Official Luthiers Forum!

David, thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with us. For me, it was a review of stuff I already had a pretty good handle on, but a review from a pro like yourself is always a good thing, and for many others here, I'm sure there was a lot of new info there. Your input is always much appreciated.

Now, you wouldn't be so inclined as to tell us your opinion of which USTs are less quacky then others, would you?

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I'd like to add that I think the reality for many players (I don't mean big time pros with a road crew and all) is that they need one guitar with one simple, relatively inexpensive pickup system to sound good in a wide variety of performance situations. For example, I've got a customer now who wants a UST in her instrument because she sometimes performs in situations where feedback resistance is essential, but she wants to sound good in a variety of other settings as well, such as a quiet cafe using just her acoustic amp at relatively low volume. I hope to successfully talk her into a UST/SBT combination system that she can blend to suit, but I don't blame her for wanting to keep things as simple as possible, and if one of the less-quacky USTs can sound very good for her playing style, perhaps with a little tweaking of EQ on her amp or wherever else in the signal chain depending on the situation, then it may be a sensible option for her to go with a UST alone.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

One thing I've noticed with the B-Band is that sometimes the films "gas, lense-like bubbles" can actually be squeezed out under saddle compression resulting in very noticable losses in volume and clarity. It's almost like the UST needs replacing every couple of years - pop in a new one and Bam, there's your guitar again. I've also experienced a lot of inconsistancy from one UST to the next, enough so that I've stopped using them, and switched to the Baggs I-mix no cut, maybe not quite as warm, but easy to install, some good user adjustable EQ via tiny trim pots on the pre-amp, and very consistant amd reliable.

Thanks, meddlingfool, for your input!

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/