Guzz Acoustic Pickup Series II

I have been using a AT381B mic for some time and am really happy with it but I was looking for a pickup to cope with noisy venues where a mic just doesn't cut it. I've now used the Guzz at a couple of gigs so far and have to say I'm really happy with it. Friends in the audience and sound engineers have also given positive commments. I use a Radial Tonebone preamp which is handy for tone tweaks from the playing position and the Guzz is working great with it. I also use a AER Compact 60. Some reviewers mentioned that they needed to boost the gain but I've found the opposite and only need my gains on the preamp and amp set around 9am although I do have a relatively low action (only about 1mm between fretted top string and top of the pickup). When I first installed it, I followed the guideline marking for the 6th string but found the 1st string was louder than the B string (currently using Galli strings), however as per Guzz's recommendations, a slight movement was all it took to get a nice even balance over all the strings which is easy to do with the clip and now I know where the best position is for my guitar (6th string is only a couple of mm away from the guide mark) I was initially concerned that the rhythm wouldn't sound great with a magnetic pickup but it's really quite transparent and you only need to do a little EQ tweaking, but you may wany to experiment with the phase switch on the preamp and I've found I prefer the 'colour' switch on the amp on. So anyway I'm very happy playing rhythm with it and single notes really sound great - recommended!

Submitted by: ya-honza on 04/05/2015 09:09:29 PM

If you like the sound of the old D'Armomd pickups you will love this pickup I also use it on a 1958 Gibson L4

Submitted by: Midnight on 10/08/2014 10:52:09 AM

Pros: This pickup is very easy to remove for acoustic situations when a pickup is not needed. Also easily transferred to different guitars.

Cons: No height adjustment, black rubber on back clip was peeling off slightly already before first use.

First thing I'd like to say is for anyone thinking of ordering something from Djangobooks: You won't find a better resource than Michael Horowitz (who runs the website). He is absolutely perfect in his customer support, knowledgeable advice, fast responding, and quick shipping. Michael treats his customers as you would treat a friend. The Guzz pickup: So far I'm enjoying it, and I find the string balance to be very good. The finish of the clip portion is a little homemade looking, but I suppose that might be what you get with a first run of a new product. My guitar (Busato from DuPont) has the strings pretty high off the body, which makes it so theres a lot of distance between the pickup and the strings and thus very low output, but it still sounds very good once I've compensated by turning up the amp (AER compact 60). Guzz has clearly put their hearts into this project and are aiming to make the best possible sound-hole pickup. While I think there is still room for improvement, this is the best option currently for an electromagnetic gypsy jazz pickup. Highly recommended.

Submitted by: Bob on 02/08/2014 01:44:34 PM