Carlos Juan pickups

Craig Bumgarner

Any one try the Carlos Juan under saddle pickups, like the Carlos CP-1A VIP?

CB

spud

up!
anyone tried these? sounds impressive! can't find any examples with a direct recording though
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KIZ-Lds-aZ0

Scoredog

I have a fairly strong opinion about these, generally very positive.
For all but the most extremely noisy situations (loud bar) I like the Carlos, a magnetic pickup is the choice there which of course does not sound particularly acoustic. It does not have the fidelity of say a DPA mic so I generally prefer a mic in super quiet situations. That said I have used the Carlos in concert situations, I have had Robin Nolan borrow my guitar with a Carlos and use it in concert situations and both situations were more than satisfactory. If i could only have one pickup I'd avoid super loud situations and choose the Carlos, it really covers a lot of ground, it can also be used as a pseudo piezo for modeling situations like The Tone Dexter live. I have not recorded with it in my studio but have plugged it into an AER and used the direct out into the board and it worked well.

spud

thanks for the reply score dog- why does it not work in extremely noisy situtations- feedback? can it be stuck on and taken off when needed using an adhesive putty?

MichaelHorowitz

We had a few Hahl guitars with Carlos pickups a while back but we had the same problem that Craig mentioned. They were very susceptible to feedback which is usually the case with any exposed, top mounted piezo. Hahl switched back to using bigtones which are pretty tough to beat when it comes to feedback as the sensor is sheltered deep within the bridge.

Scoredog

I have found the Carlos to be good except for loud bar situations...as Michael stated, I do prefer the tone of the Carlos than the Bigtone but that is personal preference.