Thanks for the compliment, David.
@tRONd Personally, I much prefer the sound of a mic’d acoustic over the sound of the average internal pickup. However, with that said, some internal pickups produce better results than others. Out of my guitars, the best internal pickup I have is the one in my Martin OM-35E, which is a Fishman Aura VT Enhance. (I think it’s the “Enhance” part of that one that makes the difference.) Even with that one, I rarely use only the pickup sound; I often mix the sound of the internal pickup and a mic (or two).
You can also get a dedicated acoustic amp, which can make a big difference to the sound of an internal acoustic pickup. I have a Boss Acoustic Singer Live which is pretty good, but I think the best acoustic amps I’ve heard are from AER. (Just my opinion, of course.)
If you want to compare the sound from some of my recordings here are some representative samples:
- The Ride (Internal pickup only for the guitar, but also picking up some guitar in the vocal condenser mic.)
- Nobody Home (Two condenser mics on the guitar and also the internal pickup. Another condenser mic for the vocal.)
- The Times They Are A’Changing (Two condenser mics on the guitar and also the internal pickup. Two vocal mics: a dynamic mic and a condenser mic.)
- Is There Anybody Out There (Two condenser mics and the internal pickup. Notable because there’s no vocal so you can really hear the guitar.)
- Motherland. (Two acoustic guitars. The “strumming” guitar is recorded with just the internal pickup. The “fingerstyle” guitar is recorded with two condenser mics.)
- Nothing Compares 2U (When I originally posted this I said it the guitar was mic’d, but looking at the setup for the song in my DAW I think that’s mistaken. This looks like I recorded a “scratch guitar” track with the OM-35E’s internal pickup only, then doubled it in the DAW and ended up using the “scratch” guitar in the final mix. There’s also an electric guitar for the solo.)
Thinking about it, I usually prefer mic’ing the guitar, especially if it is front and center. But if there are more instruments in the mix I’m more willing to accept “just the internal pickup” for that song.