dei pick up con cavo in uscita.

Un bon capteur mais le système de patafix est laborieux et abîme un peu les instruments non vernis.Le câble est à manipuler avec précaution car assez fragile avec le temps. Quelques soucis de coupures sonores dues à ce dernier.

総じて、値段相応かと思います。『気に入った点』複数のギターに使いたいときには、ただ貼り付けるだけなので、手軽に使える。DIを通さなくてもノイズが小さい。表面が木なので、見た目が良い。『気に入らない点』このタイプの特徴かもしれませんが、高音が強すぎてエレキギターのような音になる。貼る場所を変えると少しは音色が変わるが、それでもアコースティックの音ではない。